Culture shock Japan

You might think that everything about this topic has already been said and there is nothing to add, but I still have a wish to write about my experience. Because somehow when things are happening to you it feels unique. As many of you are familiar with, I spent 10 months in England and encountering their customs I thought how different they are from what I am used to, but coming here I realise that there is always a lot of truth in a stereotype and that the farther you go from home the greater the difference in culture.

I should say that there is a certain amount of similarity with England: driving on the left side of the road, being private people and extremely polite. But here it stops! They even have levels of politeness in speaking, something like: words for your nearest and dearest, then words to be polite, then words to be even more polite. I notice that they are very skilful in avoiding any physical contact, here bowing comes in. Unwritten rules about how low and how long your bow should be and how many times you should bow still confuse me, so I just ignore it and only give a greeting. However when I understand it better I might start to bow, it will certainly do my tummy muscles good. :) Speaking with a Japanese friend of mine, I discovered that even at home with parents they don’t kiss or hug each other which for me is unimaginable.

I have noticed that they like colours, the lady passengers come with all the colours of the rainbow on their head; yellow, blue, pink, purple… and also the fish come in all the colours you can think of. Then again – the food!!! When you enter a Japanese restaurant the very first thing that happens is that a wave of smell hits you in the face; the kind of smell that comes from very old sports shoes. Then you might have difficulty finding a comfortable seat because everything is small here and there is not much room between the chair and the table. The other thing which might upset you is the sound and sight of people sucking noodles into their mouth. In the end you might be forced to learn how to use chopstick because the other option is a very small child's fork. The sweets are very often made from beans, and what annoys me so much is that they don’t have any decent sized packets of chocolate and biscuits, they are all very small. Even well known firms like the English one, McVities, make special packets for the Japanese market – a big box has 10 biscuits in it and all of them are packed separately. Ice cream as well is a headache, you can find any weird taste on earth but it is hard to find plain chocolate. And the water!!! It is supposed to be a liquid without smell, taste and colour but not here, their water is bitter.

Since English is an international language you would expect to find somebody who speaks at least very basic English. But the very moment you step on Japanese soil -forget it! This is when your imagination and creativity start working and you find other ways of communicating. Especially if you are like me and find yourself in an unknown town surrounded by lots of people and tall buildings and your duty starts in 20 min time. What do you do? Of course in a panic you ask people around you for directions, but when you encounter uncomprehending looks on all the faces and the only white woman you meet doesn’t speak English either, you run into the first FedEx building, thinking this is an American firm so they will be able to communicate, but you are wrong once again, then a brilliant idea comes to your mind and you draw the boat with its name Asuka II on it and you see a smile on the Japanese lady's face as if a light bulb has been switched on, then you know you are saved. She kindly goes out onto the street with you and points you in the right direction.
By the way, I was running and putting on my stockings in the elevator but I managed to arrive on time.

Japanese script is a story on its own. We use only one script, Roman or Cyrillic in neighbouring countries, the alphabet varies depending on the country but is made up of no more than 35 letters, I would say. But for the Japanese that’s too easy so they make it more interesting. For them one alphabet is not enough, neither is two but three will do and all of them together contain a couple of thousand symbols. Which I don’t see the point of because even people with the highest education don’t know more than two hundred.
Have you ever seen a Japanese book?! Many of them start from the back and the lines are written vertically. All upside down!! Also when you enter a shop everything is in their script as if the tourist and the many foreigners who do business in Japan don’t exist. They like their own words and don’t like to make adjustments for anybody.

In Japan there are very strict rules about gambling so they find a way to get round the law: they still gamble, buying the chips but with no money involved. Nothing in return, only if you are very lucky you could get a t-shirt or a hat. Very clever!

