Topic; Similarities and contrast between Japanese and Thai culture

I. What I know
The first time that I encountered Thai culture was three years ago. It was the first time that I came to Thailand in my life. When I livd in Japan, I imagined that Thailand is very dirty and a poor country. Even in Bangkok, I thought that there would be no buildings or convenient transportation. However, it was not true. When I arrived in Thailand, of course, what I experienced is beyond my imagination.

Over the years, Thailand has developed into a unique country. As I came to Thailand, I stayed only in Bangkok, so I only know about the city culture. Obviously, the country side culture and city culture are different. As I live in the city, I know many things about Thai city culture, but I don’t know any culture about its country side. Therefore, I want to know more about Thai culture as a whole. When I came to Thailand, I was very interested in Thai people’s characters because people in Thailand are different from Japanese people. For example, Thai always smile regardless of the situations. People are always patient even in heavy traffic. When I meet with these kinds of people, I always think that the culture has a big part in the making of Thai’s character. Thus, I want to know the culture of Thailand at a deeper level. And since I am Japanese, I often wonder why Japanese are so different from Thai people in this sense. I realize that culture affects the characteristics of the people. Japanese have very strict manner and politeness is important. There is definitely a close relationship between people and its culture.

II. What I want to find out
When the teacher informed me about this goal of this project, I thought that I wanted to learn many things because as I said I came to Thailand for three years and in these three years, I have been studying in an international school, so I am always using English to study and learn many cultures in Europe and America. Although we have Thai Studies, there isn’t enough time to cover all of what I want to know. I will go back to Japan in a year, I would regret not knowing enough about Thai culture. So in this project, I want to learn about more Thai culture and at the same time, explore my own culture in order to compare and contrast these two cultures for better understanding.. If I go back to Japan in a year, I hope that I can tell my friends about Thai culture.

My topic is similarities and contrast between Japanese and Thai culture. I lived in Japan for 13 years, so I think I know about Japanese culture. In my opinion, Japanese culture and Thai culture are totally different. Therefore, I thought that I want to compare and contrast in all aspects from religion, society, and sports to traditions.

III. My research
- Sports
Thailand
In Thailand, football is the most popular sports. There are many football teams of pro and Thai league in Thailand. Thai people love to watch pro soccer in England and it was called Premiership league. One of the famous traditional Thai sports is called Muay Thai. It is Thai boxing and kind of the style of the boxing. It is very famous in Thailand and it became one of the businesses to earn money. Another famous sport is takraw. It is very famous in South East Asia. It is kind of similar with volleyball, but people have to play with their feet. People never play with their hands, but people can use other all part of the body. They use light rattan ball. Each country has different rules, but sometimes, the competition has held all over the world. Other minor sports in Thailand are Swan boat which held between the villages and compete to decide which village is the strongest. In addition, Egg rolling is one of the minor sports in Thailand. It would not hold in the cities today, but some rural villages still play this sport and have a fun.

Japan
The most of famous sports came from the past time in Japan. At that time, samurai used to practice their skill by playing Koryu which is very important for samurai to know have to use a sword. Moreover, as a time have past, Jujuthu have improved, so still today people used Samurai styles to follow the tradition. The famous sports in Japan are Sumo and Judo. Sumo has deep and long history. The men who are very fat people fight each other. Judo also has long history. People use many skills to fight each other. It became very popular sport all over the world, so it is one of the sports in Olympic. During Meiji period, Football and baseball is expanded in Japan. Therefore, Base ball and Soccer became the most famous sports in Japan today. There are many pro teams to compete in the league, so people entertain the sports every time. Japanese sports had traditional sports from long time ago and also, they have the influencing sports from Western.
Sumo: This is the traditional sports in Japan. The two wrestlers face each other in the ring and tried to down opponent from the ring. Each wrestler can push each other and if their hand touches the ring, the person loses and if the person out from the ring, then the person is lost. The woman cannot play this sport even women can’t walk into the ring. It is the traditional rule from the long time ago.
Kendo: In kendo, two people wear the protectors which are included mask and chest guard. Then use the weapon which is the sword mad in wood to strike the opponent.
Judo: It became the official sports in the Olympic. It is the sports that throwing and grabbing each other and make fall opponent by many techniques.

- Religion
l Thailand
- Theravada Buddhism; 95%
- Muslims; 4.6%
- Christians; 0.7%
- Mahayana religion and other religions

In Thailand, Theravada religion became the most popular religion. The most of people believed in that religion because that religion was well known from ancient Thailand and it has long history. Recently, Theravada religion is supported by government and some believer got some support and get free transportation from the government. Almost of all Thai people learn their religion from their ancestor and people believe in the nature and spirit. Therefore, for instance, besides Thai people’s house, there is also small house is next to the big house. The reason for building small house is that they build for spirit. Thai people believed that when they build a house, spirit will protect the house from other bad things, so each time that people build the house, then people will build the house for spirit, too. We can found that spirit house in the public and any places. People always worship to it for their goof lack.
Sources

l Japan
In Japan, the most of people don’t care about religion. Each person has religion, but they didn’t believe on the god, doe people never done special worship or other things that show the respect for the god. However, from ancient Japan, we have many types of religions to follow.

- Shinto
Shintoism is the largest religion in Japan. The shitoism is the religion that believes in the nature and respect the nature. People worship for sun and rock formations, trees, and even sounds because people believe that those things are very important for people and necessary things for human life. Shinto is believed for long time between many people and many ancient shrines are still using in Japan today.

- Buddhism
The Japanese Buddhism is coming from ancient Chain around sixth century. During that time the emperor of Japan asked people to build a lot of temples and shrines all over Japan, so many of them are still in Japan. People would not often to visit those places, but they would visit when they asked some help for the god. Buddhism is divided in to three parts and Mahayana Buddhism is the most popular Buddhism in Japan. It has long history.

IV. What I learned.
l Similarities
The similarities between Thai culture and Japanese culture is that both of them are protected their own ancient sports. Both of them have long history for their sports. Moreover, I noticed that both of them are improved their fighting sports. In Thailand Muay Thai is one of the famous sports. It is the sport that sighting between two of fighter. I think that Muay Thai improved from war time, so people used the skill of Muay Thai to protect themselves and attack others. A Japanese sport which is bujuthu is very important skill during war time. People use those skills to fight during war time, so those skills are improved still in today. In addition, the religion between Thai and Japan, both of them believed in the ancestor and nature.

l Contrast
The sports and religion of Thailand and Japan is almost similar but some parts are different. Both country, Japanese and Thai has different religion. The most important religion in Japan is Shinto, but in Thailand is Theravada Buddhism. Moreover, in Japan, a lot of people didn’t believe in religion because people didn’t believe in god, but Thai people always taught by elder people, so many people believed in their god.

V. Resources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_culture#Sport
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_culture#Sports
http://web-japan.org/kidsweb/explore/sports/q1.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_culture#Religion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_religion