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Hey guys! Welcome back to my channel
And I'm really happy to say that I'm here with Rachel
And we are going to talk about Culture Shock in Japan
It's not gonna be a lot of Common Culture Shock
You have to take off your shoes indoors??
Yeah, like the "taking off your shoes" is kind of a no-brainer
I think a lot of people who are studying Japanese or interested in Japan are viewing our channels
So I feel like we should talk about the less commonly known Culture Shocks!
We're just gonna go ahead and start with:
Number 1...
These are things that I've noticed recently and the number one thing I've noticed recently is
People on trains with books and there's covers on their books
So when they're reading books, it's just for privacy reasons, so I think that's actually a good idea
because people aren't looking at what you're reading and you don't feel so self-conscious
But I didn't notice that until just recently!
So they have like newspaper on their books or book like book covers sometimes come with the book
in Japan, so yeah it's actually kinda convenient and I actually like it
I noticed that really early on because Jun reads a lot and he buys lots of books
Everytime he buys a book it comes with one of the plain white cover on it
so I never know what book he's got
He'll even use it at home, he just doesn't ever take it off
I'm like "What are you reading Jun??"
Since I've been here this past year and we've been driving to a lot of places
I've noticed that in fancier stores, if you go somewhere where you buy suit, or nice work clothes like that
or some places like the Toyota Home places that we've been to recently
where people are potentially buying a house
like really nice places like that
a lot of the workers, when you leave in a car, they'll come outside and stand there and bow to your car
until you've left the parking lot
Sometimes there's a lot of traffic so you have to sit there for a couple of minutes and they're just bowing
Actually a lot of people in Japan just stand there and wave at you when you leave
and just wait for you to be out of sight
That's actually something that I've learned in Japanese class before
it's just a normal thing here
And they do that even at the Sony Store when I go and check out the stuff for my camera
They just walk you out and then they wave until you leave and they bow to you
It feels so formal and honestly it feels so weird to me
Greeting you at the mall, it kinda goes with what we were talking about on the first one
When stores open, you basically walk in and then everybody at the store goes to the front and bow to you
as you walk through the mall
Then they have this music playing, this happy music plays when it's open
and sometimes i'm like the only person walking into the mall
So it's kinda awkward because they're all bowing to you
It feels like you're royal or something
Really important, like you're high up there
But yeah they all come to the front of the store and bow to you when you come in
So that's only when they open
They play 8-bit music over the speakers
Because I guess they don't wanna pay for royalty
For like playing real music with real instruments and singers
So they'll play like 8-bit music versions, like you would hear on a very old cellphone ringtone
or in a videogame
Yeah, like in a videogame, like Animal Crossing it's...
And then they'll play 90's music or like 80's music
or Michael Jackson or something
Yeah and it's just distracting because you'll recognize the music but you can't figure out what it is sometimes
They play some music outside too on the streets like at Sakae, like in the morning they play music on the streets
Like it feels like you're in a videogame like 24/7
Not even joking, and some stores even have it on a loop
Like one store played "It's a small world" over and over and like I feel like you go crazy
Oh my god! And if you're a worker there...oh my god
Other thing I noticed is say everything you're doing
So I've noticed this while working at a Japanese office
In a Business office
They would go to the door, and even if you have to go to the bathroom sometimes they'd say
"I'm going to the bathroom" and then they'll bow their head
and walk out the door
Like it would just be very quiet, like you wouldn't even notice, people wouldn't even glance up, right?
But it's kinda like the polite thing to do in Japan sometimes, it's not everywhere
but at certain places they'll tell you where they're going
or they're going and coming back and then they'll bow and leave
And they do that on the bus too, so they're like: "i'm going straight! I'm going back!"
"I'm going left! I'm going right!"
And they'll tell you on the bus "I'm stopping!!"
"Next Station! I'm going to the Next Station!"
Not all bus drivers do that, like some bus drivers do that
But most of them actually do
It's all about being polite in Japan
it's the reason for why they do things
Okay, so I guess along the same lines as of noise and music and stuff are
they have music trucks here
So we have Ice-Cream trucks in America that will go around and will play like a jingly music
and they have trucks like that here for a lot of different things, so of them will be selling food
some of them will be picking up trash for you, like special trash
and some of them are political vans or advertisements for groups, like music groups up in Tokyo and stuff
There are a couple that come around the places that we've lived a lot and so I hear them all the time
and one of them is selling warabi mochi
It's stuck in my head because it would come around every single day, I hear it it's:
Waraaaaaabiiii Mochi!!
Tsumetakute Oishiiiiii yoooo
and then there's one here that Jun said is for tofu
Tofu truck!
And I didn't know it was a truck first, I thought it was a kid practicing the recorder
and I thought "oh my god we moved in next door to a kid who practices his recorder all the time"
And it was just two notes repeatedly over and over again
It's recorder music
Yeah, same over and over again
And I was like "this kid needs to learn new notes, try something new!"
