I think this comes from how strong cultural norms are in Japan, like an overactive immune systhem who reacts to everything foreign, not only harmful ones.
Japan get's a rash if it is not japanese, period.

The way they run there educational systhem has advantages and disatvantages, if one looks at the american systhem they have in parts "creation science" in schoolrooms....

Traveling is another thing, geographical it is for the average citizen not as easy as in europe to experience other cultures, or have other cultures come to the country as in the US for example.

Time and cheap travel opportunities of today will change that i think.

if you're noisy, clumsy, don't know their customs, and if you don't know how to act in public they will dislike you but NO ONE will say it to you. They'll just ignore you. You'll be an "alien"

But if you're a cool jentle guy, know their habbits and understand their culture and speak their language then you'll be just fine there.

English doesn't matter so much. Speak their language!

IF i see a tourist here i try english, i do not expect that someone visiting for a few weeks learns the language more than "wheres the trainstation please?"

Regarding behaviour theres some standards worldwide acceptable, but not to the stretch it is in Japan, one of the reason i canceled my plans visiting there, i always try to adapt but i would not feel comfortable where i am expected to act like someone born there to fit in".

There is polite and there is fitting perfectly into the social norms, the second is over the top.

I traveled so far to more than 50 countries without any trouble but what i read about Japan put me of, seriously.

Since I started this thread I've actually gone to Japan a couple of times. I can hardly speak any Japanese and I can't read any at all, so I was a complete tourist noob in that regard. I did try to do some basic research on how to not embarrass myself; simple things like not talking on a cellphone while on a train or blowing your nose in public. I've read online that Tokyo is the least friendly city for foreigners, and that's where I was both times. I was traveling alone, so no guide or anything, but I did rent a Japanese iPhone for GPS nav and to look stuff up online.

In my experience on the whole people in Japan were much more open to foreigners than I would expect people in my home country (america) to be. It can be difficult to tell in some cases what someone is really thinking since people there are so, so polite, but even given that, there were people clearly going well out of their way to be nice.

Sure (sometimes) in lines or crowds I seemed to have a larger personal-space-bubble than everyone else, but then again there were times where people seemed to go out of their way to be in my vicinity as well.

I've been trying to remember a single foreigner-unfriendly moment during my trips but I honestly can't think of any. The best I can do is I saw another tourist outside a concert trying to get directions to somewhere by stopping random teenagers and just talking to them in english. She was a bit frantic/insistent too, so I'm sure she wasn't coming across as the most sane. Most of the teenagers clearly couldn't tell what she was saying and would brush her off. I can't say I'd expect differently in any other country in the world. If you need directions your best bet is to talk to the staff people right there, and I don't think it's too much to expect a tourist to at least learn how to say "Excuse me" and "Sorry, I can't understand Japanese". I know I said that hundreds of times, and it at least lets people know what is going on. Anyways, this is all off track, the point is if this is the worst thing I can come up with from my trips to Japan, it's really not that bad.

I was asked for my passport (very politely) while sitting at the airport, but I was never stopped by the police or anything while walking around, even when going down small suburb residential streets the GPS led me down (at night, well outside the usual city tourist areas) on the way to a concert at a small college.

such info is wrong and written by haters who have done something wrong or embarracing in Japan or they have been not accepted in the society because of their western habbits That's all.
Don't trust all information you read on internet!

Sleepyhead wrote:

QUOTE:
Certainly in this country many older people still hate the Germans and so on, but most young people don't really care.

Eh? Why should they hate Germans? And "still" ?
Correct me if I'm wrong but afaik the japanese and german friendship lasts since 150 years...
There was even a celebration in fall 2010 in Tokyo-Yokohama...


best regards