things like for the older people like they have here...
a lot of the bureaucracy to be honest
um oh like "super kakoi desuyoo" yeah stuff like that exactly stuff like that yeah
hey guys and guilds on Ask Japanese it's your flashy fashion reporter CathyCat and today
we're gonna go and ask the foreigners here in Japan what their culture shock was it's
the topic that keeps on giving and there's always something new so let's go and ask foreigners is in Japan
in Japan how long you've been here for?
I've been ...like this time is my second time living here and in total i've been like almost five years - five years okay
so what was like your big Japanese mistake when you like stepped into it you're like "oh that's a cultural no and I did that"
I'm always putting off my shoes when I enter a new room and that's something yeah it's not
common but for example in my my parents house it was the same so it's not a big shock but yeah
for example now when I see american series like they're wearing shoes inside I'm like
I'm like "no" ... Are you cleaning the room? NO!
like I think in france we don't have like the you know the respect things like for the older people like they have here
and I remember I was with my friend, a way older like Japanese lady like my 40s but she was rude to me in a way
so I just you know and so like I was cold with her and he was like "oh yeah it's your senpai you cannot talk with her to her like that"
I'm like "I don't care she's like she's rude to me, I will be with her too"
and that's so yeah that's so french to do that yeah here I know it's a no-no like to be not disrespectful but like
talking just the same way as a like older person talk so you can't do it so yeah
I think it was my big ...usually it is more that that like the age gap I don't I don't really care
in a way and I sometimes I just don't know like I can evaluate the age of the person in front of me
I'm super bad at that - Good point sometimes it's hard to tell
and I'm like oh yeah "you're ten years older I mean, but you you look 10 years younger what happened to you?"
We want to know that secret
yeah I want another secret (to young looks)
Japan has like an age here hierarchy going on here right which is sometimes a bit confusing the senpai kohai kind of thing right
yeah yeah yeah the worst cases were like this kind of cases with some older persons like even my like my butcho (dept chef)
or like sometimes I just wanna "yeah if you look if you shout at me I just wanna shout back" it's not that...
I'm "aaah sumimasen" - But internally you're like oh
Internally I already killed you twice but it's okay
I mean you came here two years ago but what were your Culture Shocks when you came?
My culture was a lot of the bureaucracy to be honest with paperwork and city hall things and
uh any little change you make requires like a lot of updating information with your city hall and
the DMV (department of motor vehicles) coming from america and california in general my license does not transfer over to Japan
and i've been driving for decades and I come over here and I failed the driving test three times!
So that was a bit uh demoralizing like that I was a bit humiliated and uh I still have to
I have yet to pass that driver's test - What did you why did you fail what did they say?
It seems so minimalistic like when you go and they want you to like check under the car like cats and children uh
and open the door and do everything in a certain fashion and I feel like I do those things and then
like afterwards they're like okay you didn't you were a little bit too close to this the right or the left or it's very kibishi very unforgiving
and so even if you have several years of driving experience it's not about your skills it's more about
how well you follow every rule to the T
- it sounds a lot like the culture here, how well you follow the rules and look at the rules right
so what you got you didn't pass because you didn't check under the car for a cat?
That was like the first time and then the second time it was like I was I made a left turn
but I didn't drive far enough to the right side of the lane when I made the red left turn
and the third time I can't even remember I was so frustrated by that by that point
and so i've given it like an entire year and I'm gonna start trying again next month
are you gonna take like uh classes so in case you know those little pitfalls?
I'm thinking of just paying into the system and hopefully that I can bribe my way through that through the next test
yeah maybe if they see you taking part of some like tests or some or like classes
before maybe they go like "oh he tried" kind of - yeah exactly that's that's my hope at least
All right
How long have you been in Japan for now in total? - Nine years uh nine years and uh let's see three months
stories to tell about fails, misses, mishappenings that happened to you in Japan
oh my god where do I start, okay so sometimes at work you know I'm always behind the camera
but sometimes I get hired to be in front of the camera for stuff like you know tv shoot or you know modeling or whatever
so I got hired to do this gig and I thought it was going to be at the studio like the tv studio
and my mistake was not checking all the details, I had no idea we were going out to yamanakako near mount fuji
so I show up at like five o'clock I'm like "why does everybody have a duffel bag oh dang it"
luckily they, after the shoot was done there that evening you know they graciously took me back to allow me to go back to my apartment
and grab all my stuff and then you know take me back in the bus right
so you were supposed to stay overnight
yeah we stayed overnight for two nights there I had I mean... my fault for not reading the
there was a massive pamphlet of stuff right I really wish I just read that
It was just complete unpreparedness on my side
yeah but you know the whole thing was written on Japanese so whenever I get a pamphlet that's
written in Japanese I get really lazy you know I look over okay this is how much I'm getting paid
this is what's gonna be the shoot and you know this is when I have to be somewhere right so
yeah so I was I didn't read the rest of it and I really should have - oh man
You had to try to drive back grab your stuff and then drive there again?
