There are many, many things I love about Japan. Well, of course there is; I wouldn't fly thousands of miles from my native country and spend so much money, time and effort setting myself up here. Admittedly, over time the delights of Japan fade into the background of daily living, but they're always still there, albeit more subtle.
One of these things is the lack of cynicism in Japan. It's true that I am a naturally cynical person: you can ask anyone who knew me back when I resided in the UK that my default mindset was that of being mildly irritated.
I wasn't the only one. It seemed to me that so many things exist in the UK just to make you angry or frustrated. Television, for instance. It was quite telling, for instance, that one of the programs on just before the New Year's countdown was 'Most Annoying People of 2011', which we actually watched for a few minutes. It seems I, along with so many other people, get a grim kick out of sneering and sniping at others, and I play right into the provider's hands time after time.
I cannot even describe to your the overriding atmosphere of cynicism in UK, either. Maybe it's because the native tongue is my first language, and I understand all that I hear, that could be a factor. But that couldn't just be it: on the two occasions I've returned to the UK to visit family, within days I feel my new sunny outlook clouding over with it's old feeling of annoyance.
But this simply doesn't exist in Japan. Much is made of the unreadable Japanese, but I will tell you something, there can be no doubting that the people are definitely happier. There may indeed be a level of putting-on-a-face, but even with that, I can guarantee that if you could measure how mollified and calm people are, Japan would rate higher than the UK. Far higher.
It just seems that whenever something nice happens in the UK, or there's a great idea, it gets moaned over and shouted down. The Olympics, for example. I'm as conscious of white elephants as the next man, but anyone who denies that the Olympics are a force for good are kidding themselves. Yet kid themselves they do. Ask any man on the street in the UK, even London, what they think of the upcoming Olympics right now, and there's a good chance your majority response will be a negative one. There won't be an overriding reason for the negativity, it's just that cynicism and pessimism are the default.
And this is for something big, mind. I feel like the UK misses out on so many good initiatives because of towering cynicism sometimes. We Brits can't seem to welcome anything that won't be free, of benefit to everyone and have an amazing point to it. Take the Melody Roads in Japan, for example. Here and there, in Japan, is a stretch of road covered in strategically-placed ridges, and if ran over at the right speed, the reverberations in the car will sound like a song.
Is it useful? Hell no. Does it benefit anyone or have a point? Or course not. But it's a lovely little touch that can put a real smile on your face. There's thousands of examples like these in Japan, little visual and interactive trinkets that would never have worked in the UK for moaning about eyesores or pointlessness (and of course, for the chance of a good old moan. People famously complain about things they have no idea about). But it's these little touches, these little curiosities, that can really lift your mood. Doesn't that make them worthwhile. Look at the huge Gundam statue in the picture above, for example. You just couldn't get away with this kind of thing elsewhere. But you can in Japan, and Japan is all the better for it.
Naturally, being more passive to crazy ideas has pros and cons. Japanese people could be accused of being easily swayed into agreeing with something they don't necessarily agree with. For example, nobody could deny the brilliance of the train system, from a pedestrian's view they can be terrible eyesores sometimes, carving right through a city like a river. Chances are it was met with minimal resistance, too.
But on the whole, I love that Japan and it's people are, on the whole, less cynical than the UK. Some things may be so mind-numbingly daft and stupid but I can't help but roll my eyes sometimes, but on the whole it's a nice feeling to be less angry at everything all the time.
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