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  • Hey guys!

  • Today I'm here with Kelly from the channel Strawberry Mochi!

  • And we're gonna talk about mistakes that we've made in Japan.

  • Yep.

  • There are a lot.

  • Yeah.

  • Pretty embarrassing ones, too, so...

  • So Rachel, why don't you start?

  • OKAY

  • I guess one of th biggest mistakes-

  • I don't even know if you would call it a mistake,

  • just kind of like a really embarrassing thing.

  • Japan has really advanced toilets,

  • and all of them are completely different.

  • So I've seen like ten different ways to flush toilets here in Japan.

  • And sometimes they're not exactly intuitive.

  • So many buttons!

  • There's one particular type of toilet that I could not figure out how to flush.

  • I looked at all of the buttons. There was no handle.

  • I was in a big mall bathroom and I was so embarrassed, I was like "I don't want to leave the stall!!"

  • But I was like "Okay, all right, I need to go out"

  • and I ran out of the bathroom and got Jun and told him

  • "JUN GO TO THE BOY'S BATHROOM AND TELL ME WHERE THE FLUSH IS I DON'T KNOW WHERE THE FLUSH IS"

  • And I had to wait for him to go in the stall in the boy's bathroom and come out

  • and he said "Oh it's this button right here."

  • I was like "OKAY!!!"

  • And I had to run back in and hope no one walked into my stall after me

  • because they would've been like "AUGH that foreign girl didn't flush the toilet!"

  • But what it is is, it was one of those with the wall panel on it.

  • Oh yeah.

  • And there are flush buttons that are flat on top of the panel.

  • Okay yeah, I've seen those before.

  • They're the ones that say 小さい or 大きい for little flush or big flush.

  • You can't know unless you know kanji for "flush"

  • and even then it's just a flat button on TOP of a panel.

  • Not even on the outside of the panel that's easy to see.

  • Because they ran out of room for buttons so they had to put flush on the top.

  • I was so confused. I was so embarrassed.

  • Okay so I have a toilet story, too.

  • It was during my internship time

  • and we were on a bus tour and we stopped.

  • We went into the bathroom. This bathroom was really cool because it showed you

  • what was open and what wasn't open.

  • Yeah! I know exactly which bathroom you're talking about.

  • I love that one. Those are really cool.

  • And then I couldn't find the flush button like you.

  • And so I just pressed a random button because I wanted to get out of the stall

  • and so I pressed a button and the emergency alarm went off.

  • And it was REALLY LOUD, this alarm/

  • I just walked out really casually.

  • I kind of looked at my friend like "I don't know what happened."

  • "That's crazy. Is there a fire or something?"

  • And then I told my friend on the bus what happened.

  • "That was me. It was the alarm button."

  • I don't know what they do with that.

  • I guess as an emergency button if you fall or slip or are old or something?

  • Like you can't go to the bathroom? I don't know.

  • I'm sure like 99% of that button getting pressed is accidents or little kids or something.

  • It could be little kids.

  • There's like no... maybe there was a warning sign on it and I just couldn't read it.

  • Yeah. I'm sure most people press it on accident.

  • Probably the foreign people do.

  • They should always have English.

  • All right, this just happened last December.

  • So this is why it's extra embarrassing for me,

  • because I've been coming to Japan for 5.5 years. I know better!

  • But when you go through the subway booths,

  • you have to either have a card where you can pay for your toll,

  • or you can get tickets.

  • And when you get a ticket you put it into the machine and then pick it up

  • and then when you leave at the station you're getting off at,

  • you put it into the machine again so it can calculate the whole route that you went.

  • And twice in a row, I don't know why, I forgot to pick it up.

  • It happened to me, too.

  • What happens is it'll stick up for a minute, and if you don't pick it up it'll get sucked back into the machine.

  • Really?!

  • Yeah, it goes into a little box. I had no idea!

  • The second time I caught it and was like "AW NO!!"

  • And I got the train station staff and he went over and opened up the machine

  • and took it out of the box for me and gave me my ticket.

  • But the first time I didn't notice until I was already halfway to my next destination on the train.

  • And I opened up my wallet and was like... O△O

  • I forgot to get my ticket!!

  • I was like NOOOOOOOO

  • Because I knew what was going to happen was

  • I would have to go talk to the train staff

  • and I knew they were going to be like, "It's a dumb foreigner trying to cheat the system!"

  • "Trying to pretend like they don't know anything to get around here for free!"

