Tarto in Japan

Not translated yet

Japanese people have a totally distorted image of Paris. They think it's a perfect, magic place where everybody is nice and elegant...Every year, reality comes as a shock for a handful of Japanese people in Paris. A rude remark from a waiter can trigger what is called the "Paris syndrome", a traumatic shock that can even lead to repatriation with psychological support on board the plane for the most serious cases.

The Paris syndrom was first mentioned in the 80s but became popular in the last couple years. A dozen (or a hundred, according to another source) are concerned every year. There are many articles about it on the net, for instance:

- BBC news

- The age.com

- Paris syndrome on Wikipedia

I think it's really hilarious!

The culture shock seems to be the cause of the syndrome. And also the fact that most Japanese people probably imagine the world as a huge Disneyland-like amusement park (this one's a personal opinion)...

In Japan, it's totally unconceivable that a customer might be treated in a rude way. I don't even see how it could happen unless an employee suddenly loses his mind. Here, the customer is almost considered as a god. If you have a problem, they'll do anything to fix it, even if it's entirely your fault! They apologize for making you wait for 3 seconds, they apologize if YOU make an article fall and will offer to replace it, they apologize if they're not able to answer your question, etc etc. Don't even think about leaving a tip, it's almost insulting. Indeed in Japan, the customer is grateful for the client come to his shop.

Can the opposite syndrome happen? I reckon that I love the Japanese service, but sometimes it just gets on my nerves to hear excuses all the time. But I'm not gonna get traumatized either...well who knows, some day I might appear on the national French news with an "Okazaki syndrome" title!

School just restarted today and it's already going fast! Feels like this term's gonna be pretty intense too. I had 4 elective classes to choose, this time I picked two cool ones: cooking and manga. Cooking because I like it and manga because it's a topic I hardly know anything about...

I also have 4 private classes. I made requests about the teachers I want to study with, I hope they'll be fulfilled. Indeed, teachers are generally pretty good but there are always exceptions (I had one last term) so...

Besides, I've planned a nice project for next holidays, I'm going to gather more information and I'll tell you more about it later.

And now that I think about it, I (at last!) want to thank my brother and my sister-in-law who made the graphics of my web site 3 months ago, and I just added links to their web sites.

Not translated yet

I had an awesome and very traditional new year party. Can't tell much now as I have very little time!...

I Wish all of you the best for this new year!!!