The excerpt titled ‘Japanese Manners’ is a good specimen of travel writing, by George Mikes, a Hungarian-born British travel writer. In this excerpt the author shares’ his experience of travelling in Japan and tries to draw the readers’ attention to what is most striking about the Japanese people as seen by a touring journalist.

Though bowing to their fellowmen in Japanese society is a normal trait of Japanese behaviour, to an outsider like George Mikes, ‘bowing’ appears to be an obsession with the Japanese. That is why George Mikes chooses to comment about the bowing patterns of the Japanese in this piece of travel writing.

According to George Mikes, as soon as we land in Japan, the first thing we notice is bowing is so ubiquitous in Japan. The writer comments that it is the mania of the Japanese. He remarks that everyone keeps bowing to everybody else with the ceremonious solemnity of a courtier yet with a great deal of natural and inimitable grace. If two Japanese bow, as a rule, neither is to straighten up before the other stands erect in front of him. He states that bowing is quainter, more formal, and more oriental and also infectious.

Besides, he also says that the Japanese follow a complicated hierarchy in bowing. This system decides who bows to whom, how deeply and for how long. Though it is a little complicated to us, the Japanese manage it without difficulty and subtly and reflect in their bowing even the smallest difference in rank, standing, age, and social position in a split second.

Apart from saying that the Japanese follow a complicated hierarchy in their bowing, the author says that the Japanese follow certain basic rules inside the family. They are the wife bows to her husband, the child bows to his father, younger brothers to elder brothers and the sister bows to all brothers of whatever age.