Only in Japan? Things I take for granted…until I travel abroad. #japanlife #lifeinjapan

Only in Japan? Things I take for granted…until I travel abroad. #japanlife #lifeinjapan

What is good everyone? Welcome to the channel. I am out here melting in the summer heat to make another episode for you. Today I’m going to be talking about a topic that actually took a lot of brainstorming because whatever the title of the video ends up being. I’m basically talking about things that I forgot are not a thing outside of Japan. Basically, things I take for granted here now that I only notice aren’t normal when I go abroad. And it was hard to think of these things because in my daily life, you know, I’ve begun to take these things for granted and I don’t think about them. So, I actually had to really sit down and brainstorm, go through my daily routine like what what happens in a normal day here that’s not normal elsewhere. So, that’s today’s topic. I do want to say that today is my into the first item, which is I’m going to talk about as I’m walking along the road here, things that have to do with roads, streets, driving. And the first thing is the number of construction workers, specifically the number of people out waving flags or a baton around construction sites. Basically, I actually remember when I first arrived in Japan, I’d drive past a construction site and I think in my head, “Are you sure you brought enough guys?” sarcastically. Because it’s like, why are there so many construction people? So many people out directing traffic. I mean, it’s so orderly and so regulated. And even when we built our house, we are not on a really busy road, but the construction company still hired a guy to stand out there and like wave traffic past the trucks that were sitting outside with like housing materials, you know, something like something like this, except instead of just a couple of cones, there actually was a god man or like a flag waiver out in front of it. It’s really ubiquitous. They’re just really keen on making sure that no one is inconvenienced in traffic. Whereas in the states, it’s like throw a bunch of orange barrels out and you know the drivers will figure it out, right? You also see the guys out waving their batons outside of shops like supermarkets and the like. Basically, businesses will hire these guys to direct traffic in and out of their parking lots. And a lot of times it seems superfluous. It’s like, are they really necessary? But after a while, you just you stop noticing them. You take them for granted. And they actually do help out in a lot of ways because sometimes there’s roads where the traffic would get really snarled if they didn’t have someone out there regulating it. Also, staff of places like the one I think of right away is whenever I take my car in to have it serviced, the staff will actually after I’m leaving the dealership, they’ll actually walk out into the street, raise their hand to ask people politely to stop and let me into traffic. And it’s just one of those extra steps that staff take here that is really nice. And it’s kind of that extra mile of service that you would never expect to happen in the States. Now, speaking of the states, a lot of these things only come to mind if I go back to the States and something is missing or something is different, like a reverse culture shock almost. And the first one is that you just get used to seeing cute everywhere in Japan. Advertising is cute. Safety signs are cute. Signs with directions on them, like in train stations, are cute. Everything has a character. And you go back to the States and nothing is cute. Warning signs are not cute. Advertising is not cute. And it’s just a huge paradigm shift, it seems. One story that always sticks out in my mind is we’re staying at my mom’s house and my wife asked to borrow a hairdryer after her shower. And on the haird dryer, there’s this little safety tab. this little safety thing um that says, you know, it’s an electronic item. Be careful, blah blah blah. And there’s this sketch drawing of a boy, like getting an electric shock. And it’s like a sketch of, you know, it’s made to look like a normal kid and it’s not made cute in any way. And I just remember my wife plugging in the dryer and looking at say like it’s not cute, right? And that’s just kind of the theme about America, signage and advertising. It’s just not cute and it’s such a huge difference from Japan. Another thing that is missing from the States, or at least where I come from, unless you’re talking about the odd pawn shop or maybe a used bookstore, used goods stores are everywhere in Japan. And I was thinking about this when I was last in my bedroom in my parents house because I was looking around all the stuff that is in that room and thinking this is not part of my life now. I’m never going to take this back to Japan. So what should I do with it? There’s definitely value in these things, but I’m never in the US long enough to have like a garage sale or something like that. I was looking through like the the local listings of, you know, looking for any kind of secondhand stores and they just don’t exist. like there’s no place to go and sell things. And so that’s another thing that struck me that you have used media stores, you have used furniture stores, you have used clothing stores. Like clothing, yeah, maybe you can donate clothes to like Goodwill or the Salvation Army or something, but like secondhand clothing stores don’t seem to be they they exist, but they’re not as common. And if they do exist, it’s like for high-end brand stuff or like the vintage things, right? Not just ordinary clothes. So yeah, it’s another thing that is missing or feels like it’s missing compared to Japan. Another thing that is missing is1 to $2 sushi. Like you can go to a conveyor belt sushi place in Japan and get plates of sushi for, you know, 120 to 200, 300 yen, something like that, and it’ll be two pieces. Whereas you go to almost any sushi restaurant