Two Ways

It's the 26th now and I'm in Kochi, Japan. But looking back for a moment, on the 21st I had an interesting conversation with Victor about values. In Taiwan, he said, it's considered more important to be practical and efficient than to look good. Inky's apartment is a good example. From the street, you enter a battered metal door. You walk up four flights of old stone stairs. The paint is flaking off the walls and it doesn't look particularly clean. But once you reach the apartment door, inside everything is very nice. The walls are freshly and tastefully papered, the floor is recently tiled, the bathroom is nicer than most in Canada. From the outside, you would never know. Restaurants are often the same way. They don't look so hot... but the food is really good. So in some ways, Taipei city doesn't look good. But as Victor says, it is still a very nice city--very convenient. Everything is cheap, and often of good quality under the surface grime. Practical concerns are more important than appearances.

In Japan, appearance is valued more--and I have to guess that it outweighs practicality, based on the waiter I saw sweeping the sidewalk in front of his establishment in Tokyo. Partly it means everything takes a lot more effort, and partly it means everything is a lot more expensive.

Victor's perception of Western countries is that we succeed in taking care of both practicalities and appearances, and wondered how that works. My response was that it's essential to maintain appearances. It's impossible to attract customers without looking good, so businesses are forced to do so. But Canada appears to still maintain balance in terms of effort and cost.

I'm not sure--do we really do both in Canada? How/why?