I wish these moments here because you only get to experience something new
once yeah you only get to experience it welcome to Tokyo Tuesday if you're a
regular viewer welcome back I'm sitting on the floor today what
we're gonna be talking about it a little bit of my experience coming to South
Korea for the first time and some of the minor culture shocks now just a little
bit of a disclaimer for this one all the opinions stated within this video are
just my own and some of the movie Sharla's probably as well for those
of you who just stumbled upon the video and this is your first I am originally
from Canada but have been living in Japan over 10 years Sharla lives in
Japan for 12 years and currently lives in South Korea where I'm visiting her
for the first time ever if I want to jump right in I've made a little bit of
a list but one of the first things that got me as soon as I came into the
country yeah was the dark tinted windows of the car wait I asked my husband he's
like yeah that's still really normal here everyone does it like everything
except for the windshield dang I wouldn't be surprised at people like
even the driver side windows you can't do that in Japan you can't do that in
Canada safe driving the second one on the same note of the cars the honking oh
the hug you seem coming in from Japan I wasn't used to the constant how Japanese
people rarely use their horns like they do in the countryside there weren't like
traffic so especially bus drivers not to mention the fact that every bus or large
sized vehicle or like corporate vehicle like a taxi is covered in advertisements
yeah that feels a lot more like North American it's not like bison sometimes
in Japan are covered in corporate advertisements like there was one where
they use the tire to make a lens for a Yodobashi camera
the brief interruption it looks really good let me show you but oddly enough
like the honking and all that doesn't really bother me there's something
refreshing in the directness of everything the next one I got me and
again not so much like a culture shock but just coming from Japan into Korea I
was surprised by the number of like western food option yeah like I came in
I saw Quiznos right away Dunkin Donuts and yet at the same time they still have
all the very obvious Korean food options yes feels really really mixed and I
think that's a really nice segue into it's hard to get a grasp on Seoul coming
out here I'm only here for 48 hours just for a very short project time in here
feels like you're in Asia but it also feels like you kind of in Toronto yeah
that's so true so how do you feel now after a few months I just find it really
convenient because whenever I want something they haven't do whether it be
something North American or something Korean they've both so living here I
find it makes it very comfortable for me someone who's live both in Asia and in
North America because they have all the things that I've grown to love over the
years I really like that I did not see coming so I can see why you like it I
can see why you like that aspect of it there are entire brands that I've
forgotten about like brands of car brands of electronics, everything yeah it's not
as few there's a lot of like great Korean brands out there that aren't
apparent or available in Japan like we were talking yesterday about Kia cars in
Hyundai and stuff like that things that you almost never see in Japan
yeah you completely forget that they're actually a thing let's put a couple like
here there we go but yeah being in Japan what Korean
brands are the thing it was interesting to see them coming in here. I was like.. oh yeah Kia
cars forgot about those another one that I didn't realize because I've been in
Japan for so long is just your comfort level with streets and buildings Oh like
I've gotten so used to navigating Japanese streets that I go into a new
area and never get long yes I have a sense of direction I know what
everything looks like I think he's just coming into a new country we're not
familiar with the layout yeah over the place here it's not like a nice grid
layout the streets are pretty like I decided to go for a walk like first
thing in the morning this morning and was instantly lost yeah I decided to do
this like little spin thing with the camera and then I was like oh no I'm not
which one yeah one that I should have been prepared for but didn't even think
about it power converters and everything that
kind of thought of but I wasn't thinking about the plug shake yeah I didn't
expect Korea to have a European plug I don't know why that is I found that
really interesting I just went out and I bought a converter yeah suck that I had
to buy one I brought one but I needed an even work I thought they'd be easy to
find but they're not oh so now that you've been here as long as you have how
do you feel well I still use mostly Japanese
electronics so I need to constantly be using converters and also transformers
because bondage is different so it's a paint but
like I'm more used to it now than it was for the first week yeah it's just become
habit now but yeah I guess I'm the future after we've been living here for
a couple years it'll be nice to like switch to Korean electronics so we don't
have to do that yeah so I'll put the differences between like Japanese and
Korean me here and here now if you're using a device that's rated for like a
hundred volts to 240 or 220 volts or something in the range you can still
plug it into a crane slot providing you have the plug yeah that fits it you just
