What is different...?

Today was the first day of work this year! not bad ;)
It was hard to get up, but rather than that things were stable. I had to go through massive numbers of emails -- most of them just deleted.

I'm now getting back to a Tokyo life -- staying up late.. being in front of a computer for too many hours... I still think twice before I flush the toilet though -- I have to think.. can I flush the toilet paper.. :-?

Now I'm trying to think about the differences between Beijing and Tokyo with my very limited experiences..
hmm... It's hard..
A couple of things that I thought it was interesting were...

1) (young) men and women show affection in public.
I've noticed this when I went to Shanghai last year as well. My prejudiced view of China was more conservative and I was amazed to see people just kissing and hugging on streets, in trains, etc. Well, we (hmm.. some people :P) do that in Japan but it seems more people do that in China.
I was in Peking University and met a Japanese girl who is planning to study for a year and been there since last September. She told me she also noticed how affectionate those Chinese couples are and wanted to figure out why. She asked one Chinese guy friend and he told her that since they usually live in a dormitory room with other people (4 people), they really want to be close to their boyfriend/girlfriend when they can.
hmmm... yeah... it makes sense?

2) Girls hold hands when they walk.
It is not only in China, but you see girls holding hands when they walk together. I first thought it is kind of cute and they only do that with their close friends, but then I had a one-day school event which each foreign student hang out with a Chinese student and walk around the city in Beijing (to practice Chinese). A student that I went out with was a girl and as soon as we started walking together, she just held my hand and we were like that almost all day.
At the beginning, it felt a bit awkward (since she was smaller than me, I felt like I was a guy... and chotto dokidoki shita! Now I know how guys feel .. ;P) but after a while, I got used to it and it was kind of nice. (maybe I'll do that from now on .. !? ;P)


well, there are more things to be noted, but I thought these were kind of interesting.
I felt that people get closer together in China than in Japan. I don't know how to call it... "personal space"? ... you keep a certain space between people (for example, if you stand next to a person within 50cm, you feel you are too close to people, etc.), and it seems this distance is shorter in China. hmm.. Well, there must be some study about it, but it was just my impression...

There are a lot to learn about China...
I need to be there longer to really figure out other interesting stuff.. ;)