Will Miss #9 - escalator etiquette (reflection)

In a crowded city in which many tall buildings are the norm, behavior on escalators is a huge issue. If people block you when you want to walk upstairs, or worse, do the old dead stop at the top or bottom, it can be beyond frustrating. When I was in Tokyo, the way in which people lined up on the left and left the right side of an escalator clear was something I really appreciated.

What I have found since coming to America is that I don't tend to encounter much in the way of escalators at all. There is the rare two-story mall with an underused escalator, but most of the time, I'm dealing with short sequences of steps or just operating on the first floor. Perhaps the reason this is so is that I'm in California, but thinking back on my time in Pennsylvania, I can't say that I recall using escalators much there outside of the very rare trip to an airport. In fact, the experience was so rare in my birthplace that, when my mother had to use one, she was afraid and couldn't manage to time her steps onto the machine to ride one. It just visually confused her.

It turns out that, the good manners I appreciated so much on escalators in Tokyo don't really need to be exercised in the places I've been in America. I can't miss what I'm finding I don't need. 

Won't Miss #233 - men first

When I ask my female students who have traveled abroad what they have liked about visiting a Western country, every one of them says that they like the "ladies first" mentality of the people in those countries. A lot of foreigners believe this to mean things like opening doors for women, pulling out chairs for them in restaurants, etc. There is no history of chivalry in Japan so it isn't integrated into their culture. While I'm certain that these types of courtesies are included in what my students perceive, it is much more than that. In Japan, most of the country operates from a perspective of "men first". What Japanese women perceive as "ladies first" also includes common courtesy based on a perception of equality among all people regardless of gender in Western countries. Since Japanese women are so accustomed to being second class, they see being treated equally as an elevation.

I won't miss living in a culture where men come first simply by virtue of possessing a penis.