Different Notions of Truth and... Empathy?

Today I talked to a japanese acquaintance I've know for a few years. The person in question speaks portuguese and knows the portuguese culture.

It was a very interesting conversation because we exchanged our experience and then our views. Now that I have some experience everything becomes more interesting because I can understand what the other person is talking about. Some months back I probably wouldn't.

For the portuguese the "truth" is absolute honesty. Said in a way it won't hurt if it might hurt (unless you want to do it on purpose)

For the japanese the truth is what the other person thinks and you should have the ability to predict it (according to the person, the portuguese don't have it. Although I grew up in a way I had to predict what other people might think, I agree with the person.)

We didn't get to talk about it but next time I would like to know about honesty in relationships. As a portuguese, if a partner lies or cheats (this applies to friends too) I would be hurt and disappointed and would probably stop speaking to the person for a while. We portuguese don't like lies. Lies with bad intention hurt so much. Lies with good intention (for example when one's sick) also hurt because we feel that we could have made something to help, and because the person lied we couldn't.

I would like to know about the "truth" in intimate and real friendship and love relationships  in Japan. Does the "truth" change to something more honest? Do people predict and adapt to the other person? I mean, in Portugal, if one does not feel comfortable with something person A should tell and the person B will be disappointed if A doesn't do it because it's a sign of no trust and person B can't change and adapt better to A not knowing the truth. 

We also talked about smiles. My acquaintance told me that the portuguese smile is, and I quote, "excellent". I agree. It's genuine.

However in Japan, because people are so emotion controlled they don't laugh/smile as much as we do in Portugal. I also told her that I really enjoy the japanese smiles in stores (like banks) but people here are trained to do it she told me, and they become automatic. I already knew it. I sometimes see smiles that are so fake (or so I think) I can't even look at them. Seeing them just makes feel like the person really doesn't like or care about me. And faking they "care" by smiling is again, a lie, and makes me feel very uncomfortable. And in Portugal we smile also when we are sarcastic/ironic and that smile really resembles the extreme cases here in Japan.

And something I've been noticing, is that I can somehow feel other person's hearts even without seeing the person (my housemate, for instance, and I feel I've written this before). Sometimes I feel I can identify the feeling but most of the times I can't. Of course if I look at the face I can identify it, but without seeing the person? What is this? Empathy? My heart just feels something, it just starts like shaking differently temporarily. Oh and when I'm in public transportations I feel suffocated sometimes.
Lately, every day that goes by things get clearer. This is good or not. But whether being too sensitive is good or not I don't know. I feel it is sucky sometimes. For instance, at night when I listen to however minor sounds they might be (in this house at least, I guess it also depends where I am, or I just became very sensitive lately - but I do recall feeling like this many years ago too. I should mention that in Portugal I would often go to sleep while having people watching tv that I could hear so I was used to the noise, but here there's no noise except for doors or sounds from machines. And in Portugal walls and the materials used are different so that might also influence), they resound very strongly in my body. Fortunately this is just at night during the minutes preceding sleep.

That was it for today. I'm kind of tired. I have a sore throat since last night and it sucks because I felt that some of my energy was taken from me. And it rained all day... I want sun. I want to go out and read. I need my vitamin D and morning fresh air. Rainy days don't allow me that : /