Note to Japan

You're a great country and I really like you, but there's something you really need to understand. Not every Japanese person thinks this way, but there are enough that do to make things really annoying for a foreigner taking residence in your country.

You are a very unique country, Japan, as should be expected from a country that was isolated from the rest of the world for so long. Your language is very difficult to learn and many foreigners have a hard time adapting to your customs.

But, contrary to what some might believe, it IS possible for a foreigner to learn your language and understand your customs. I know that perhaps at some point in their education, many of your people decide that English is impossible for them and they conclude that it would be impossible for them to function in cultures other than their own. They come to believe that Japan is so completely different from other countries that understanding is impossible.

However, they're wrong.

Japan, you are not that unique. You are NOT that special. You just a country! Your people are human just as any one else on this planet. We can learn to understand each other. Your people have created unnecessary barriers that are both restrictive to themselves and annoying for the foreigners that end up having to try to deal with them.

Even in some English lessons, the content is laced with a certain feeling of impossibility and sometimes the English teachers do nothing but make it even more so.

Oh, and for the record, we have technology such as washing machines and computers in other countries.

So next time I am given unasked for, painfully obvious advice about technology, I will not be held responsible for screaming at the person who provides it in my native tongue.

OK, so the last sentence hopefully isn't true... ^^;