I was frequently asked about my impressions in and about Japan and also to name differences between the two countries. Differences in the way of living, working and so on. Of course such questions are reasonable and years ago I also tended to ask them to foreigners in Germany, but those who have experienced a stay in a foreign country know that it is not possible to give an answer straight away. The largest complication to give a straight answer probably stems from the fact that there are usually different ways of perception and different ways to value things on both sides. In scientific terms one might say that both sides usually employ different models of the reality.
Reason is simply the year long lasting conditioning of seeing things in a specific way.
In this sense I regularly met puzzling faces and didn't get any comment when asking why nearly all school girls are wearing short skirts and bare legs in the cold winter. I urged that the parents should forbid this because it is bad for their health. Another difficult point is to get information about the habit of garbage burning in the public. Surveying why this is performed, I was often answered that today nobody burns garbage in their garden. In spite of this explanation, I had to make my way every morning through thick air before I reached the shrine park.