Culture Shock!

Some people ask me if I have experienced the culture shock since I moved here to the U.S. And my answer is yes. I am sure there are many but I want to talk about just one here. Here in the U.S., I feel that people are much closer to jail or prison than people in Japan are. I say this because whoever I talk to here in the U.S., they all know someone who's in jail or who's been to jail in their lives.

I've lived in Japan for 32 years and I know lots of people but I don't know a single person who's been to jail, and I don't know anybody who knows someone in jail. Jail is that far from people's everyday life.

It's sad....It is not like America has more bad people or Japan has more good people. It's not the case. There are both good people and bad people in both countries. Somehow, American society is built in a way that certain groups of people end up in jail much more than others. And I don't see that the certain groups of people are any worse than other group. I wonder if this is some kind of coincidence....or is it designed that way?

Either way, I find it very sad and unfortunate, especially considering the fact that the U.S. supposed to be the richest, most progressive, and developed country in the world. Something must be going very very wrong when high percentage of its people are constantly sitting in jail and their family are in desperation at home without him/her in the house.

Now, don't get me wrong. I am not saying Japan is great and perfect. It has its problems which I will talk about in the next entry. (yes, you will be surprised and won't believe me when you read it) Like I said earlier, both countries have both good and bad. Putting altogether, I find U.S. easier for me to live.