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Category Archives: Culture Shock
On Bowling in Japan
If you don’t play a sport, you’ve run out of possible conversations with about 90 percent of Japanese men. So I started lying: “I’m a bowler.” At first it was a genius move. I would never be asked to talk … Continue reading
Is Japan a “Racist Monoculture”? On Anders Breivik’s Japan
As I was leaving the train station, I heard the Japanese national anthem. People were waving flags. Some guy was shouting about “gaikokujin” (“foreigners”) through a loud-speaker. I stopped and stared until a young flag-waving woman raised her bullhorn, looked … Continue reading
On Being the Fattest
Not every kid in Japan cares about learning English, and so they use class time to work toward other life goals: Homework from other classes, arm wrestling contests or listening to their talking dictionaries pronounce various euphemisms for sex. Recently, … Continue reading
Posted in Culture Shock, Food, Uncategorized, Weird
Tagged fat, health, japan, obesity, pig, weight loss
9 Comments
On Using a Japanese Toilet
I still don’t know what “standby mode” means for a toilet.
Posted in Culture Shock, Tradition, Uncategorized, Weird
Tagged bathroom, high brow discourse, history, japanese, squat toilets, western toilets in japan
10 Comments
On Not Walking While Drinking Soda in Japan
Why doesn’t anyone in Japan drink soda while walking? Google results are unsatisfactory. Is it considered rude? Dangerous? Had it never occurred to anyone that they could drink while walking? Japanese friends answer with a shrug. “We just don’t, I … Continue reading
Posted in Culture Shock, Food, Uncategorized, Weird
10 Comments
How to Bow in Japan
On the first day in the office I met an intern I had mistaken for a teacher. I had taken a default position of addressing everyone with safe formalities and bowing at an angle just short of tying my shoes. The … Continue reading
Posted in Culture Shock, Tradition, Uncategorized
7 Comments
