Things that make me laugh
The Top 5 Questions I get asked:
5. Why did you come to Japan?
4. What are your hobbies?
3. Do you like Japanese food?
2. Have you tried natto (fermented soy bean)?
1. You're American? But you look Japanese!?!
Funny Cultural Differences:
1. The middle finger is not considered offensive here, so people use it freely. People point to things or scratch their eye or do other such mundane things and I feel like I'm constantly being flipped off!
2. It's considered impolite to walk and eat or drink at the same time. In fact, you're really only supposed to eat or drink in designated areas, unless you're on a picnic or something. I find this rather inconvenient seeing as how I love to sip my coffee as I stroll along, or eat a piece of fruit as I make my way to work.
3. No one says anything when you sneeze. I think traditionally people found it almost embarassing to recognize a weakness in someone's health so a sneeze is always ignored.
4. In restaurants there is a little button you push whenever you want service. It's kind of cool, it makes a little "bing-bong" noise, but it's probably pretty annoying to the servers.
5. There are never papertowels or anything in public bathrooms, so you always have to bring a little handkerchief with you wherever you go.
6. Wearing a face mask around is perfectly normal. Especially now with all the strong winds and pollen people wear masks all the time.
I'm sure I'll come across many more cultural differences, but that's it for now!


2 Comments:
hahaha...i love it when asian people use their middle finger as a pointer!! it's so fobby. my dad does it all the time. so did one of my old math professors. heehee...it's so funny! and i guess i'm so immature for finding it to be so funny.
What the hell, you know Grace AND Alex?
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