2026 Allison’s Blog

This week’s topic made me reflect on how sleep and rest are influenced by culture. I realized that sleep is not only about health, but also about daily routines and social expectations. In Japan, it is common to see people sleeping in public places like trains or even at work. This is connected to long work and study hours. As a matter of fact people see tiredness as something to praise, giving the idea of someone who worked really hard. Research shows that people in Japan tend to sleep less than people in many other countries. For example, a study found that Japanese adults often sleep less than 7 hours per night on average (Seol et al., 2025). In addition, other research explains that long working hours and social pressure are important factors that reduce sleep time in Japan (Kajitani, 2021). However, it is well known that people in Japan work really hard from a really young age,, which leads to fewer hours of sleep. From a health perspective for foreigns, this may not create a goo...

This week’s lesson helped me understand how important it is to know my own culture before trying to understand others. Cultural self-awareness means understanding my own values, assumptions, and ways of thinking, and how they affect how I see people from different cultures. One idea that helped me understand this better is the Cultural Iceberg Model, which explains that we can only see part of a culture, while many important things are hidden (Hall, 1976). This made me realize that many misunderstandings happen because of things we cannot see. This week’s lesson helped me understand how important it is to know my own culture before trying to understand others. Cultural self-awareness means understanding my own values, assumptions, and ways of thinking, and how they affect how I see people from different cultures. One idea that helped me understand this better is the Cultural Iceberg Model, which explains that we can only see part of a culture, while many important things are hidden (Ha...

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