Japan And Brazil Through A Traveler's Eye Summary

               

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George Mikes is a Hungarian artist, author, publisher, illustrator and journalist.  These   excerpts are from ‘The Land of the Rising Yen’ and ‘How To Tango’. Here he writes about his travelling experiences from two different places of the world, Japan and Brazil. 

Travel writing is about writing one’s experiences of travelling and visiting alien places. Travel writing has become very popular as more number of people have begun to explore new places on the globe.  Though much of the earth has been explored, and almost everything has been written about, the popularity of travel writing is still growing.  There are exclusive channels on travel and the influence of new media has further increased its popularity. The travel narratives are telling comments on how a culture gets represented by another. 

Japanese Manners / Courtesy - substitute privacy

The writer observes that Japanese are well-mannered people.  They respect one another’s privacy immensely. Courtesy has a double function there: it is courtesy and it is substitute privacy. They conduct their most confidential business transactions, their love -quarrels in public in perfect privacy. 

Bowing

Everybody in Japan keeps bowing to everybody else. It’s a mania. Bowing is quainter; more formal, more oriental and infectious too.  Japanese have a complicated hierarchy in bowing:  who bows to whom, how deeply and for how long. Though a little complicated to us, they manage it effortlessly. Even the smallest difference in rank, standing, age, social position will be subtly reflected in that split second. The wife bows to her husband, the child bows to his father, younger brothers to elder brothers, and the sister bows to all brothers of whatever age.  The writer notes that despite with their distinct manners, Japanese can turn into savages as soon as the bus arrives. 

Eating Soup

One must make a fearful noise while eating soup in Japan, for it is a sign of appreciation.  It must be according to the expected levels of approval or it is thought to be an example of ill manners. 

Brazilians’ sense of beauty / Traffic in Brazil 

Life in Brazil looks slow paced to the writer. He appreciates their aesthetic sense in decorating the grey pavements in Copacabana with beautiful black mosaics. But the same leisurely characters speed madly when they get to the steering wheel.  They are highly passionate about cars, though motor cars are extremely expensive. As soon as a driver notices a pedestrian step off the pavement, he targets him and accelerates in a fair game. The pedestrian has to run for dear life.  It’s a driver and pedestrian - hunter and prey game. They smile at each other amicably and move on.  Even the war between the drivers is murderous but good tempered. There is no anger, no hostility, no mad hooting. 

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