It wasn't a kid, it's a truck selling tofu
First time I noticed that was in Aomori, they did that with the sweet potato truck
They sell sweet potato, tofu, like they have these trucks that go around like
they sell this stuff!
It's actually kinda cool!
When I first had to study abroad they just did morning announcements they'd be like
And they'd be like "good morning, today is September 27th...
Just a truck driving around?
It wasn't a truck, it was actually like a speaker in a tower
It depends on where you live
Good morning town!!!
Yeah so announcements, "good morning, wake up it's 7am!"
like what if you wanted to sleep past 7am?
What if you worked the night shift, you got home and now you wanna sleep?
Kinda related to jingles and sounds and all that stuff
At the train station, they always have their own jingle
or their own sounds so like when the train is coming
like they have a certain theme song
So it'll be like a little music box sort of sound
and even if it's on the same line, if you're going the other way, it'll have a different sound to it
So then you know the train is coming and which side it's coming!
And some of them are like commercial jingles too!
I don't know anything about them because I don't watch Japanese TV
But I know in Ebisu in Tokyo, it's like the commercial for Yebisu beer
The jingle for Yebisu Beer
So when the train is coming it's reminding you of the commercial to buy Yebisu Beer
Like I always think about like "what's the coolest sound that they have?"
like, rate from 5 to 4, I could do a video about that
You can start a playlist on your channel ranking each jingle
I could! That would be good!
Thumbs up if you want that video
Like this video if you want that!
In American we have banned Smoking indoors and..
I think it's a State by State thing
but it is banned in Ohio, in my State
So in restaurants you can't smoke inside, Bars, anymore
So like, no smoking indoors and when I came here to Japan they still do it so like a lot of restaurants have
Smoking sections and Non-Smoking sections
So I was kinda surprised by that, it shouldn't even be a surprise because growing up as a kid in America
we have that everywhere!
But I think that's an American thing because a lot of countries still have smoking pretty much
For a lot of States yeah, definitely
I don't even what other States in America
so that might not be in everything in america
It might not be a culture shock for someone who comes to Japan from a State that has smoking restaurants
But they do have like a glass sections where you can go into the room and smoke in the glass room
And they have them at parks too, like parks and other public places so it's kinda interesting
So like when you go and buy something and you'll give them a hundred dollar bill or something
They'll say to their manager "I have a hundred dollar bill, I'm putting it in the register"
And that kinda goes along with "saying things that they're doing"
So they do it and they count the money, they always count the money for you
Like, they put out really nice like a fan, like a Japanese fan and they're like counting the money
They go through all of it and you know you've got the right amount
Counting everything to you kinda feels like an artificial conversation, because cashiers don't really talk to you
I've had some in the past, it's really uncommon
So i feel like it's kind of a conversation starter
Here's your money
It's more or less something to say than stay completely quiet
So moving on to like doctors and dentists
I know we were like "uh we're not gonna talk about taking off shoes"
but you have to take off your shoes to the doctor's and the dentist's
Usually!
I've been to one where you didn't have to
but usually you take off your shoes, it's a little different than America because in America...
if you go see a doctor you get your own room
and you're like in a private room
but here, at least the doctor's that I've gone to
it's like connected to all of the other rooms
It's open in the back
So you'll have your own little desk
but then people walking along behind you, you hear everyone else
it's not as private
In the hospitals and stuff, like when I went to the hospital..it sounds like crippled
They just have curtains, like they don't have rooms
You're all out in the open with everybody else
It probably depends on the hospital room
like what you're in for
Because, when you have a baby, then you get a room to yourself
That's the only time I've actually been to a real hospital here
when I visited Victor's baby
And then at the dentist's, something that...
In America you get sunglasses so you don't have to look at the light or whatever
But here they put a cloth over your face
They just lay a cloth over your face, it feels like a spa
Yeah, they do that at the hair-dresser too
when you go get your haircut
they put the cloth over your face, so you're not looking around
so you're just relaxing
Kids in a shopping cart!!
I used to work in an international school, and we got to take the kids out to the park
And when you do and you take little kids to the park if they're like 3 or under
you put them in a cart
It's kinda like herding sheep into like...behind a fence
There's like a little ramp that unclasps, and then you put it on the floor and they run up the ramp into the cart
And then you lock them in and you push them down the street to the park
And they're little heads are like little peek-a-cow, they're like yeaaaay hiiii
So they wear little hats and whenever you cross the street, they're taught to raise their hands
So when you cross the street and they're in teh shopping cart they're like this: STOP
And then when you get to the park you unclasp the thing and they all run out down the ramp and go play
Alright so those are just some little Cultural things we've noticed in Japan recently
and small things that you probably would'nt even think of
There's probably more and I'll probably write down more and make a part two to this
If you guys have any comments or things that you've experienced in Japan or even in other countries
like small things that are different from America, from our country
Just let us know, or from Japan, so just let us know in the comments below
and please subscribe if you like this video
Thanks for watching, i'll see you guys next time! Bye!!!