Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Japan, little differences, part 2

1. Japanese people are petite.

This is the max capacity on our hotel elevator:



11 people, 750 kgs. Each person (male or female) is expected to weigh 150 pounds or less. In American it'd be more like 250 pounds.

2. Japanese girls like to make their legs look longer. Our Japanese tour guide, Cindy:

You'll often see high school girls in uniforms, with their skirts hitched up to here [motions halfway up her thigh]. Why do they do this? It's not because they're exhibitionist. It's because Japanese girls have short legs. Some people call them Turnip Legs. So if they hitch up the skirt, and wear tall platform shoes, then the legs look really long.




3. Japan still expects the woman to cook.

Tom took us to a very lovely restaurant, where we ordered 10 small dishes. The sukiyaki needed to be stirred.

Tom: [to our mom] Mom, can you stir this meat?

Mom: I'm taking a picture.

Tom: It's starting to burn.

Mom: [didn't hear, absentmindedly starts eating food]

Tom finally crankily stirs the meat.



After we leave the restaurant,

Tom: In Japan, the women are supposed to cook! If it doesn't fall to my mom, then it should go to my sister. Did you see how all the waitresses were staring at me?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Small point.... 150kg is about 330lbs. Watch your units!

Reza said...

Picture from elevator in San Francisco (300 pounds / person)