Name: Japan Culture Shock: My Top 5 Shocks Living in Japan
Uploaded: 2021-11-01T03:32:22.000Z
Duration: 11 min 32 s
Description: 【看影片學英語】數萬部 YouTube 影片，搭配英漢字典即點即查，輕鬆掌握單字發音與用法，長久累積看電影不必再看字幕。

Why on earth... why is Colonel Sanders wearing Japanese samurai clothes?

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Welcome to Japan; these are my top five culture shocks.

My name is Anming; I'm from America, but I first came to Japan in 2015 and spent several years living here.

Okay, so, if I were to really go through everything that shocked me, this would be a really long list, so I had to narrow it down.

And on top of that, I've already spent many years living in China, so a lot of my experience were cushioned by the fact that I already lived in a close-by Asian country.

Yet, still, I find Japan to be quite unique amongst its neighbors and in a good way.

Some of these shocks were positive shocks, some of them not so positive, but this country never ceases to surprise me.

So here are the five things that I thought were rather shocking about living in Japan as a Western person.

I don't like to be the kind of person that sits here and complains about a country, especially a country that I love very, very much.

But I do find Japan to be very unique, sometimes a little strange, exciting, all of the above.

This is the famous guobaorou from the northeast of China; lemony chicken, lemon-flavored chicken, mmm.

As I said, I've spent many years living in China before I made the trip over to Japan and made the move over here.

And before I had come to Asia, I was such a picky eater; there was a long, long list of things that I would not touch.

And then coming over here, I saw those things and I refused, I resisted for the longest time, but somehow they got me.

And when they got me the first time, I may not have liked it.

But I slowly developed a taste for some of these⏤as I saw them⏤weird food items, and they grew on me, and I stopped resisting and I started to embrace it a little bit.

What should you do if you're having a bad day?

And the first time I heard about this, I thought, "That sounds disgusting; why would you want green tea-flavored ice cream?"

And then I tried it, and I was addicted from that point on.

Am I gonna eat it with a spoon? Nah, just dig in.

I started eating those Kit Kats, and from then on, it was game over.

It's kinda like old Japan, and there's not a lot of it anymore.

And, of course, something that is oh-so-very shocking to those of us that grew up in the Midwest...

... is the sheer number of people walking around on this small, densely-populated island.

I don't think I really notice sometimes as I walk around, now that I'm so used to it, just how many people there are.

But in beginning, like this footage from 2015, I was really quite shocked.

I was really quite enthralled by the fact that there were so many people around me, and, yeah, some weird people too.

But to be honest, in the many years I've lived in Japan I've never had any bad experiences on trains,

But, perhaps I'm lucky in that it is seriously butt-to-butt, like, back-to-back super crowded.

And that's probably the most awkward feeling of all, is on that commuter train in the morning, if you have to take it, which I did.

Going to Japanese school literally being butt to butt with other people⏤most awkward thing ever!

But, I guess just like anything else, you get used to it.

Yeah, I'm still not used to that I still don't like that, to be honest.

Yet another thing on the long list of Japanese things I resisted in the beginning and then caved into eventually is Japanese fashion.

And I had resisted that very strongly in the beginning because I thought it was overly feminized and just not my style.

And then, slowly, over time, I just let it creep in more and more into my wardrobe until today.

I may have bought some things here. Maybe.

But I can't confirm or deny if I bought things here or not.

No joke; this is a store for dogs' clothes.

So, with the pet boom in Japan, everybody's getting stuff for their animals, everybody's getting, like, little gifts and little clothes and diapers.

It's basically a big baby; basically treated like babies

But, you know, when it comes to pets, you'll be willing to spend anything.

they even have luxury brands for pets, like...

I'm here in Kamakura station right now, and we were supposed to meet here, and this is much closer to him than me, and he just canceled.

It's not raining! I... I can't believe...

It's not raining here. I said, "It's not raining here; it didn't rain all day. What are you talking about?"

And then no reply, and I'm here; it took half a day, freaking⏤

It's gonna be a five-hour round-trip ride for this, five hours round-trip; two and a half hours here, two and a half hours back.

Sometimes there's a lot of passive-aggressive stuff here, so, instead of breaking the harmony⏤which, by the way, harmony is broken already.

Instead of getting into an argument or admitting that he did something wrong, he just wants to ghost me; it actually makes it a lot worse.

Not all Japanese people are like that, but there are some that... they just don't want to break the harmony, when they did something wrong even.

It's not a good trait, whoever has that trait.

My boyfriend's not like that, he's Japanese.

But there are people that do that, and even in China, too, when something goes wrong.

And then... and friendships will end suddenly because of that, which I also think is unfortunate.

And I guess... I got stood up for nothing. Absolutely nothing 'cause it looks really nice outside. It looks really nice today.

Here we are at Nippon Rent-a-Car in Guam.

I haven't driven in six months, but it's better than him; he has driven in ten years, so I'm gonna take this one. Sorry.

This is my first time driving in Asia, but hey, it shouldn't be too different than driving at home.

All right! Welcome to Guam, welcome to our car; let's do our best.

Sorry if you can't drive; you have no license.

That is what the Japanese call a "mama chari"; "mama chari" is a bicycle, I guess.

Some mothers, I've seen fathers use it, too, where they got a car seat in the back for the kids.

It's kind of like the equivalent of a car seat for a car

But, like I told you, like I said, only 6% of people have cars here, so, that's how people get around.

Everyone's own individual experiences in Japan are going to vary greatly depending on who they are, where they are, and what kind of people they interacted with.

But at the end of the day, the best thing you can come here with is an open mind and realize that it's not a perfect place and you're going to be met with a lot of challenges and things that surprise you.

So, if you have the dream to come to Japan,  I highly recommend that you do that.

But at the end of the day, nobody invited me to come here; I just found a way to come myself.