WHAT DO YOU FEEL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN IMAGE OF JAPAN AND REAL JAPAN?

Question:

ＤＯ ＹＯＵ ＨＡＶＥ ＡＮＹ ＩＤＥＡ ＯＦ ＩＴ？ＦＯＲ ＥＸＡＭＰＬＥ, ＢＥＦＯＲＥ ＹＯＵ CAME TO JAPAN, YOU THOUGHT ALL JAPANESE PEOPLE WEAR GLASSES BUT IT ISN'T TRUE.
WHATEVER IS OKAY. ABOUT CULTURE, PEOPLE, CUSTOM......ETC

Answer:

Image of Japan: People are very protective of traditional Japanese culture, such as Noh, sado, ikebana, sumo, etc.

Reality OLD people are very protective of traditional Japanese culture.

Image of Japan: Buddhism, particularly the famous Japanese Zen Buddhism has an effect on society that makes Japan less materialistic and and less of a consumer culture.

Reality: Japan is EVEN MORE materialistic and consumeristic than the USA. These people love shopping, and buying ridiculously expensive things.

Image of Japan: Everyone speaks English semi-decent people with some very fluent and so not so good.

Reality: It depends on your geography. No one in Tottori ken speaks English well, and everyone in Tokyo speaks enough to say "Don't touch my girlfriend, you drunk gaijin bastard!"

Image of Japan: Japanese people young and old are very proud of Japan.

Reality: Japanese people young and old are overly defensive of Japan vis a vis the rest of the world. If someone talks about whaling, they will compare the Sea Shepherds to the Americans who dropped the atomic bomb dropped on hiroshima... Or they will call Americans fat and stupid for being worried about radiation leakage in Fukushima. (Maybe that's just Yahoo Answers)