Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • Hey guys! Before I begin the video I just want to let you know about a really convenient website called Italki!

  • It's affordable, effective, AND easy to use!

  • You can learn any language you like without leaving your home

  • If you're interested, click the link below

  • and you can try one lesson and get the second free!

  • Thanks for listening and enjoy the show!

  • Hey guys! Welcome back to my channel

  • And I'm really happy to say that I'm here with Rachel

  • And we are going to talk about Culture Shock in Japan

  • It's not gonna be a lot of Common Culture Shock

  • You have to take off your shoes indoors?

  • Yeah, like the "taking off your shoes" is kind of a no-brainer

  • I think a lot of people who are studying Japanese or interested in Japan are viewing our channels

  • So I feel like we should talk about the less commonly known Culture Shocks!

  • We're just gonna go ahead and start with:

  • Number 1...

  • These are things that I've noticed recently and the number one thing I've noticed recently is

  • People on trains with books, and there's covers on their books

  • So when they're reading books, it's just for privacy reasons, so I think that's actually a good idea

  • because people aren't looking at what you're reading and you don't feel so self-conscious

  • But I didn't notice that until just recently!

  • So they have like newspaper on their books or like book covers sometimes come with the book

  • in Japan, so yeah it's actually kinda convenient and I actually like it

  • I noticed that really early on because Jun reads a lot and he buys lots of books

  • Everytime he buys a book it comes with one of the plain white cover on it

  • so I never know what book he's got

  • He'll even use it at home, he just doesn't ever take it off

  • I'm like "What are you reading Jun??"

  • Since I've been here this past year and we've been driving to a lot of places

  • I've noticed that in fancier stores, if you go somewhere where you buy suit, or nice work clothes like that

  • or some places like the Toyota Home places that we've been to recently

  • where people are potentially buying a house

  • like really nice places like that

  • a lot of the workers, when you leave in a car, they'll come outside and stand there and bow to your car

  • until you've left the parking lot

  • Sometimes there's a lot of traffic so you have to sit there for a couple of minutes and they're just bowing

  • Actually a lot of people in Japan just stand there and wave at you when you leave

  • and just wait for you to be out of sight

  • That's actually something that I've learned in Japanese class before

  • it's just a normal thing here

  • And they do that even at the Sony Store when I go and check out the stuff for my camera

  • They just walk you out and then they wave until you leave and they bow to you

  • It feels so formal and honestly it feels so weird to me

  • Greeting you at the mall, it kinda goes with what we were talking about on the first one

  • When stores open, you basically walk in and then everybody at the store goes to the front and bow to you

  • as you walk through the mall

  • Then they have this music playing, this happy music plays when it's open

  • and sometimes i'm like the only person walking into the mall

  • So it's kinda awkward because they're all bowing to you

  • It feels like you're royal or something

  • Really important, like you're high up there

  • But yeah they all come to the front of the store and bow to you when you come in

  • So that's only when they open

  • They play 8-bit music over the speakers

  • Because I guess they don't wanna pay for royalty

  • For like playing real music with real instruments and singers

  • So they'll play like 8-bit music versions, like you would hear on a very old cellphone ringtone

  • or in a videogame

  • Yeah, like in a videogame, like Animal Crossing it's...

  • And then they'll play 90's music or like 80's music

  • or Michael Jackson or something

  • Yeah and it's just distracting because you'll recognize the music but you can't figure out what it is sometimes

  • They play some music outside too on the streets like at Sakae, like in the morning they play music on the streets

  • Like it feels like you're in a videogame like 24/7

  • Not even joking, and some stores even have it on a loop

  • Like one store played "It's a small world" over and over and like I feel like you go crazy

  • Oh my god! And if you're a worker there...oh my god

  • Other thing I noticed is say everything you're doing

  • So I've noticed this while working at a Japanese office

  • In a Business office

  • They would go to the door, and even if you have to go to the bathroom sometimes they'd say

  • "I'm going to the bathroom" and then they'll bow their head

  • and walk out the door

  • Like it would just be very quiet, like you wouldn't even notice, people wouldn't even glance up, right?

  • But it's kinda like the polite thing to do in Japan sometimes, it's not everywhere

  • but at certain places they'll tell you where they're going

  • or they're going and coming back and then they'll bow and leave

  • And they do that on the bus too, so they're like "i'm going straight! I'm going back!"

  • "I'm going left! I'm going right!"

  • And they'll tell you on the bus "I'm stopping!!"

  • "Next Station! I'm going to the Next Station!"

  • Not all bus drivers do that, like some bus drivers do that

  • But most of them actually do

  • It's all about being polite in Japan

  • it's the reason for why they do things

  • Okay, so I guess along the same lines as of noise and music and stuff are

  • they have music trucks here

  • So we have Ice-Cream trucks in America that will go around and will play like a jingly music

  • and they have trucks like that here for a lot of different things, some of them will be selling food

  • some of them will be picking up trash for you, like special trash

  • and some of them are political vans or advertisements for groups, like music groups up in Tokyo and stuff

  • There are a couple that come around the places that we've lived a lot and so I hear them all the time

  • and one of them is selling warabi mochi

  • It's stuck in my head because it would come around every single day, I hear it it's

  • "Waraaaaaabiiii Mochi!!"

  • Tsumetakute Oishiiiiii yoooo

  • and then there's one here that Jun said is for tofu

  • Tofu truck!

  • And I didn't know it was a truck first, I thought it was a kid practicing the recorder

  • and I thought "oh my god we moved in next door to a kid who practices his recorder all the time"

  • And it was just two notes repeatedly over and over again

  • It's recorder music

  • Yeah, same over and over again

  • And I was like "this kid needs to learn new notes, try something new!"

