Contradiction Society

Thinking in culture, we have many strange things in japan, and in the last days I was making a list of contradictions found in the japanese life. In fact they aren't reeeeeally contradictions, but conflicting customs and opposite ideas. Behold!

1. Tecnology x Tradition
   This is the most obvious, strange and beautiful thing in Japan. We are surrounded by temples, big buildings, houses full of plasma televisions but with futons instead of beds. One case was a restaurant that I went other day, very family style - no employees, just the family members making delicious food and serving it in a very cozy way. We have this all around the world, but not in every place these restaurants have automatic doors with motion sensors. Also, maybe Japan is the only place where you can see salarymen in temples to bless their laptops for the new year.
   
2. Religion Customs x Religion Faith
   Speaking in temples and stuff, Japan is a mistery of religions. They mainly have Buddhist, Shintoist and Christian traditions. And mixed! That is, one can have a Buddhist baptism, Christian marriage and Shintoist funeral. I asked some japanese what they really believe in religion, most of them say that they don't believe much, but all of them follow the traditions.
3. Lack of Love x Perversion (hentai stuff)
   That is a strong and sad thing. It is known that the japanese culture doesn't demonstrate love as the western one (at least compared to the brazilian culture), but sad cases are very common here. For example, parents that stop loving each other, but because they have children, they still stay together just for the sake of them. Stay together, in this case, is just live in the same house - normally in different rooms, and barely speaking to each other. I wonder if kids prefer these parents or divorced, happy ones. On the other side, Japan's porno market is bigger then you imagine, you can find all kinds of weird stuff here. Maybe the sad family guys deviate from the normal living way to the porn market because of the lack of love. Whatever...
4. Big television sets x Crappy programs
   Thats a simple and funny one: you can find all kinds of giant high definition TV sets, but the programs passing on the tv are almost always of bad taste (this is my viewpoint). I still need more time or alcohol to understand the japan humor, and the actors are terrible. At least the commercials are very crazy, this is cool ;)
5. China: Inheritance x Disdain
   Japan copied much of its culture from China, from the kanji to the food. However, they act with the chinese with indifference, often making worse the quarrel between Japan and China. Even the Japanese prime minister refused to ask sorry for a massacre made by japanese soldiers in chinese lands in the past. The funny thing is that recently a north american pilot that threw one of the atomic bombs back in 1945 came to japan to see the post-war museums, and also refused to apologise.
   
6. Low violence rate - High suicide rate
   Japan is one of the safest developed countries, and the crime tax is really low here. The bad thing is that people suicide a lot, mainly the young people. The japanese stories tells many cases of double suicide or killing the partner and then suiciding as a way to 'be together forever'.
   
7. High Education x Bullying and strict teachers
   Its not by change that this small country became one of the first world potencies, everything is based on the education. And on this aspect, we observe many prodigious minds in a strict education system, where bullying is common, teachers don't have power to control students, and at the same time they are strict and rude with the students. This often causes depression, traumas and can end with suicide.
8. Infra-structure for the old and deficient - Where are the benches???
   As a country with high life expectancy, Japanese ojiisans and obaasans (old people) can't complain about infrastructure - everything is built based on them. So we have elevators, ramps and special pavements for the blind everywhere and braile inscriptions even on stair's handrails. However, its difficult to find a single bench in places like malls, subways and stores. It seems that the government doesn't want people to rest even if is just a little... as a result, we have many japanese girls squating by the walls or sitting on normal stairs.
   
9. Infinite digital cameras - Strict picture prohibitions
   Along with the mobile phones, the digital cameras are a must here. Everyone has its own digital camera, and people really love to take pictures. On the other side, they are forbidden in many places such as museums, shows, concerts... don't tell me about copy protection, I can easily get a full resolution of a painting in a trusted site on the internet, so it's not a issue here. Also, I heard that in some places in Europe you can freely take pictures and videos of almost everything. I remember when I went to a Van Gogh exposition in Nagoya, and I couldn't even send a e-mail by my mobile phone!!! WHY? The use of mobile phones is also forbidden in some places like trains.
   
10. Anime - Reality
    The last point is a trademark of japanese culture - mangas and animes. The japanese manga style of drawing depicts almost everything that the japanese are not: big eyes, tall characters, big boobs, coloured crazy hairs (they are getting close on this one, though).

Ahh I'm tired. I could write a lot more, but then it will take aeons to finish. Maybe someday I'll add more opinions on the comments or in another post... are there other good ones?