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Category Archives: Culture Shock
On Watching “Mad Men” in Japan | セクハラ
Every guy in Japan wears a suit and smokes. They take trains from the suburbs into an office with a formal dress code and work until 10 p.m. every day. On their breaks, they’re going to convenience stores in suits … Continue reading
Posted in Culture Shock, Uncategorized
17 Comments
On Dining Out in Japan | 外食と義理
When it came time to ask for the bill, I couldn’t do it. I sat, and I waited. And then, 10 minutes into waiting, it hit me: I will never stop being American. “Sumimasen.” In the United States, courtesy means … Continue reading
Posted in Culture Shock, Food, Uncategorized
11 Comments
On TV in Japan, Part 1
The TV show started out as some sort of dog melodrama. There’s a really adorable grandmother scooping up a new, tiny dog with gigantic eyes and hugging it with a face so filled with love that the cameraman shows it … Continue reading
Posted in Culture Shock, Weird
3 Comments
On Teaching English as an Out of Body Experience | 英語は儚いです.
Language exists inside of our skulls and escapes through the tongue: What Nabokov called “A fat sleek seal flopping so happily among the familiar rocks.” It’s a chunk of flesh that helps us push ideas out from our squishy insides … Continue reading
Posted in Culture Shock, Teaching, Thinking, Uncategorized
3 Comments
On Listening to The Strokes in Japan
In which a band of Manhattan hipsters serve as a metaphor for negotiating cultural assimilation. Continue reading
Posted in Culture Shock, Homesickness, Thinking
9 Comments
On Japanese Laundry | 洗濯
Forgotten spirits get their revenge in Japan by destroying your laundry. Appeasing them requires vigilance, patience and a calm disposition. Continue reading
Posted in Culture Shock, Weird
8 Comments
This Japanese Life. 