After reading tourist books about how Japanese people think it's rude to blow your nose in public... it is slightly disconcerting to visit and see a guy hawk up

After reading tourist books about how Japanese people think it's rude to blow your nose in public... it is slightly disconcerting to visit and see a guy hawk up some phlegm and spit it on the street. And/or, you step on a frozen goober, sparkling in the sun. Even to the extent the generalization about a culture is true, there will always be interesting exceptions.