Jack:

I found it really strange. In my many visits to Japan, I always found the
Japanese most polite and thoughtful.

Patois:

While its always dangerous to generalize, I think that those whose behavior
norms are dictated and inhibited by their societies tend to take a "mental
vacation" from their norms when they are on vacation.  We, and the British
to some extent, tend to internalize our behavior norms, and thus carry them
with us no matter where we are. Thus a redneck is a redneck, no matter where
he is.

I found that boorish public behavior got bad once you got France, and it got
worse, the farther East that you went.  By the time you got to Athens, they
were downright loutish.  The Middle East is in a world of its own.

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