Memories from the Japan trip

There is a principle in biology that loosely states that selfishness benefits individuals, and altruism benefits groups. The Japanese appear to have applied the latter idea repeatedly over several decades to result in society that lives with grace in the face of repeated natural disasters like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and hurricanes.. I've travalled to other countries, including one that is a far more popular destination, but Japan impressed me a lot more for a variety of reasons. Some memories that stand out -

• I was a little apprehensive about finding food ( and in hindsight, justifiably so:-), and the language barrier - Very few people speak English in Japan. I carried a Japanese phrase book with me and was able to manage pretty easily. With the phrasebook in hand, and with the Japanese's patience and eagerness to help, language turned out to be much less of a problem that I had originally anticipated.
• One statistic claims that there is one vending machine for every 23 people in Japan. That is incredible in itself, what is even more impressive( atleast when travelling from India ) is that there is no evidence of litter on the roads to indicate their presence.
• There are markings in Braille adjacent to elevator buttons so that the blind can independently operate the elevators.
• The Japanese are naturally very humble - Along with about 200 others, I entered an auditorium where a senior person was to give a presentation. It so turned out that there were no chairs in the auditorium. With absolutely no hesitation, all of them, including very senior managers, sat down on the floor cross legged, and patiently sat through the lecture. You won't find this in a corporate environment perhaps anywhere else. 'Sitting down on the floor' in my opinion is one of those great levellers in life ;-) 

Almost everywhere I went, I found that people are sincere and dedicated to whatever work they are assigned, and are eager to offer help or assistance. This was a refreshing change from the apathy that we often see in India. My guess is that sarcasm isn't common in Japan ( I'm far from being a fan of sarcasm) In fact, I think excessive street-smartness is in a way, the opposite of sincerity.

There might be aspects to Japanese culture that we can't understand, and perhaps even some that we might find hard to accept, but in all my interactions with the Japanese, I came away with a deep sense of respect for their attitude and outlook towards life..