the producers, a couple of the producers went back to Tokyo because they had they took all the gear back right
and they were going to bring some more gear back to the uh we were staying at a what he called one of those besso
not besso um uh we're staying at a ryokan right by yamanakako so they were bringing a whole
bunch of stuff back to that ryokan they brought me back to Tokyo so I can grab my change of clothes
and stuff and then with all the other gear back to the ryokan so they were very gracious of them
you know to do that but uh I felt like I gave them quite a headache and I feel really bad about that
oh damn did you make it up to them somehow by like gifting them something?
yeah I actually I acted extra gaijin on the show for them and gave them some laughs and you know they were
oh you mean like given presents there's something like ...oh I bought them beer after we got to the ryokan
good way to make it up to them, what do you mean with acting extra gaijin?
You know like a lot of times when you're in front of the camera sometimes they really want you to kind of be
more of a character and I'm you can probably tell from this conversation I'm kind of a dry person
when it comes to my personality so I really kind of get you know was out there a little bit more
during the shoot to kind of give them more to work with I guess
oh like "super kakoi DESUYOOO" (overacting the foreigner)
yeah stuff like that exactly stuff like that yeah
maybe like you know broken Japanese like here and there like "I don't know what I'm saying uh NIHONGO TABERIMASEN"
saying it like that you know intentional but I mean all the producers knew I spoke Japanese to at a good extent but
they they appreciated that but I also brought the producer's beer when we got back to the Ryokan so - you made up for it
yeah good what a perfect story thank you so much - you're welcome!
Culture shock, our most popular question what is what was your Culture Shock when you came?
When I first came here uh the first thing that kind of threw me off was that like when the light turns red
everybody just stops or when people when people uh when the doors open for the trains
everybody doesn't just rush in like people wait everybody gets out of the train then they go in
it's like yeah back in new york when I took the train in new york it was almost like a reverse culture shock
because like i've been here before and then I go back there and then everybody just rushes into the train
I'm just like "whoa" like this is completely different so that was one thing that threw me off
it was just like how things are different here
- now thinking about it - following the rules very strictly again
Yeah it's way different.
Is there a possibility of not noticing (culture shock)?
What about the toilets, the blinking things, the anime posters the....
Going back to the toilets every time...
this might kind of go like a little bit too personal by every time I go to the bathroom
and I sit down the toilet seat surprises me - every time??
it's warm I get scared I get scared I think that someone sat on there too long
but yeah that one surprises me all the time
Thats good that works
that's a classic that's a good classic
I got a new one for you that I have not mentioned before it's I was gonna go and take a train to a certain location
I was gonna meet some people and I looked it up and it said "yes this train leaves at this platform it goes to whatever station" and I
saw a train that left at the same platform goes to the same station and I went on it and I sat
and I waited and I sat and then I realized that actually this train
is yes going to the same location but it "stops at every milk can" that's a german saying but it
stops at every every stop and therefore I was an hour late to my appointment because I went
yes on the right platform yes on the right train line but not the right type of train, there is
rapid, there's express and there's local and the local train stops everywhere and unfortunately it didn't
take the fast train but the one that stopped everywhere that got me there late even though I
went on there extra early so that's a little thing to look out for you guys if you go to Japan it can
be on the same platform it can be the same train line, same destination, look out for the little
local, express, rapid there's even other names for that, look out for that because otherwise
you will arrive at your destination way too late or it will not stop at your destination and just
full-on go past which happened with my work a lot because on the weekend that train does
not stop where my workplace was, we moved now, but the terrain would just go full on past
my workplace and that would also make me late for work if I had to work on the weekends because
same train, same train line, it just changes on the weekend be sure to check some out of those
digital train calculation app things they're actually super helpful so guys that was that's for me from
CathyCat here in Tokyo the director and I we have an instagram, twitter, twitch and all the
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more about foreigner's life here in Japan there is a video right here that is connected correlated
uh related there we go, related to what we were talking about today
great to have you here and i'll catch you soon on ask Japanese