Technics shows us how Japanese people can express their feelings and emotions (wonderful!):

This commercial begins by telling you about a father who has had his work hours cut back. This is a trend that is slowly becoming more common within Japan. Typically, the Japanese male is expected to be a true workhorse, spending little time at his home. This work philosophy has lead to a tremendous number of deaths. The man in the commercial passes by a window where he looks in and sees a young girl learning how to play the piano. Looking for something to occupy his spare time now, he takes up learning how to play on his own using a Technics digital keyboard. While this is occuring, another story is unfolding with the man's daughter. She is getting married, but he seems to pay little attention to her during this time in her life. Perhaps confusing for some people, but he is just unable to express his true emotional feelings towards his daughter during her exciting weeks of preparation for her wedding. The mother explains to the daughter that her dad is probably just upset that she is leaving.

Through this entire commercial, you see the man practicing the piano in a studio with a teacher, but also at home on his Technics digital piano. During one of his practices at home, his daughter peeks in from the hallway to watch her father practice. During his practice, she wonders to herself if her father will ever play for her. The very next moving scene shows the father playing a song, which he has been practicing, during his daughter's wedding. The father's way of still expressing the love he has for her and the warm wishes that he has for her and her new husband. It's quite sentimental I thought. Technics' usage of non-verbal communication is excellent, because it shows many of the emotional feelings of the Japanese people that are often conveyed without one spoken word.

View commercial using Quicktime - (2m01s): High Quality file (7.2M) / Medium Quality file (4.1M) - NOTE: Quality of subtitled text best viewed on high
Got a cold?:

It is common for an adult Japanese person who has a cold, flu, or some other possibly contagious illness to wear a white mask over their face such as the one's worn by a doctor during a surgery. This is done out of courtesy for other people so as not to spread what they have. You might find the Japanese to be a bit more obsessed with cleanliness and germ avoidance than that of the people of the U.S. I specified adults in this useage since many teenagers and young people, as young people everywhere probably, tend to be a bit more concerned about fashion. Since wearing a white facial mask is not exactly fashionable, most youth prefer not to use it. Perhaps someone needs to come up with the idea of making designer masks, but then teenagers may always want to be ill.

(Click on picture to view commercial)
Sushi is of course very popular:

There are a number of different types of sushi in Japan.

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Not quite the sandwiches that are familiar to you:

Japanese view sandwiches as being more of a junk food than a meal. However, sandwich shops are quite common in Japan and serve a variety of sandwiches to the tastes of the Japanese. No, your eyes are not fooling you. They serve fruit sandwiches in Japan.

(Click on picture to view commercial)
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