if you even like charge your phone at a combini it's illegal
you need to go back to school every day
the shopkeepers here like at the supermarket are packing your (stuff) in the bag right away
Hey guys and girls on Ask Japanese it's your flashy fashion reporter CathyCat from the
streets of Japan right now and we hit the streets and asked the new intake of foreigners who are coming into Japan
right now what surprised them about Japan and what kind of things stood out to them a little bit so
let's find out what it what it is, what they are, and let's go hit the streets of Tokyo and ask Japanese
don't forget to subscribe.... you too!
Okay how long.... where are you from?
I'm from Ireland and the Netherlands but I was born and raised in Singapore
okay exciting and you？ - I'm just from the UK
right what has, in the in those weeks that are here now, what has surprised you what has given you a bit of a culture shock thinking
okay this is different from back home!
um well in the Netherlands it's very like liberal and everything's kind of ... you're free to do what you want
the rules aren't super strict and here I noticed like if you even like charge your phone at a conveni
like it's illegal you will get arrested and in well almost
but in the Netherlands it's like you know we use legal drugs are like not prohibited but they're controlled
and for me it's like normal to do like to start doing everything at like 16 and to mature there
and here I noticed that it's like older and everybody's a lot more quiet and like polite and reserved
which is not a bad thing I completely love the culture here it's just very very different to Netherlands
what mean everything starts at 16?
Um so, people start to you know they start to go out they start to drink they start to smoke
and it's like normal ...you have a lot of parents who like will do like shisha with their kids because it's like
not their kids but like as soon as they mature there's like a baseline of 16 and then upwards it's you're it's like legal age pretty much
wait a second so alcohol and tobacco you allowed to have from 16??
um it's technically allowed to have from 18 but the culture of teenagers doing it starts at 16.
so like two years before? - yeah
That's pretty similar in Germany let's be honest, probably in the UK just as well right
all right what what gave you the culture shock?
I think for me it was mostly food related because I'm gluten-free so back in the UK it's really easy to find like pasta cake bread and stuff like that
but here it's like there's nothing you know like everything is wheat flour even like in Vietnam
a lot of the things are rice base so they use like rice noodles and stuff but here it's all wheat noodles
another thing that was really shocking was like the lack of fruit because I know that Japan grows
a lot of fruit but it's all really expensive and like really specialized whereas back in the UK
it's just like... you can just have it whenever you want it you know so it's more of a treat here
it's definitely more of a treat now with the gluten-free one I find that interesting how
did you go around that? How are you trying to be gluten-free in Japan because I know this is quite tough
Well luckily the school kind of uh helps mitigate it so they prepare like a special meal
and I'm quite lucky that I'm not Celiac I'm just intolerant so it won't like kill me but um it gives me like stomach problems
so sometimes if there's something that I really want to try like with all the Japanese food it's like you'd have to try at least once
so I'll bear the pain you know it's worth it sometimes
Where are you guys from? - uh China Shanghai - China
One Thing That surprised you when you came to Japan?
It's... we went to the high school in Japan and they have the name check every every morning and night
you need to be in a room and we go to the same place and the teachers check your name to see if you are there
and even on Sunday or Saturday 7 A.M you need to be there and you can't sleep
and at the night it's also 7 00 p.m and you can't like eat outside you can't just
you need to go back to school every day
What that's a very strict school is it a special school?
I think our school is a very special one because I heard like other schools doesn't like that but our school was yeah
Even on the weekends so you always have to be seven in the morning and seven in the evening - Yeah
They always check that you there? - yeah
Are they scared you're gonna like... run away on a Sunday?
Yeah it was like... the rules comes from there was a senpai she went to Tokyo at weekend and didn't tell the teachers
when she came back and the teachers found out that and they was like "why didn't you tell me!! tell us !!" and after that
we have the rules every day
It's the weekend why can't she go to Tokyo on the weekend??
Yeah so that's the point that I think Japanese is a little bit - Heavy?
..yeah heavy - very heavy on the real
I'd be surprised about that too what were you surprised about?
I'm surprised that when I first came to Japan and they took rice and soup like a miso soup or something for breakfast
uh and I got shocked because in China we don't eat rice for breakfast yeah
I didn't know that what do you usually have for breakfast then?
Like noodles, some soup but because we think well it's too hard to digest the rice it's not good for your stomach so yeah
so you've actually been told not to have rice in the morning?
yeah yeah yes
first of all where are you from? - I am from Germany actually
yeah I'm from Ukraine - Yes so what was your Japan culture shock?
Well culture shock I wouldn't like say it's like directly a shock but like uh the shopkeepers see like at the supermarket
are packing your things like your things from the grocery in the bag right away
so it's super convenient I think, like compared to Germany they don't do that and Germany they are really fast they're just throwing the stuff at you so
yeah that's like some kind of culture shock
when you go back to Germany you will have to be a lot faster again, you might lose your power to put items into your bag it's really fast
yeah that's true it's very convenient
it's like a speed race and people give you the look of death if you're slow right?
yes they like jump people especially the supermarket are always like stressed out and like very ...not so nice sometimes yes
there's a lot of time pressure apparently the the staff sometimes gets timed how quickly they scan items
so they have to be quick all right anything that gave you the culture shock
yeah actually one of the first things I noticed after coming to Japan was that the sizes here are smaller
like not only clothes but also towels and room size or the furniture is like smaller than in Europe
The rules in Japan are one thing that surprised people and not so much gluten-free that's the thing that I wish we had a little bit more about
but to be honest I was a bit more surprised about the lax... how lax the rules are in the Netherlands
I'm sorry I was more like okay you have Shisha with your parents!?
so I learned I think more about abroad in this video and in this interview but l thank you so much for everyone who took part in our video that was amazing guys
thank you so much there is more and we've created so many more videos about life here in Japan and especially if you want to come over here as a tourist
sometime or to live then be sure to check out the plethora, the Plenty, the amazingness, the masses of the videos
that we have created for you guys so yeah check that one out next that's in there
and don't forget our socials on the descriptions and don't forget to subscribe bye