Bathes. Roland. (?)

So I'm not really sure who wrote this last handout we recieved ( I asume his name has something to do with this blog's title) but I think most of it is a pretty dry text. It is beyond me how someone can make Japan boring, but hey, this person suceeded in doing so. But anyways, It got me thinking about some things.

Zen. The author barely mentions Zen asthetics and how they can be seen in a multitude of areas in Japan. In his piece on the presentation of food and it's rawness, he never mentions that both these factors contribute to the Zen asthetics of food in Japan. He never mentions it in his piece about packaging. Nor when he describes the simplicity of the home. Instead he justs goes on about I don't even know what.

Okay, I'm kind of getting off track here.

I do like how he describes coomunication in Japan. I think there is definitely a misconception that it is near impossible to communicate without knowing a language. People forget that there are a multitude of ways to communicate besides verbally expressing oneself. Of course it helps, and of course it gets frustrating, but the degree of ones language ability does not hamper ones experience of a foriegn country. Japan seems easier than most countries to describe what you need using body language, art, or whatever means are available. I think this has something to do with it being a high context society as apposed to most Western countries being low in context.