Buy the book!
You can buy This Japanese Life as a paperback or as a Kindle eBook.Follow us on Facebook:
Subscribe to this site
-
Join 1,297 other subscribers
-
Most Popular
Category Archives: Culture Shock
On Japanese Convenience Stores | コンビニ
There’s some irony that the English “convenience store” is such a misnomer. There aren’t real conveniences, just bathrooms and cigarettes, packaged food and buckets of shaved ice smothered in anti-freeze colored syrup. Japan has adopted the concept – and word … Continue reading
Posted in Culture Shock, Food
30 Comments
On the Psychic Abilities of Japanese Salarymen
The first thing you’ll do at a new job in Japan is sit for weeks without instructions. You will show up to work and sit at a desk. You’ll have lunch around 12:30, then sit at your desk. Your supervisors … Continue reading
Posted in Culture Shock, Weird
14 Comments
On Being Late to Work in Japan
I know someone who showed up to work 3 minutes late to his job in Japan. He lost an hour of vacation pay and then sat at a desk with nothing to do for the next 7 hours. This can … Continue reading
Posted in Audio, Culture Shock, Tradition
40 Comments
On Heating an Apartment in Japan
Japan does not believe in warmth without risk. You might find a heater in various offices or installed for single-room use in apartments. But more often, you won’t. Instead, you will find various life-threatening electronic devices designed to warm the … Continue reading
Posted in Culture Shock, Preparations, Uncategorized, Weird
25 Comments
The “Gaijin Nod”
A friend from Venezuela, when we were in Prague, had a habit of making a small nod with his head toward fellow South Americans. An African-American friend from Detroit had the same habit in Germany. “It’s the brother nod,” he … Continue reading
Posted in Culture Shock, Thinking
10 Comments
On Being Illiterate in Japan | 馬鹿外人
There are incomprehensible signs, everywhere, and every sign is made of smaller signs I can’t read. I can’t read a map or follow directions. I am educated and illiterate, wealthy and incapable of communicating anything to anyone. But, I have … Continue reading
Posted in Culture Shock, Kanji, Uncategorized
7 Comments
This Japanese Life. 