  • It wasn't a kid, it's a truck selling tofu

  • First time I noticed that was in Aomori, they did that with the sweet potato truck

  • They sell sweet potato, tofu, like they have these trucks that go around like

  • they sell this stuff!

  • It's actually kinda cool!

  • When I first had to study abroad they just did morning announcements they'd be like

  • And they'd be like "good morning, today is September 27th..."

  • Just a truck driving around?

  • It wasn't a truck, it was actually like a speaker in a tower

  • It depends on where you live

  • Good morning town!!!

  • Yeah so announcements, "good morning, wake up it's 7am!"

  • like what if you wanted to sleep past 7am?

  • What if you worked the night shift, you got home and now you wanna sleep?

  • Kinda related to jingles and sounds and all that stuff

  • At the train station, they always have their own jingle

  • or their own sounds so like when the train is coming

  • like they have a certain theme song

  • So it'll be like a little music box sort of sound

  • and even if it's on the same line, if you're going the other way, it'll have a different sound to it

  • So then you know the train is coming and which side it's coming!

  • And some of them are like commercial jingles too!

  • I don't know anything about them because I don't watch Japanese TV

  • But I know in Ebisu in Tokyo, it's like the commercial for Yebisu beer

  • The jingle for Yebisu Beer

  • So when the train is coming it's reminding you of the commercial to buy Yebisu Beer

  • Like I always think about like "what's the coolest sound that they have?"

  • like, rate from 5 to 4, I could do a video about that

  • You can start a playlist on your channel ranking each jingle

  • I could! That would be good!

  • Thumbs up if you want that video

  • Like this video if you want that!

  • In American we have banned Smoking indoors and..

  • I think it's a State by State thing

  • but it is banned in Ohio, in my State

  • So in restaurants you can't smoke inside, Bars, anymore

  • So like, no smoking indoors and when I came here to Japan they still do it so like a lot of restaurants have

  • Smoking sections and Non-Smoking sections

  • So I was kinda surprised by that, it shouldn't even be a surprise because growing up as a kid in America

  • we have that everywhere!

  • But I think that's an American thing because a lot of countries still have smoking pretty much

  • For a lot of States yeah, definitely

  • I don't even what other States in America

  • so that might not be in everything in America

  • It might not be a culture shock for someone who comes to Japan from a State that has smoking restaurants

  • But they do have like a glass sections where you can go into the room and smoke in the glass room

  • And they have them at parks too, like parks and other public places so it's kinda interesting

  • So like when you go and buy something and you'll give them a hundred dollar bill or something

  • They'll say to their manager "I have a hundred dollar bill, I'm putting it in the register"

  • And that kinda goes along with "saying things that they're doing"

  • So they do it and they count the money, they always count the money for you

  • Like, they put out really nice like a fan, like a Japanese fan and they're like counting the money

  • They go through all of it and you know you've got the right amount

  • Counting everything to you kinda feels like an artificial conversation, because cashiers don't really talk to you

  • I've had some in the past, it's really uncommon

  • So i feel like it's kind of a conversation starter

  • Here's your money

  • It's more or less something to say than stay completely quiet

  • So moving on to like doctors and dentists

  • I know we were like "uh we're not gonna talk about taking off shoes"

  • but you have to take off your shoes to the doctor's and the dentist's

  • Usually!

  • I've been to one where you didn't have to

  • but usually you take off your shoes, it's a little different than America because in America...

  • if you go see a doctor you get your own room

  • and you're like in a private room

  • but here, at least the doctor's that I've gone to

  • it's like connected to all of the other rooms

  • It's open in the back

  • So you'll have your own little desk

  • but then people walking along behind you, you hear everyone else

  • it's not as private

  • In the hospitals and stuff, like when I went to the hospital..it sounds like crippled

  • They just have curtains, like they don't have rooms

  • You're all out in the open with everybody else

  • It probably depends on the hospital room

  • like what you're in for

  • Because, when you have a baby, then you get a room to yourself

  • That's the only time I've actually been to a real hospital here

  • when I visited Victor's baby

  • And then at the dentist's, something that...

  • In America you get sunglasses so you don't have to look at the light or whatever

  • But here they put a cloth over your face

  • They just lay a cloth over your face, it feels like a spa

  • Yeah, they do that at the hair-dresser too

  • when you go get your haircut

  • they put the cloth over your face, so you're not looking around

  • so you're just relaxing

  • Kids in a shopping cart!!

  • I used to work in an international school, and we got to take the kids out to the park

  • And when you do and you take little kids to the park if they're like 3 or under

  • you put them in a cart

  • It's kinda like herding sheep into like...behind a fence

  • There's like a little ramp that unclasps, and then you put it on the floor and they run up the ramp into the cart

  • And then you lock them in and you push them down the street to the park

  • And they're little heads are like little peek-a-cow, they're like yeaaaay hiiii

  • So they wear little hats and whenever you cross the street, they're taught to raise their hands

  • So when you cross the street and they're in the shopping cart they're like this: STOP

  • And then when you get to the park you unclasp the thing and they all run out down the ramp and go play

  • Alright so those are just some little cultural things we've noticed in Japan recently

  • and small things that you probably would'nt even think of

  • There's probably more and I'll probably write down more and make a part two to this

  • If you guys have any comments or things that you've experienced in Japan or even in other countries

  • like small things that are different from America, from our country

  • Just let us know, or from Japan, so just let us know in the comments below

  • and please subscribe if you like this video

  • Thanks for watching, i'll see you guys next time! Bye!!!

Hey guys! Before I begin the video I just want to let you know about a really convenient website called Italki!

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it