An American invited a group of Japanese students over to his hou

An American invited a group of Japanese students over to his house. He and his wife had spent a great deal of time preparing food and getting the house ready. They were looking forward to the party and hoped that the Japanese would enjoy themselves. They came at about 8:00 at night and right away seemed to be enjoying themselves. There was a lot of dancing and singing and good conversation. Then, almost suddenly, one of the students said “Thank you” to the hosts and said that it was time to go. After that, all of the Japanese began to get ready to leave. The American and his wife couldn’t understand why this happened. They felt insulted because everyone left so early and at the same time.
Question: Can you explain what happened?
【正确答案】：Japanese usually leave as a group and try not to stay too long so as not to offend their host. The Japanese culture is very group-oriented. When one person left (and this was probably the leader), the rest felt that they had to leave, even if they didn’t want to. Americans don’t usually arrive or leave in groups, so this behavior seemed strange to them. The Japanese guests were trying to be polite by avoiding staying too long at the party. They didn’t realize that two hours was too short for the Americans and that the Americans might get hurt by the fact that their guests left early.