Interesting Aspects of Japanese Culture

I believe it is common knowledge that the Japanese people are relatively deferential, respectful and accomodating in nature. Many are aware of Japanese customs, which reflect this nature, such as bowing and their perpetually friendly greetings. Sure, during my trip to Tokyo a few weeks back, the crazy television shows, funky futuristic aura of the city, and ridiculously fashionable (almost to a fault) people all caught my attention, and dealing with the "Lost in Translation" part of the trip brought about an opportunity to practice my language skills (e.g. sumi ma sen, ohashi o kudasai - excuse me, could I please have chopsticks; shashing tote kudasai - could you please take our picture; hoteru ginza washington wa doko desu ka; where's Hotel Ginza Washington?) was quite the trip... but it really was the occurrence of two smaller, insignificant incidences that really caught my attention for reasons beyond me.

(1) Immigration officers. Was it me, or were they nicest people in all of Japan? Upon entry, my immigration officer must have apologized to me a hundred times for taking forever in processing my passport and thanked me just as many times for visiting Japan. He appeared to be around 24 years old (I'm a bad judge of age at times) and was nervous as hell as I towered over the tiny immigration desk thinking that someone a few meters away would accidentally take my generically black Samsonite off the baggage carousel. Wow. A really nice immigration officer.

(2) ATMs. My first attempt to withdraw from a local bank ended in failure, mostly because I entered an amount of Yen that was not divisible in accordance to the bill denominations of the country. Lo and behold, I could not understand the several Japanese characters appearing on the ATM screen that presumably rejected my withdrawal transaction...however, other than the fact that no money was dispensed by the machine, two cartoon characters appeared on the screen with sad faces...and then bowed...and then remained in a bowing position. I almost wish there was a button to tell the animation to stop bowing and stop apologizing (I mean that with utmost respect even if I know it's their custom -- I thought the cartoon didn't need to apologize).

"It's all good," I said to the lonely ATM screen turned animation reel.