  • I was like "Ahhhh they're going to think so poorly of me!! T△T

  • I didn't do it on purpose!"

  • And I got to the train station staff and I was like, "I forgot my ticket!"

  • He said "Okay, I'll call the station."

  • I was like "You don't trust me... :(" They called the station?

  • Oh yeah, I guess because you paid for it.

  • When I did it I told them I forgot my ticket and I had to pay for it again.

  • Oh no!

  • I don't know, maybe I was really nice.

  • Yeah, he called for me and I waited for a couple minutes

  • and he said "Yeah, they got the ticket. You're good to go."

  • I was like, "Okay, well at least he doesn't think I was a foreigner trying to cheat the system."

  • Now he just thinks I'm a stupid gaijin who forgot my ticket.

  • Oh god.

  • Okay so when you go to a restaurant in Japan you always have to

  • tell the waitress how many people you have.

  • And I think the natural way to say it is 二人です。

  • Or 一人です。

  • Or something like that.

  • But they always ask like2名様ですか?

  • And I'm like "Uhhhh はい、2名様です。"

  • Which is kind of weird because you're basically saying you're above her.

  • I think they want to put you above because you're the customer.

  • It's polite speech.

  • So basically when you say 2名様です back to them

  • it's like "YES I am superior! I am here, the royalty."

  • It kind of makes you sound high up there.

  • You're adding -sama to the end of your own name.

  • Yeah, -sama is like god.

  • So it's like you're better than everybody.

  • I mean maybe it's not that intense but

  • that's what we think when we learn Japanese,

  • -sama is kind of like god.

  • I kind of realized that recently that I was saying this.

  • So... whooops!

  • I kind of have a language thing, too.

  • And this is a huge problem for me.

  • I have this problem where I absorb the way people talk when they talk to me

  • and I start repeating it back to them.

  • So like if people have common phrases that they say

  • then without even thinking I'll start saying those phrases.

  • Sometimes even if people have a unique laugh

  • sometimes I just mimic them without realizing it

  • and it's a horrible thing that I really try not to do

  • but it just happens to me all the time.

  • And the problem is when I'm talking to Japanese people who are speaking English

  • and they're speaking with a Japanese accent

  • then I start repeating English words back to them with a Japanese accent

  • which makes me sound SO INCREDIBLY RACIST.

  • Wait can you give us an example?

  • So they'll say like "Harro!"

  • And I'll be like "Harro!! :D"

  • back to them.

  • "Harro!"

  • I'm not supposed to say it like that!!!!

  • I totally know what you mean. "Harro!"

  • Yeah and not just words but like poor grammar.

  • Like if they say something incorrectly with very stereotypical Japanese English grammar,

  • If you were stereotyping Japanese people in a racist way

  • that's exactly how I'm accidentally talking to people.

  • "Harro!"

  • That's the most embarrassing thing that I do.

  • Have you ever talked to your family and you're like "Unn. Unn."

  • Oh yeah!

  • "Eeeh"

  • Just like making these noises.

  • And your family's like "What are you doing?"

  • That's a mistake. I do that all the time, yeah.

  • Or like bowing in America. "Hai" and bowing.

  • I bow all the time. "Sumimasen! Sumimasen!"

  • I did that a few times when I was in Korea.

  • I know I'm not supposed to speak English but I don't know any Korean at all so

  • I just accidentally speak in Japanese there.

  • I guess one more mistake that you could probably relate to is just getting on the wrong train.

  • Not the wrong train, it's just going the opposite way.

  • Right.

  • And you realize it like 3 stops later and you're like "Ughh crap!"

  • So that's a big mistake. Omg yeah.

  • I have the worst story.

  • This happened like a month and a half or maybe two months ago.

  • I was going to meet someone at Ichinomiya station.

  • And going there, I didn't know that Meitetsu has a line that splits into two tracks.

  • I didn't even know. You're scaring me. You're going to give me train nightmares.

  • From Nagoya it goes north and then it splits and goes into a circle.

  • And they both reach Gifu station.

  • I know that Ichinomiya is between Nagoya and Gifu station.

  • So I was on the train up to Gifu station.

  • So I'm sitting on the train for 40 minutes.

  • I have no idea what any of the stops are because I'm not used to riding Meitetsu.

  • And I'm like, "Why haven't they gotten to Ichinomiya yet?"

  • And then all of a sudden I hear like

  • "The next station is Inuyama."

  • I'm like, "HOW AM I AT INUYAMA?!?!?!"

