Within and Without

There are so many ways to feel an emotion.  There are so many ways to react to it.  How do we experience sadness, fear, happiness, contentment?  Is it really different from one person to another?  Is it different from one culture to another?  If I were Japanese living in America, would I feel differently, act differently?  Would I become nervous in the same way, impatient?  Would I enjoy life in the same way?  How does the accrual of individual emotions sculpt the way we interact, create a culture and a community?  And how much control do we have as individuals?  Has my time in Japan endowed me with any more choice in how I experience the world around me and the impressions it creates within?