The Japanese wonder shy foreigners do so many things topsy-turvy instead of doing them naturally, in the Japanese way.
Carpenters saw and plane towards, instead of away from, their bodies. The handles of saws are straight, like those of western hammer.
The best rooms in a house are at the back, the garden also is at the back. Japanese never use soap in the bath-tub. Soaping is done outside the tub and the body rinsed off before entering the bath. When the bath is ready the head of the house takes the first bathm then the wife, followed by the children according to age, the oldest first, and finally the servants.
Men in Japan are most emphatically the superior sex. Entering or leaving a room or on the street, etc., the man precedes the woman. He is served first at meals.
The Japanese deny themselves the satisfaction of self-expression and delight in understatements: thus, when forced to speak about their possessions they always belittle them as being of no especial value. When speaking about his household, a husband refers to his wife as Kanai or "inside the house," or as Gusai, "my stupid wife,". But when he inquires as to the health, etc., of his neighbor's wife he always designates her as Okusan (oku-farthest inside, san-synonymous with Mr., Mrs., Master, or Miss) but never does he so designate his own wife - he would be thought mad if he did so. his son, though a bright lad, is described as "a good-for-nothing boy," or as a "sucking pig" (tonji).
A gift is never presented ostentatiously, it is always "a mere trifle."
When a tidbit is offered, a Japanese will say: "Although this does not taste good, please have it."
A Japanese generally sharpens his pencil with outward cuts. Also he strikes a match away from him.
Japanese pack away their pictures, curious, and ornaments, and have as little as possible in their rooms in contrast to the Western cusom. Pictures are hung in a certain order. The principal, and usually the only one in a room, is the Kakemono or scroll picture, hung in the Tokonoma, or alcove (the holy of holies), in the best room. Ideographs hold the first rank, then black and white pictures, lastly colored pictures. These are changed according to the season and to conform with sixed aesthetic rules. This order is in contrast to the Western way of hanging pictures wherever they will go, often with little artistic consideration.
A Japanese set of cups, plates, etc., is 5 or 10, not 6 or 12.
The housemaid dusts first, then sweeps.
The Japanese sleep on futons on the floor, and avoid the North position in sleeping, for the reason that the dead are placed in that position. Their bedding is put away in closets.
The meal is eaten with chopsticks, one-hunded. Except among the cultivated class, noisy supping or intake of breath evinces appreciation - and as to this, a Japanese derives pleasure in having the meal appeal to his senses of taste and sight, or smell and hearing.
At banquets, and extra portion is provided for each guest to take away with him so that the homeforks can also enjoy the good food served at the banquest.
There are no flowers in a Japanese landscape garden.
Japanese do not open gifts in the presence of the giver.
Distant views are shut out from houses; miniature reproductions of natural scenery inside the fence take their place.
Japnaese say Achi-Kochi ("there-here"); Westerners say "here and there".
In Japan the wife holds the purse strings, and is economical in expenditures for the family. How is it in the West?