In the shopping malls or markets, you hear from all sides people shouting: “irashamasse”; and that means welcome in Japanese, but I think that somebody should tell them that the word itself doesn’t make you feel welcome if nobody looks at you, smiles or leaves what they are doing to help you. Suppose that’s involves too much thinking for them, especially when they were clever enough to invent machines which would do that for them. Here I am thinking of: small machines in the buses into which you put your money and which tell you if it is not enough, or those in shops which say exactly how much they should give back, robot football team… Now they can rest their brain.

I read a book called Culture shock Japan; and according to the author, when you think that anything around you doesn’t make sense and when you start eating more often than usual in McDonalds, then you are displaying symptoms of culture shock. If that is so, I think I am a sufferer. :)

My Japanese adventure

I am a person who likes to explore, to meet different cultures and people, I just enjoy that. I notice that I am happiest when I move around. There are many places where I like to be, where I feel at home but always after some time I look for a change, routine is something that kills me. So my curious nature is partly to blame for the fact that I find myself here on the other side of the world, far from anything familiar to me. Partly money, partly a wish to travel and partly circumstance.

I have been in Japan a month now and I have a lot to tell, don’t even know where to start and it is sometimes hard to describe the absurd everyday situations here. Until now I have been out of touch because I had a bit of a rough start here, I have been busy trying to learn how things work here and to fit in as fast as possible.

Prepare yourself because I will start my tale from the beginning. I had a wonderful week in London, meeting all my friends and being in church again I felt so blessed, so I charged my batteries for my journey into the unknown. Martin and Annette once again drove me to the airport and made sure that I had everything I needed. The 13 hour flight to Tokyo was very exciting for me, probably like most things you do for the first time. Usually when there is any motion I fall asleep very easily no matter how uncomfortable the seat is, but not this time. I was enjoying the non-stop service, watched three films, kept checking where we were at a given moment on the monitor in front of me, and every now and then, following Annette’s instructions, I had a short walk around the seats looking at the other passengers sleeping. Even the food was very good, I thought. Finally on 19 December around 10 am I arrived at Narita airport and the company agent was waiting for me. Mr. Murimoto, as he introduced himself, took me and the two other girls to a nearby hotel so we could have one night's rest. So that was good, but still not enough considering the next day was the longest day in my life. We woke up at 7am, had breakfast and then I was confronted with the harsh reality. They drove us to the ship, then we were introduced to the rules and safety procedures on the ship, had crew drill, and started work straightaway, with no food and no water. I felt like it was wartime and was just managing to keep from bursting into tears. On duty I wasn’t prepared for speaking only Japanese especially not knowing a word of it, so another misconception I had about how advanced and high-tech Japan is where people speak English was removed. Then I found out that we don’t have internet access either and the fact that I wouldn’t be able to contact my loved ones easily made me very sad, and helpless. The day finished at 10pm and I was able to have a good night's sleep and tried to think through all this and take stock of the situation I had put myself in.

The next two weeks were quite hard for me as well. I was just thrown in the deep end and needed to learn how to swim before I sank. Standing all day, my feet were killing me, so much that I couldn’t walk in the first few ports we visited, all I could think of was where to find somewhere to sit down. I was struggling to: learn Japanese and understand the menu, cope with the routine of laundry washing days and meals, understand the incomprehensible Japanese English of my managers, deal with my stolen bag while finding no help here… My bad sense of direction or lack of it at all was also a big problem for me, especially because the ship is big and it is all the same here and I was lost at regular intervals and my colleagues kept finding that amusing.

Writing this I can tell with certainty that I am a good swimmer.  I have learnt enough Japanese to take the orders and every day I'm broadening my vocabulary; I have learnt how to nod my head like all the others when our managers tell us something, making a joint effort later to work out what they want; incredibly I don’t get lost anymore, at least not on the ship; my shoes don't bother me anymore. I could even say that I have started to enjoy it and I could get used to this. Every time waking up in another place and every day starting all over again to be surprised at and amused by the absurd Japanese culture about which I will talk in another post.

PS - If you want to see some photos just click on the right-hand link. :))

Rob Bell

Just something I think might be worth while of watching!