Research Paper Example: Culture Guide to Japan

Japan is a sovereign island nation that is located in East Asia. The country is made up of about 6852 different islands that form an archipelago. Kyushu, Honshu, Hokkaido, and Shikoku are the largest islands in the archipelago (Sugimoto 2014). Tokyo is the nation's capital city and is located on Honshu Island. The country is often referred to as the land of the Rising Sun' since the word Japan' means the sun origin.

Shinto and Buddhism are the two main religious practices that the Japanese people observe (Rimer 2014). Religious practices such as Christianity and Islamic practices are not that popular among the Japanese since their nation Japan has for a long time discouraged the adaptation of foreign culture. The Japanese are polite and friendly individuals. The youths love to interact with foreigners, most of them often offer help even before they are asked for assistance. Many business owners enjoy having foreigners at their enterprises, and in most cases, they usually go an extra mile in trying to please them. For example, some restaurant owners often give free meals to foreigners with the intent of making them feel welcome.

The shyness and feeling of embarrassment among Japanese who do not know how to speak in foreign languages such as English, French or German may make one think that they are racists. This is because some of them may start panicking or run away when you approach them. The Japanese people engage in various national festivities that mark different occasions throughout the year. However, the most important holiday to them is the New Year. In Japan New Year celebrations usually, begins on 30th December and ends on 3rd January. Most of them usually spend the festivities with family members, thus during this period, the different transport systems are often congested since most of them travel back home to their families. Education is paramount in Japan thus the elementary and lower secondary education is compulsory to all Japanese. This has ensured that most of the citizens of Japan are literate.

The people of Japan often engage in popular amusement customs such as Karaoke. The word Karaoke is a Japanese word which means Empty Orchestra.' Karaoke had originated from Japan before it was popularized around the world. Karaoke in Japan is however slightly different from that in countries located in America, Africa, and Europe. Unlike in such regions where singers usually sing to the audience in for example the bar the karaoke places in Japan are buildings with several floors and rooms. Friends often occupy a private room where they take turns sing different songs as they drink alcohol to their satisfaction. Baseball is popular among the Japanese as it is to citizens of the United States of America. The rules of the game are slightly different from that of the United States. However, it is still enjoyable. The country's national game is the board game called Go that originated from China (Rimer 2014). Chess which they refer to as shogi' is also a board game played by most Japanese.

Japanese individuals often misunderstand each other because many of them are poor in reading and communicating their emotions. For example, when a Japanese girl is mistakenly offended by her boyfriend, she may decide to stop interacting with him rather than informing him of how he may have offended her. The boyfriend, on the other hand, would assume that his girlfriend is not interacting with him since she is busy and thus he may not even call her to know how she is doing. This indicates that most Japanese prefer acting out without talking first.

References

Rimer, J. T. (2014). Modern Japanese Fiction and Its Traditions: An Introduction. Princeton University Press.Sugimoto, Y. (2014). An introduction to Japanese society. Cambridge University Press.