🇯🇵 A Muslim woman in Japan made a video about how a Japanese woman refused to sit next to her.
I mean... can we really blame the Japanese lady here? If you are wearing a hijab, mask and massive headphones you probably look like a complete psychopath. Why would I want to sit next to you?
To people who call Japanese manners “oppression”:
No. It’s just how we live here.
We sort our trash. We keep our voices down on trains. We take our shoes off inside. We try not to bother the people around us.
Nobody made these rules to hurt your feelings. Most of us don’t even think about them. We grew up with them.
Japan has a lot of people living in a pretty small space. Things work because people understand that public space doesn’t belong to them alone.
You don’t have to like every custom here. That’s fine.
But if being expected to respect the people around you feels like “oppression,” maybe Japan just isn’t for you.
Japan is a country, not your personal stage.
A German woman with no real climbing experience decided to hike Mt. Fuji.
At the 8th station she already felt sick.
A doctor treated her.
She was given medicine.
She stayed the night.
Then she went to the summit anyway.
After reaching the top, the altitude sickness came back.
She could not get down on her own.
Japanese police mountain rescue had to bring her off the mountain.
This is the part that keeps repeating.
A visitor ignores the warning signs.
Uses the local medical post as a pit stop.
Treats the summit as a souvenir.
Then treats Japanese rescue teams as a free backup plan.
The mountain does not care about your itinerary.
The people carrying you down do.
Japan is still polite enough to save people who should have turned around.
That politeness is being mistaken for an unlimited service.
😊 I also just uploaded a new version of the lecture notes. https://t.co/bpIvdgG8KO (it's still, and perhaps will always be work-in-progress, given the field is moving fast. Any mistakes are mine :) and any feedback is more than welcome :).