Perspectives in 3 countries

This is something I jotted down while I was in Thailand last May (I'd just been to China).
(Just casual comparisons from the places I was, not intended to be universal truths)

Chocolate

Japan: The ultimate is Godiva but at 5$ a chocolate you most likely buy them for someone else -if at all...
China: The ultimate is Dove and it's quite posh.
Thailand: honestly in a country where temperatures are usually above 30, why would you eat chocolate? Cadbury's, Kit Kats and Snickers are widely available, disproportionately consumed by foreigners.


Would you like it spicy?


Japan: Yes please if you want a mild tongue tingle.
China: No problem they have to deal with southerners
Thailand: Bring your tissues (unless you are somewhere where they assume people who aren't Thai can't eat chili)
Transport


Japan: Long distance trains impeccable toilets, only run late in the even of earthquake or accidents (actually when I was in Japan in April I was astounded how many suburban trains were cancelled due to suicides on the lines.)


China: long distance trains tend to run on time though the non-express railway staff are much more interested in hawking goods purchased in Shanghai than they are doing their job, stinky toilets made up for by having boiled water where you can fill your thermos.


Thailand: what is a timetable? stinky toilets that and no boiling water to make up for it.


Railway policy


Japan Miss a long distance train and catch the next one with no extra charge and no seat allocation
China Miss a long distance train and exchange your ticket for the next one - perhaps small charge - but hard to say because depending on the level of expressness train prices vary quite a bit.
Thailand. Miss a train - Bad luck. Change your ticket lose 50% of the total.


Taxis
Japan - turn on the metre life is simple
China - turn on the metre or negotiate a price
Thailand - turn on the metre life is simple unless you are in a tourist area where taxi mafia have frustratingly expensive fixed prices that have a distinct racial bias.




Clothes
Japan: Anything is OK but refrain from showing your belly button and throw out your socks with holes.
China: Shanghai more fashionable than provincial cities. Lingering communist influence but definitely more colourful than before.
Thailand: shirts with sleeves are 'polite' though it doesn't seem to matter how short your shorts are.


Shoes
Japan Take off at home
China Take off at home only if your house is new and posh
Thailand Take off at home


Doc Martens

Australia: practical shoes that I have been wearing for about 20 years....
Japan: mens shoes not available in sizes less than 6
China: impractical shoes for winter - leather is too cold - you'll get frostbite.
Thailand; utterly impractical shoes when you need to wade through knee high puddles....
UK: very practical shoes that might let you run fast enough to avoid a stabbing ;)




Monks
Japan - seem to drive Audis, heavily invested in the funeral industry, usually an inherited job.
China - get their certificate from a cereal box
Thai - a rite of passage for the majority of Thai men, a place to send boys that are very poor or very in need of discipline (one of my student's behaviour improved markedly after his mother threatened to send him to the monastery.) Walk the streets each morning with alms bowls.




Indigenous people / ethnic minorities


Japan: most inconvenient when myths of racial purity are raised by black vanned nationalists
China: are a threat to the stability of the country
Thailand: in the south a threat to national stability, in the north primitive people with primitive customs but happily foreigners pay lots to see that.


Weather
Japan: 5 seasons in most of the country, 4 of which people take pride in.
China: 4 seasons but you'd better be alert for spring and autumn or you'll miss them (true of Xuzhou anyway)
Thailand 2 seasons in theory - wet and dry - but really the temperature changes little. Year round hot - I love it!