Among other things, being Japanese means embracing a distinct and particular weirdness. The Japanese are well aware of this fact, and generations of Nipponjin (日本人, Japanese) have pondered on how hen (変, strange) we are since the country opened its doors to outsiders some 150 years ago. Encountering the outside world for the first time, and then hearing what the rest of the planet had to say about us, the Japanese were shocked — yes shocked! — at the vast, deep gulf that separated watashitachi (私たち, us) from the sekai (世界, world). Personally, these are some of the things that head off the list: the national insistence on strange and cumbersome hairdos, the national preference for suicide first and everything else a distant second, and the national diet that consists primarily of daizu (大豆, soy beans) in every form and variation. Three down, about 30,000 more items to check off.

In the 21st century, the Japanese have learned to live with the 変 and be OK with it. Let me tell you, it helps to resign oneself to the fact that the strangeness starts somewhere in the third year after birth and never stops from there. Take for example yōchien (幼稚園, kindergarten), which marks a child's first encounter with the Japanese-style shūdan seikatsu (集団生活, group living), when all the kids are made to wear sumokku ( スモック, smocks) over their shifuku (私服, plain clothes), supposedly to avoid getting dirty and to foster solidarity. In first grade, they must don yellow caps and carry heavy, thick square book bags called randoseru (ランドセル) weighed down with benkyōdōgu (勉強道具, study paraphernalia and stationery) and kyōkasho (教科書, textbooks) and cross the street waving little flags.

It's no secret that Japanese life accelerates in misery the older one gets. Once shōgakkō (小学校, elementary school) is over, chūgaku (中学, junior high) and kōkō (高校, high school) require students to wear the armor of seifuku (制服, uniforms) as they battle the realities of jyuken benkyō (受験勉強, prepping for entrance exams), ijime (いじめ, bullying) and the grueling bukatsu (部活, extracurricular sports activities), which I'm convinced is the real inspirational source behind the novel/movie series "The Hunger Games." And then having finally made it to college, there's the shūkatsu (就活, job hunting) to worry about, conducted once again in identical suits that make everyone look like products off a conveyor belt.