Nihonjin wa do- desu ka?

There are many things people already know about the Japanese. But there are still lot many things that the people dont know about them. Lets see.
First of all they are not japanese in japan. Obviously they are normal people in their own country (duh) but elsewhere they like being called nihonjin. Japan is called nihon, the -jin is the suffix for a person of that country. Hence the word nihonjin. I being from India am called indo- jin ( yeah they have a different name for other countries as well). The japanese language is called nihon-go, again go is the suffix for language, hence ei-go, hindi- go etc. It does get pretty difficult at times to talk about different countries as the names differ hugely. I would also like to add that nihongo is one of the most toughest languages to learn and talk in. I have been staying here for almost an year now, but I still am warui ( meaning bad) in nihongo. I cant thank google enough for helping me out in tough situations ( read as everytime I talk to any Nihonjin).
I live in a small countryside area known as Kikugawa in Shizuoka perfecture ( meaning state). The place is really beautiful and so are the people here. I live in a single aprtment and trust me it is only for a single person. Since birth I have been lucky enough to have lived with all the luxuries like a big room, a big bathroom, living room and stuff. Plus I have never had to do any kind of cleaning and stuff which has always been done by various maids. Even when I lived away from home maid was a normal thing. Nevertheless maid is out of question when you are living in Japan (welcome to Japan). Everything has to be cleaned by yourself, hence I started being thankful for the small apartment that I have. But, to make matters worse for a Namakemono ( meaning lazy) person like me, the Japanese give a lot of stress on keeping your place clean. In the beginning I kept it shining but over the months, I have learnt shortcuts for it. We are Indians in the end.
Coming back to the japanese people, the main interaction out of office started when I stumbled upon a small Izakaya ( bar) very near to my place. It is a small place run by a couple, the guy named Hiroki Iwasawa and the girl named Yuka. The first day I went there I was a little scared, because it was the first time I was going to a place run by Japanese people and that too alone. So when I entered there was Yuka behind the bar and her friend (asuka) sitting on the counter. So as usual there first question was "donna kuni?" Meaning which country are you from? So I told that I was an Indo-jin. Yuka got pretty scared and went behind the counter and called Hiroki who also came running, apparently the reason being that I was the first Indojin ever to have stepped into PEEPS ( name of the bar) nevertheless over time I have become pretty good friends with the both of them, or so I think. Since that day PEEPS has become like my second home away from home. Whenever I feel homesick or just low, my first reaction is to go to PEEPS. I might not pour my heart out to them but atleast they can help me take my mind off.
Hiroki is a DJ and hence he knows a lot of people around this place which I think helped me make friends and get to know people. Being an Indian was a help too as people know pretty little about India as a country. People who know even a little about India know about Ganges. How they know about it I dont know.
I made a lot of friends at PEEPS or so I thought. They used to treat me like a you know celebrity of sorts. Maybe it upped their cool quotient, knowing a Gaijin ( foreigner ). However, i enjoyed the attention and never complained about it. The japanese people are pretty easy going and they are always willing to talk when you are sitting alone. Though the talk usually starts with talking about the differences in India and japan as countries but covers lots of other topics as well.
Before coming to this place I was told that Kikugawa is a pretty boring place with nothing to do. Being a pretty introvert person i was scared to hell but, i guess I would say that you have to find ways to make things interesting. Thats just what I did. Maybe standing out in a crowd was a plus point too as people dont forget you easily. So the great times started, I went snow boarding with japanese, went to various parties, came in contact with a lot of DJs overall had the time of my life.
Coming back to the topic which is Japanese people.
First of all they speak only Japanese unless they have some work that requires the need of speaking English. Which I believe is a major negative for the tourism industry in Japan.
People around the world generally think of Japanese people as being workaholics, which is partly true. The reason I got to know from my dear japanese friend Hiroki. He says that the taxes in Japan are so high that if you dont work overtime you cannot lead a respectful life. The taxes that I talk about are living taxes, apparently the japanese people have to pay taxes for living in Japan which was kind of a shock to me. Other than that there are usual taxes like insurance, pension fund, taxes for your car, monthly insurance premium etc. and if you are not able to pay these taxes the govt has every right to recover them from you. Hence the overtime working is prevalent in Japanese industry. Also for small business that dont make a lot of money the owners cant afford holidays and trips and a good life in a bid to make ends meet. So I would say that to make ends meet they need to work overtime leaving little family life which they are not necessarily happy about. And this is probably one reason for the high suicide rate in Japan. The frustration of leading alife filled with only work and no off time. This is just my opinion and not the general consensus here. FYI There is a jungle right under the foothills of Mt Fuji which is famous for suicides.
One commendable thing about Japan as a whole is the security of people here. Usually what I think is that the crime rate in a country is directly proportional to the cost of living in the country, but this is where Japan as a whole beats the trend. Not once have I been scared of walking down late in the night. Or for that matter forgetting my valuables somewhere because I know even if I do forget my valuables somewhere I will find them right where I left them or better yet they will be delivered back to me. I should tell one funny incident that happened with me in this regards. As I do not have a driving license in Japan so I have a bicycle for local commute which is usually parked in the parking space of my apartment. One fine day when I went to see the bi-cycle it was missing, and I was a little taken aback with the incident, with japan being pretty safe and all. Hence I reported it to the police who said that it is very difficult to find out the cycle, which I readily agreed, it obviously is difficult to find a cycle. So I went on with my life without thinking too much about the incident. Lo and behold the very next day in the morning the cycle was standing in the usual place in perfect condition, rather in a better condition than before. I was surprised and astonished on this incident. I mean where else can something like this happen to a person. When I told people about it they called me pure lucky after being able to stop their laughter, which I agree.
Probably this had something to do with following the rules. The japanese people will do everything to follow the rules, no matter how much problems it may cause them. Coming from a country like India I was pleasantly surprised. There are rules for everything starting from the way the garbage is disposed when it has to be disposed to driving on the roads. The thing that surprised me the most was there is a rule for cyclists as well and you can be penalised heavily if you dont follow it. compare it with India where cyclists are not even counted as a part of the traffic. You name something and they have a rule for it and the best part is that everybody follows it religiously and the ones who dont are looked down upon by the society, unlike India where the more rules you break the cooler you are. I know that is wrong on our part as a society and we should change it if we have to be anywhere close to Japan in the next 10-20 years.
I guess this much is enough for part I. I dont want to stop but I guess I should for sometime to ready the part 2 of this.
By the way the meaning of the topic " nihonjin wa do- desu ka?" means what kind of people are Japanese.