I think yesterday I spend the whole day with a crepe holder in my bag.

Until we got to our hotel where I put it in the bin.

Naked! - Oh you mean show skin?

Hey guys it's Cathy Cat. Today I am gonna go and Ask Foreigners in Japan

What gave them the culture shock, what surprised them when they came.

Let's go and ask Foreigners in Japan.

Japanese take too much time to answer messages.

Talking online with Japanese people is difficult.

They could take 10 days or 5 days.

It's way too much.

Do you mean they spend a lot of time online or it takes a lot of time for a reply.

To reply, yes.

I am really quick to answer and sometimes I have to wait two days.

Even if it's a friend... I don't know why.

I see a lot of people, especially men wearing suits.

Where I am from you see almost no one in suits.

Quite a lot of salary men wear suits.

There are rules as well, when you are allowed to wear just the shirt

in summer or when you have to wear the blazer.

We actually went to the robot show restaurant.

Nothing I have ever seen before and definitely not like back at home.

Very fun, loud, bright. Fun time.

And the Tokyo Tower we saw at sunrise and that was beautiful

That was the first thing we saw when we got off the plane.

What is the thing that you can't find back home.

Do you have something similar back home?

We do NOT have a robot show back home.

Such a fun place. We had sushi for breakfast.

Everybody has been friendly, just walking round the street is so colorful and so much energy.

It's exciting. - So Sushi for breakfast...

Robot cafe, Tokyo tower in the morning. What did you see in Japan for the first time?

Lots of these masks that everyone is wearing walking around. Very different.

Wondering what that means or if I should be wearing one.

Escalator culture here. - What do you mean?

The fact that people line up neatly at one side of the escalator

and then people walk on the other side.

And that changes from Tokyo and Kyoto.

Everything is clean. France is very dirty so it's very different.

There is food everywhere.

For me it's perfect like the convenient stores and everything like this.

The shrine was interesting. We did the two bows, two claps and a bow again.

and said our prayer. We liked that. We left our prayers there.

And Harajuku girls are over like living dollies. We love seeing

girls that look like you.

Everyone is so polite here!

Everyone is really kind and they are willing to help us.

Which is really nice because we are always lost, especially on the train.

So that's probably my big shock.

And the trains as well.

We got very few trains in Melbourne and they are not as good as the trains here.

So that was the biggest shock for me. - What's good about the trains here?

They are always so clean and fast and efficient and you can get anywhere you want

We have gone across the country on the trains and it's amazing.

Such a good experience.

No bins anywhere.

There is no bins!

The trains are very busy.

People are very polite as well. We went to ...

Starbucks this morning and we had to take the tray and put it away yourself

I thought that was very thoughtful.

No bins? How long did you have to go looking for a bin?

I think yesterday I spend the whole day with a crepe holder in my bag

until we got to our hotel where I put it in the bin.

And trains?

Yeah the trains are packed!

It's very confusing. In Australia they are not as confusing.

There is not as many lines either but there is a lot more stops.

Too many stops, I remember. - Too many?

Yeah and stations are giant.

One exit takes 10 minutes across the whole station.

There is only one station in Australia that is as big as...

... every single one here.

It's my first time here. Might sound weird but...

There are commercials everywhere, lit up posters and such.

I don't see that in Europe.

And also people shouting at you on the streets to promote their shops

We don't have that. That was quite a surprise.

How was it to get shout at on the streets the first time?

After arriving in Japan, our first stop was Shibuya 109 department store

It was sale season and...

it was a crazy information overflow.

But I am getting used to it now.

It's my second time here so...

What surprised me this time round was the food.

We went to the Gudetama cafe...

the food has much more variety compared to Germany.

Last time we didn't go to eat out, so we didn't get to experience that.

We focused on that this time. And the sales!

There are so many sales, always!

We don't have it that much in Germany.

I was here once before, and remember looking for a place to get pizza

but we couldn't find any. Now here we found so many Italian style restaurants.

I liked it. It tastes different after all than back home.

First time round, you couldn't find any pizza?

Exactly. This time it's everywhere. Maybe I just missed them somehow.

Is there anything that gave you a shock culture wise compared to Germany?