need to make sure that it is rated for that and make sure because it will light
on fire it's not have you had that happen yeah that's one which I'm
thinking it might have been nice to start with actually because it's kind of
big okay but there's something I saw in you something that I've got you see
Charla and I have known each other for well over 15 years and I saw something
in Charla that I've never seen before and it was genuine honest fear terrified
about getting hit by a car yeah I get the feeling that she sees some stuff so
what have you seen well I've only been here for three months and I've already
seen I think - taxi crashes and one crash of two regular people like head-on
crashing into each other but not only did they just head-on crash into each
other one guy just sped off after like totaling the guy's car and our friend
they got hit by a car here and like the car destroyed her ribcage and she almost
died Wow so like you need to be very careful over the cars here yeah I will
say for sure the driving cultures and is likely locked down as I feel it is in
like Canada and Japan and whatnot like today we watched a guy completely ignore
the red light go over to the other side and then drive through the pedestrian
crowd on his motorbike as if it was nothing yeah and they'll go off on the
sidewalk too with cars with bites with anything not to mention the number of
people I've seen riding motorcycles with no helmet yeah is that like a normal
thing it's not normal but they don't enforce their rules as much here like
I'm pretty sure it's illegal to do that but again nobody's checking so if people
are lazy but they don't wear one I have a huge huge believer in to each their
own I believe that these little differences are what make each country
unique is the things that I love about it is being able to come to a new
country and experience ease like just because driving and honking and all that
seems a little more aggressive in Korea doesn't mean that it's in any way like
worse or better or anything like that I just I enjoy it enjoyed it it's a change
after driving in Canada for as long as I did I felt going and driving in Japan
was a really nice change because it felt very safe although super crowded people
will wave you in people don't really Hall yeah there's a conscious and
considerate driving culture here it's just like I'm going don't get hit by me
and it works though because like everyone is driving with that mentality
I am sure that if I was gonna here a little bit longer there would be so many
other cultures but before I wrap this up before I wrap this up Sharla I just
remember that there was one more one more really big one both of us speak
Japanese so it has been so long since I actually felt helpless
yeah and unable to communicate in another country yeah it's a different
feeling like lots of things that we needed language phone calls just but
everyone was so named so helping without the language word
able to get through it so it took a little time but is there anything that
students you at the beginning and after a few months living in Korea still
stands out now if I click the biggest difference is both like strangers and
like workers at shops wanting to have like genuine conversations with me so I
think like I was really shocked at that at first I was like oh maybe this person
is just like really nice but then literally everyone wants to talk to me
and like ask me where I'm from either in Korean or English sometimes we'll just
come up to me and Koreans speak to me in Korean but I think it's nice it's a nice
change it's cool that they're curious I had an experience like that last night I
got back to my hotel area like really late it was like 12:30 at night and I
was about to just just head in and do some work and there were guys sitting
outside there I can't come and drink with us and story why do I have had that
in Japan mm-hmm I have had especially during the holiday season you know
colleagues down cut it does happen and it tends to happen a lot more when
you're new I think you give something off when you're new yeah you and excited
million you got that you got that new excited fresh foreigner smell right that
might be why because I've got the fresh foreigner smell in Korea yeah right
you're like wide eyed bushy tail everything exciting I feel like you put
that out there and it like brings but I wish you could hold on to that forever
yeah yeah like I wish these moments here because you only get to experience
something new ones yeah you only get to experience a new place once and then
it's not new anymore and so I wanted to put this all into
this for you guys but more for me so someday I can look back at this and be
like huh that was strange to me back then probably now or maybe there's
something even more shocking than this guys thank you so much as always for
joining listen if you enjoyed this one give that like button some love do not
forget to leave me something in the comment like your biggest culture shocks
when traveling to a new country and lucky remove have you been into
Japan have you been out to Korea what are the amazing things to you I'm we're
still like halfway through today yeah this is just like yeah I'm recording
this a little premature so I'm sure I will have more to share with you at some
point and yeah you guys you know that I will see you again real soon
welcome to Tokyo Tuesday well your regular viewer
laughter vo welcome to Tokyo Souza white doing the voice like the state in your
voice