change into our costumes and when you see the room you like everybody's just sitting down
and in some spot where they're supposed to sit down you know.... and like drinking something or
eating something like if you there's like no trash
Hey guys and girls on ask Japanese this
is your flashy fashion reporter CathyCat and today we're gonna hit the streets of Tokyo and ask the
foreigners to share with us some Japanese manners that really surprised them when they came to Japan
some of these manners you only know about when you actually have lived here for a longer time and
since right now no tourists can come into Japan the people we're asking here have lived in Japan
for a prolonged amount of time and will be able to teach you stuff that you can't find anywhere
else so let's go and ask foreigners in Japan
Now Japanese people are amazingly polite is there one part of
Japanese manners that even surprised you a little bit
I've been here for almost two years but they
still keep on surprising me I think at first you would say they're very polite but the the more you
get into the culture the more um you get to know the people I think I think they're just they're
extremely all over the place actually you know - They loosen up a little bit once you get to know them
Yeah I think it's more like the daytime you know like this everybody's just keeping calm
but once the sun goes down it's like everybody's just all over the place it seems like you have
some experiences with like some partying here in Japan? Y eah a little bit I like to have a
good time for sure yeah and the Japanese love to have a good time - Now in all those good times
and also at work are there any rules or manners that kind of like we're like "oh I'm surprised
that you have to do that" like for example we most people know don't put your chopsticks
into the rice but there's actually a lot of other little rules and manners the longer you live here
you only then find out about them right anything surprised you?
If I think of the top of my head it's it's just it's the biggest rule of all if you if you're here working it's the senpai kohai system
it's like uh you know the the social hierarchy that was that was really a mind blower you know
just that you have to sort of find your space in a social construction yeah
Senpai kouhai can you tell me like a story out of your life for that? - Well for me it's kind of different because I i guess I'm
as a foreigner they don't expect me to know all the rules especially because I haven't been here
for such a long time but but it's uh just like for example the place where I work at we have to
we have to at some point you know um change into our costumes and uh when you see the room you
like everybody's just sitting down and in some spot where they're supposed to sit down you know
and it's it goes like from left to right and then on the right side you have the tables and
the mirrors and everything is nice that's where the senpai's are sitting you know
and then on the other side of the room you have people sitting on the floor and just you know just
trying to need as less space as possible so that's where the kohai is sitting you know
so that sort of thing it's like first you just sit down wherever you think like "hey this is
cool nobody's here" but then you understand oh there's a real system behind this and if you
if you make a mistake then you're gonna be in trouble socially speaking yeah so that
was very that was quite shocking to me because we don't have that in the west I guess you know
yeah but here you get measured by how long you've been with the company or how yeah basically time
and rank you know is so important here so
were you like sitting down wherever you wanted to
sit down and we're like oh oops
Exactly yeah like for for the first time I was like I didn't really you know it's just like having a good time but then I was like hey whoa whoa
and then where am I supposed to be but at some point I was like okay I'm gonna respect
this style Japanese style but I'm also not I'm gonna try to take my liberties whenever I can you
know and they understand that too
So where are you sitting on the right and the left or in the middle
I'm in the middle and sometimes I just change it up to to to to make them you know go crazy
breaking the rules exactly exactly gotta do that you know
What made you come to Japan? what was your inspiration to come to Japan?
I'm a professional wrestler so I came here for my job basically
um when it comes to wrestling Japanese really love professional wrestling so besides that the
quality is extremely high so it was for me it was a it was the perfect place to go to also I really
liked Japanese culture so it was just uh I was I was lucky enough to be here
What's the good thing about being a wrestler in Japan then?
You can live off it that's that's the most thing most important
thing and the people are extremely like you get a lot of respect for your work you know and it's
been it's treated professionally you know so and and like a lot of the pro wrestling
if you're into that stuff you know a lot of the legends of pro wrestling are from Japan
so it's an honor to be here to to do you know what I love
WHOA so wait a second is it the sporty part of wrestling you're doing or they're the one with the nice costumes and the like
big show lights and stuff like that which which part of wrestling are you part of?
Pro wrestling is really something in between I would say also in Japan um yeah where I don't know right now it's
a lot of idol culture stuff as well but it's also being treated as a sport like with real injuries
and real pain and you know all of that stuff so pro wrestling is uh that's really another story
for another day maybe
Yeah yeah sure
Awesome fantastic thank you so much
Are there any manners that surprised you here in Japan?
No tipping that was pretty strange and you have to be careful with your chopsticks like the chopstick etiquette
I think I watched one video on youtube and it explained all of that stuff so like when we got here it wasn't so bad but
no one's really called us out for anything yeah - the no talking in public transportation
I don't know if that's just like is that a Japanese thing yeah okay yeah I think it's really nice
because I mean it definitely teaches you more like be more disciplined and I mean it's hard for Americans
who like came from grew up in America and you know everything and then coming here
especially if they're younger it's harder for them to understand but once you tell them they they will understand
like not walking around and like drinking something or eating something like if you there's like no trash anywhere on the ground
you go to any city in the united states and there's trash everywhere yes people just drink their starbucks and throw it in a bush
but here you know you don't really see anybody walking around drinking something and I always
feel weird doing it yeah so I'm like I'm just gonna drink this red bull and keep walking but
yeah then no tipping also like how does that make you feel sometimes because I sometimes
feel like I want to give something but ah that moment - um it's definitely
at first it was kind of uncomfortable because I feel like they deserve it like they gave
I want to show my appreciation for the service that we received but then eventually we kind of
just got used to it so now when we go back to the states it's going to be like oh great yeah
gonna be going back the tipping system - yes more money
no we love it here it's amazing we're so blessed to be here we wish we could say yeah
- we're gonna miss it - we'll definitely be back to visit so yeah it's amazing oh
I'm so glad you had a positive experience of Japan thank you so much thank you
A lot of the rules and manners in the working life in Japan can be vitally different from your
country but then also they depend on how strict is the company that you're working for and we
have actually made a video about things in the workplace and why Japanese people prefer it if
people who come from abroad actually know these things if you intend to work in Japan be sure to
check out this video and don't forget to subscribe for more stuff and check out our socials for the
other cool things we do thanks for hanging out see you soon tokyo this was cathy cat bye