The waiting lines for the train. You have to stand in line

and are not allowed to cut in line. In Germany first come first served.

Everyone just runs into the train.

Here the lines split into right and left and that's where you go. Very organized.

But on the streets it's anarchy. Everyone tries to get through somehow.

Sometimes it's people walking left. But the train is what stood out the most.

We don't really have that.

To extend this, one thing that happened to us a lot.

I have the feeling Japanese people don't look out that much for Europeans.

We were just walking our way, but they suddenly cut us short.

Like "I am walking here now. You have to look out for yourself."

From Europe I had the image that Japanese people are very kind

and very formal. But they also have their moments when they assert themselves.

And they go through with it too.

Everything looks like a manga sometimes.

Like uniforms.

School, I was expecting it to be different from what I see in manga.

But it's quite similar.

Some things might remind us of an anime we watch, I agree.

First time I saw a school uniform I was like "Sailor Moon? No wait school uniform!"

The Trains. I think they are super busy.

Crowded? Many people? - Yeah!

It's not the same in Thailand.

Everyone has to get nakes in the Onsen (hot springs)

It's too embarrassing for me.

Thai people are so shy when they get naked

- Show skin? - Yeah in onsen.

In Onsen everyone has to be naked.

And that's hard for you? - Yeah.

I understand. The first time onsen is like ... "Oh dear..."

She says smoking. - Smoking?

In the restaurant.

In Thailand are there more smokers or less smokers.

Less.

The culture!

There is lots of different types of towns.

Like here where it's all mixed and lots of young people.

And then there is more traditional towns.

So the contrast between...

The respect that people have and...

Customer services. Food.

The food is so different.

The people are more friendly.

Just the service is amazing.

Is the service that bad back home?

It's good but Japanese people are over the top.

- In a good way. - They're always smiling, you never see them in a bad mood.

The culture around manga and cartoons.

In Australia, everyone things cartoons are for children.

The Manga and Anime culture in Australia is really underground.

Over the last few years it's become more popular

You don't realize how big it is in Japan.

Or drink bottle has its own character.

Or like ...

Food will have its own characters and that kind of thing.

Which is really incredible I think as well.

Lots of little characters on items and stuff.

Even the post office and the keisatsu... police have a character.

We had to go to the police because our friend lost her passport.

They were so kind, I was overwhelmed.

The characters they had there, was really cute.

Did they find the passport in the end?

Yes, we were so fortunate that someone handed it in.

It was on our first night as well. We were going bananas.

She lost it and someone handed it in. Was it in a purse or just a passport?

She actually lost her entire purse.

We were walking between the hotel and restaurant we were going to

trying to find it.

We couldn't find it anywhere. The streets are so clean as well

Nobody picked it up to throw it in a bin like that.

Someone has probably taken it, and we were worried it was stolen.

and that we'd have to go to the embassy because we were in Hiroshima

we worried we'd have to go back to Tokyo.

We ended up reporting it to the police and somebody had handed it in.

We got it sorted in a matter of hours, which is really fortunate.

That's amazing! That's a real good thing about Japanese culture.

We didn't speak any Japanese. I only know 'arigatou gozaimasu' the basics.

The police were very helpful. It was incredible.

Those were all our questions, thank you. Awesome.

We asked foreigners what culture shock they had when they came to Japan

When I came for the very first time I came as student on a school exchange

What I was surprised about is how strict some of the parents were.

One of the parents was like "The whole of Ikebukuro, everything is dangerous"

You are not allowed out in Ikebukuro because everything is so dangerous.

Even walking past a lingerie shop she would be like "Don't look!"

It's dangerous!" I was like... That is very strict.

But then again you have some more relaxed parents as well.

That's one of the things that surprised me as well as age in Japan.

Age is very important because you have the senpai kohai relationship

You need to respect your elders, you need to care for your youngers

By the age you are you get classed into a certain group of people.

If you are older, people will treat you differently.

Even though you might not want that in the first place.

So those were a couple of things that shocked me a little bit

How about you? Any culture shocks you can tell me?

Maybe about Asia or maybe in your country.

Let me know, looking forward to hearing from you.

Catch you soon on Ask Japanese.