奇怪的日本(英文版)

Japan, the Strange Country

Japan is a small country located in east Asia. The population is around 130,000,000 (one
hundred and thirty million) people. The total world population is 6,800,000,000 (six point
eight billion), which means that roughly 2 in every 100 people are Japanese. Japan's land
area measures 378,000 (three hundred and seventy-eight thousand) square kilometers. If
the earth's land area is 149,000,000 (one hundred and forty-nine million) square
kilometers and the total area is 510,000,000 (five hundred and ten million) square
kilometers, then Japan is no bigger than this red dot.

Japan is the most advanced country in Asia. It is second only to America in GDP and it's
proud of its high standard of living and economic wealth. Life expectancy of Japanese
men is 79 years and 86 years for women, which is the longest in the world. And there
are culture practices such as KABUKI, BONSAI, SUMO, SADOU, KIMONO and
ORIGAMI, all of which have developed into distinctly Japanese traditions.

And we must not forget, Japan was the first country in the world to experience the
destructive power of not one, but two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
in World War II. More than 220,000 (two hundred and twenty thousand) people lost their
lives and as a result, Japan abandoned its war time constitution.

In these ways Japan is a country with its own original culture and history, but nowadays
there are also many strange things about modern day Japan. Let's take a look at these
strange things in eight different categories.

1. Character.
Japanese people tend to be short, have black hair, small mouth and small eyes. This is a
typical Japanese salaryman and over here is a Japanese schoolgirl. These days
Japanese girls have a variety of ways to make their eyes appear bigger. There's even a
function to make your eyes so big when you have a photo taken. Japanese technology
sure is amazing. Another obsession Japanese girls have is with brands. Not more than
anything else, they're obsessed with diets. Japanese women walk about town, carrying
their high-quality brand bags. (Above??) for them, it's the ultimate status symbol.
Japanese people also have the worst eyesight of anyone in the world with 40% (forty
percent) of people using glasses or contact lenses. Japanese people are, generally, pretty
shy. You could say that they find it particularly difficult to express how they really feel.
Thanks to this, Japanese company meetings tend to drag on, and even after work is over,
a Japanese person can't refuse an invitation for drinks. They also need to be careful of
(what's the??) relationships between their boss and co-workers. Don't forget to bow on
your way home, again, and again, and again.

2. Tokyo

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Tokyo, Japan's capital city, makes up an extremely small area, but it's the heart of
Japanese politics, economy, distribution and fashion. A true megalopolis. Tokyo is the
Mekka, the place everyone wants to live. And so in recent years, it's become
overpopulated to the extreme. An example, compare to an American, who can claim a
living space of 180 (one hundred and eighty) square kilometers to himself, there are 11
(eleven) Japanese people cramming to the same space, but in Tokyo alone, there are 192
(one hundred and ninty-two) people squished into the same extremely crammed living
conditions. At the famous SHIBUYA scramble crossing, about every green light (drain??)
peak hours, around 3,000 (three thousand) people will cross at the same time. At a
Tokyo's McDonald's, it's perfectly normal to have just 50 centimeters of bench space per
customer. (Ain't that??) like being a chicken in the coop, isn't it?

3. Food
From traditional Japanese style food, to Chinese, Italian, French and American style junk
food, Japan is a nation of food lovers. However, the amount of food actually produced in
Japan is only around 40%. It's incredible to think that a nation so obsessed with food lets
23,200,000 (twenty-three point two million) tons of it go to waste every single year. That's
actually more than four times the 5,900,000 (five point nine million) tons of food that gets
sent yearly by eight programs to assist starving nations. Right now, there are
1,000,000,000 (one billion) people in the world suffering from starvation. That's equal to
one in every seven people. And someone in the world dies from starvation every four
seconds. Of those who die, more than half are children under five. But despite that,
Japanese people will eat as much as they like and simply throw away the rest. So,
Japanese cuisine, really is a big deal.

4. Technology
Japan is a technologically advanced nation with bullet trains that reach a speed of 300
(three hundred) kilometers an hour. And mobile friends that can act as a credit card and
television all-in-one. Robots that walk like humans? Now truly. There are even restaurants
that employ robots to make your RAMEN for you. The toilets in Japan now (lift
technological marvels?). The seat warms your bottom. The lid automatically opens and
shuts. And if you like, your toilet will even wash your ... and hhh. But for some reasons,
old-style Japanese squat toilets still remain popular. Can't imagine why.

5. Water
In Japan, if you turn on the tap, the water that comes out of it is perfectly safe to drink as
is. Being an island country, Japan has water in abundance, but despite this, Japan
imports huge amounts of mineral water from Europe, like about 580,000 (five hundred and
eighty thousand) kilo liters every year. That amount equates to more than 1,160,000,000
(one point one six billion) 500 (five hundred) milliliter PET bottles. By the way, more than
1,100,000,000 (one point one billion) people in the world, or about eight times the
population of Japan, don't have access to clean drinking water. A large portion of those

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who have to drink dirty water suffer from diarrhea and other diseases.

6. SUSHI
When you think Japan, you think SUSHI. There's a traditional style counter SUSHI
restaurants, but now SUSHI train restaurants are also popular. You can choose from
shrimp, salmon roe, egg and any number or types of SUSHI. Recently, you can even
order pudding or Korean BBQs. We don't really know why. By the way, the king of SUSHI
in Japan is TUNA. That almost 2 million tons of it fished worldwide every year, Japanese
people eat 710,000 (seven hundred and ten thousand) tons. That's a third of the world's
total. Or Japan consumes 80% of the world's supply of bluefin tuna. In the past thirty
years, the total population of tuna has decreased by a third. Because of that, the bluefin
tuna could soon be designated a threatened species, just like the giant panda, blue whale,
tiger and African elephant. Now, for the amount of disposable wooden chopsticks that you
use to eat that SUSHI with, Japanese people use 23,000,000,000 (twenty- three billion)
pairs of chopsticks per year and every person will throw a two-hundred pairs each. And
these days, 90% of those chopsticks are sourced from China. Did you have any idea that
Japan was using Chinese natural forest resources to make its disposable wooden
chopsticks?

7. Love
Have you seen those amazing buildings that look like fairytale castles? Well, you're in
Japan. Of course, they are love hotels. There're around 30,000 (thirty thousand) love
hotels in Japan and in a single day, 1,850,000 (one point eight five million) couples will
visit one. That's quite a lot, but consider this, while every Japanese couple has sex of a
grand total of 48 times a year, the global average number of times a couple has sex in one
year is 103. And then there are those sex-loving Greeks who (for a??) cate on average
138 times a year. That's more than once every three days. Incredible! Oh, for the record,
this is an actual Japanese castle. Please, don't mistake it for a love hotel and try to have
sex in it.

8. Suicide
For a country with such a strong economy and the luxury of throwing away unwanted
food, you'd think Japan would be a happier country, but it also boasts one of the highest
rates of suicide in any developed nation. Even Mount FUJI, a revered symbol of Japan, is
a notorious suicide spot for the around 100 dead bodies discovered in the surrounding
woodiness every year. It's so not important, but every year, around 35,000 (thirty-five
thousand) people in total kill themselves in Japan. That's 90 people every day. Every 16
minutes in Japan, one person takes their own life. I guess a healthy economy does not
necessarily make a happy country, does it?

So, this is Japan. When you look at it from a global perspective, do you see what I mean
when I say Japan is a strange country? Does Japan seem a bit different from what you

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first imagined? After all, Japan projects an image of wealth and prosperity. There's
probably a lot you can't see behind that image. But take a step back and you can see the
bigger, strangier picture. And who created this strange country? You did.


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