  • "WHAT HAPPENED?! I'M NOT SUPPOSED TO BE AT INUYAMA!"

  • That's like on the other side of the prefecture.

  • Yeah, it's far.

  • So I get off there and I have to take the train all the way back to Nagoya station.

  • And I'm really upset now

  • because I'm already an hour and a half late because it was like a 40 minute ride up there.

  • When I got back to Nagoya I was like, "All right, I'm going to be super careful."

  • I'm going to pick out the one that goes toward Gifu

  • and I'm going to read all of the stops that it stops at on the screen

  • and make sure it stops at Ichinomiya.

  • So I do that, I pick out the correct train

  • and this train for sure stops at Ichinomiya.

  • Lucky me there's one coming in like one minute!

  • And as soon as I get on I look around and I'm like...

  • These look like kind of fancy seats.

  • This is like the train you take from Nagoya airport.

  • I think these might be reserved seats.

  • You might have to pay extra for these.

  • So I'm like, okay, I'll just go to the front of the train and sit in some of the non-reserved seats.

  • Because the trains from Nagoya airport, they have reserved seats

  • and then they have non-reserved seats at the front.

  • So I walk all the way to the front of the train

  • and there ARE NO NON-RESERVED SEATS.

  • The entire train is reserved!

  • I had NO IDEA there are entirely reserved Meitetsu trains just running around Nagoya.

  • I had no idea that was a thing. I had no idea about that, either.

  • I finally get to the front and then there's the ticket guy

  • and he's getting ready to walk through the train and get everyone's reserved seat tickets.

  • And I just start crying.

  • Because I'm almost two hours late at this point

  • I'm on the wrong train and now I have to pay extra for this reserved seat.

  • Absolutely everything went wrong. Did he make you pay?

  • Yeah, he was like "You have to pay me 360 yen."

  • The worst part of this is I'm crying because I'm so stressed out

  • and not just about everything that's happening, but I don't like getting in trouble.

  • I'm on the wrong train and I don't have the ticket. I feel like I'm going to get in trouble.

  • So I was scared, too, and so I'm crying.

  • And he just starts smiling and laughing while I'm paying.

  • I'm like, how are you laughing?! Do you not see the despair that I'm in right now?!

  • You're so rude!

  • Why are you laughing at me? That's really mean!

  • It was the worst experience ever.

  • Not too long ago I went to the self checkout

  • and I had my credit card ready to pay for my stuff.

  • You have to put your credit card into a slot, but there are so many slots!

  • And it wasn't all in English or anything.

  • And I can read some Japanese but I couldn't find the slot. It didn't say card slot or anything.

  • So I started putting my credit card into the receipt slot.

  • And I was like "Why isn't it going in?!"

  • And this lady came up, she was like "Do you need help?"

  • She was really, really nice.

  • But I was just so... I turned red.

  • Because I was like "What am I doing..."

  • She's like "Up here!"

  • It wasn't even close to the card slot.

  • The card slot was like way at the top.

  • Augh so embarrassing!

  • At least the lady was really nice

  • but everyone was probably in line staring at me like "What is she doing?"

  • "Foreigner's trying to put her card in the receipt slot..."

  • This was the first time I ever paid with a credit card at the self checkout so yeah.

  • No, actually I've done that before, too.

  • I've tried putting it in the wrong slot because yeah there are a lot of slots.

  • There're slots for tickets, cards...

  • Buttons are slots and pans.

  • Slots for receipts and money, yeah lots of slots.

  • I feel so paranoid when I make a mistake in Japan

  • because it's not just me being like "Ahh I made a mistake" or whatever.

  • It's me representing all foreigners to Japanese people.

  • So I feel like every time I do that I'm letting down my brethren foreigners.

  • Because now I just made foreigners look worse to Japanese people

  • because they saw "ahh, another dumb foreigner making a mistake."

  • I'm so paranoid about that every time I make a mistake.

  • So it's extra stressful for me.

  • I don't like going places alone.

  • I like to be with someone when I'm doing or trying something new.

  • But sometimes that's not the case, I'm by myself

  • and I have to figure it out by myself.

  • Hopefully you can learn from our mistakes.

  • Learn from our mistakes!

  • When you come to Japan you'll know better!

  • This is to help you!

  • Our stupidity is helping you.

  • Well thank you for being on our channel!

  • And everyone go check out Kelly on Strawberry Mochi!

  • She makes really good videos that are super well edited and stuff!

  • Thanks guys!

  • See you, bye!

Hey guys!

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