Name: 4 Ways Living in Japan Changed Me
Uploaded: 2020-03-24T11:26:10.000Z
Duration: 13 min 44 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

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I want you to imagine you've just  opened your very own restaurant,

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and you're thinking of ways to make it more  visually appealing to passers-by.

Perhaps by having a nice display of flowers,

Or even just a mascot sat out the front,  with a warm friendly expression

I was stumbling around Tokyo the other day in search of some much-needed coffee,

with a questionable visual display out the front.

Now, I assume the owners had asked  themselves that very question -

"What can we do to make our restaurant  more visually appealing?"

And presumably, the answer to that question had been,

"Let's put a dozen human centipede figurines  out the front of the restaurant!!"

That's right, because nothing says "enjoy your noodles" quite like figurines

re-enacting an incredibly unpleasant scene out of a sh*tty horror movie.

But I see all the time in everyday life in Japan that

because having lived here for four years now,

I'm starting to find it difficult to know if something would be considered to be strange or odd

I walked past an upmarket clothing boutique called 'Ropé Picnic'

Which, to me, sounds like some sort of suicide pact you'd undertake with a friend

which starts with a pleasant countryside picnic of sandwiches and biscuits,

It's one of those phrases that you look at and go,

"well, there's technically nothing wrong with  'Ropé Picnic' -

In the same way that Japan's most popular energy sports drink is called 'Pocari Sweat',

downing a bottle of fluid with the word 'sweat' on the side

probably wouldn't go down too well in most countries.

But in Japan, it doesn't seem to be a problem.

Then there's this box of chocolate stick biscuits I bought the other day, called

but this is the 'romantic' gift version of Pocky

If you don't already know, Valentine's Day in Japan,  on February 14th,

and then a month later on March 14th,  guys give gifts to girls

- a name which probably wouldn't go down  too well in the West.

But it says here beneath the word  'Sukky' in big gold letters,

"anata ga suki desu", which means "I like you",

and there can be no doubt there's no faster way to a guy's affections

than by giving them some... some 'Sukky'.

it's really easy to spot things that are maybe a bit strange or unusual.

After all, the early success of this channel

was built off of me just finding unusual things in everyday life

and then talking about them, whilst slumped in a chair with a greasy face.

But today I want to look at some ways living in Japan has changed me over the last four years,

and some of the cultural aspects that might have rubbed off on my personality.

And saying as this video is technically the 100th video on this channel,

it seems like the perfect milestone at which to do that,

Now I won't be able to take them on the Ropé Picnic.

Since living in Japan, there's no doubt I've become more mindful in everyday life.

In Japanese culture, there are many fixed expressions relating to showing appreciation and gratitude,

And it's impossible for it to not be engrained in you in some way after just a few months of being here.

For example, the most popular of these expressions that you'll here in everyday life is

which have no direct translation into the English language, but none the less mean

'Thank you for your hard work' or  'You must be tired'.

When I was working as an English teacher at school I would probably hear it a hundred times a day

just from colleagues in the staff room or people passing me in the corridor.

And it's a nice feeling when everyone's saying it to each other at the end of a long day

because there's a sense that everybody has played their part -

everyone's played their role in society in some way.

Another example, of course, is when it comes to eating -

there's two key ritualised expressions that you use every time.

Just before you start eating your meal, you put your hand together and say:

'itadakimasu' to show thanks for receiving the food,

'gochisousama deshita', which means 'It was a feast'.

And nice, short, simple expressions like these help you to appreciate the sacrifices

that have been made to get the food onto the plate in front of you.

And it really does make you a lot more mindful over a period of months and years.

Compare this to the UK, where by the time most people in Japan

have put their hands together and said 'itadakimasu',

the plate of food in the UK has already long gone.

And instead of hearing a phrase like  'gochisousama deshita',

in the UK you're more likely to hear "Oi! Where's the TV remote?"

There's also a great deal of appreciation shown to physical inanimate objects as well.

For example, business cards in most countries are merely just a bit of paper with some ink on,

but in Japan, being handed a business card is like being handed the Cup of Christ,

as business cards are seen as a physical extension of the person themselves.

So when you're being handed a business card, you hold it meticulously, you study it for a few moments,

and you never put it away until the person is out of sight and the meeting is over.

But this level of care people show to physical objects and possessions

Subtitles ListPlay Video

4 Ways Living in Japan Changed Me

incredibly

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