in the States, one piece is going to be what, five bucks or more. It’s crazy. Ramen, the same thing. Like cheap ramen is everywhere in Japan. You know, ramen for less than a,000 yen. We’re talking like $5, $8 for a bowl of ramen, something like that. Also unheard of in the States. So that kind of cheap food, just take it for granted here. Another thing that is thankfully missing in Japan compared to the States is phone theft. I was thinking about how easy it is to just walk with your phone out, leave it on a table. People don’t steal smartphones here. I gather that it might be because, you know, it’s just there’s no market for it in terms like that kind of item, you would need a place to fence it. And you think of like knockoff markets in like India or China where they’re selling like these phones that are used and it’s just like a street stall and kind of think maybe that phone was stolen from a tourist or something. Maybe. I’m not alleging anything here, but there really isn’t a lot of places in Japan except for legit resale shops like the aforementioned resale shops that require identification and a license and like a photo ID to sell things there. So much more difficult to, you know, offload that kind of good. So, you just never think about your smartphone being stolen in Japan. Like, like a lot of things uh aren’t stolen in Japan, but smartphone in particular, like I’ve just never heard of phone theft, but you hear like in London, you know, people will ride by in a scooter and snatch phones out of people’s hands and that kind of thing. It’s like never ever worry about that here. The last one I’ll say about things that I notice when I go back to the States or to a foreign country, pretty much immediately notice once I hit the airport is body shapes. I’m not talking about people being fatter or fitter or whatever, just like the variety of shapes of people. You basically have the same similar body types in Japan. Like, yeah, there’s numerous of them. Not everyone is shaped exactly alike here obviously, but it’s more limited and there are certain body shapes that exist in other people, be they white, black, Hispanic, Indian, Pacific Islander, that kind of thing that you just don’t see in Japanese people. I just remember last time I was in Chicago O’Hare, I’m looking around like, man, I forgot how many different shapes people can be. It’s just it’s just a stupid thought, but true at the same time. There are so many different body shapes. Now, coming back to Japan, there’s one cultural difference here that I’ve come to take for granted that I don’t even think about anymore, and that is if it’s a traditional Japanese inn or if it’s a high-end hotel, it’s just assumed you’re going to eat there. you’re going to use that restaurant for breakfast and your evening meal. When you go to Europe or the US, it always feels like, why would I eat in the hotel? That’s that’s boring. That’s like eating in a food court or something. The hotel, unless it’s like a, you know, five-star fancy hotel. Uh you wouldn’t consider eating in the hotel. But in Japan, the culture of travel here developed in such a way that it’s expected that one of the best places to have your meal is going to be the place where you’re staying. I mean, this goes back to samurai times when samurai entouragees had to travel to Ado, the capital, now Tokyo, um, at the at the request of the shogun, because that was a way to control them. like you had to move to the capital every few years and then move back to your home F uh you know every few years after staying in Ado for a bit and it’s a way of control uh a you keep those samurai lords close at hand for part of uh the greater part of a decade and it costs them a lot of money to travel back and forth from their home to Ado so it keeps them poor. You have to take all those retainers and all the servants and basically you’re, you know, stopping at all these inns along the way and those are going to be the places that develop the best food, the best accommodations and Japan keeps that tradition. Now, basically the hotels and ins that are in a really Japanese style are going to be the best place to eat. You don’t go out in town to eat. In fact, in Kawaguchko, where my wife is from, it’s a big tourist town. There’s a lot of big hotels around the lake there and it is just a dead zone at night for places to go out to eat. There’s almost nothing around there after dark. It’s just expected everyone who’s staying in the hotel there, they’re going to eat in the excellent hotel restaurant or some places I’m sure they even serve you in your room. So, there’s just no place to go out if you wanted to. And that’s such a big difference when you travel many other countries like you never eat in a hotel. It’s just where you sleep and you go out and explore and it’s just taken for granted. But in Japan it’s the opposite. And now when I travel here I you know when I’m staying in a certain type of hotel or Japanese inn, my expectation is that’s where I’m going to eat. And so when you choose a hotel like that, you’re looking through the photos of the meals and you’re checking out the meal plans and what they have on offer. And that’s part of how you choose where you’re going to stay because you’re not intending to go out to eat. And finally, on the subject of food, there are all kinds of foods in Japan that I never had before I came here that even though they have come from a foreign land, I’ve always just seen them as Japanese food. Like these are Japanese foods. Probably best example is casta. Casta is based on cake that was brought to Japan by the Portuguese traders back in the 17th century I believe and it’s actually designated as wagashi or Japanese sweet. It’s actually a official Japanese suite. Um and if you didn’t skip the ad you would have seen uh an example of that. I’d never had custard before I came here. Um, same with Bomb Kuhan, which is a German cake that you know, Bomb Kuhen, the name sounds very German, but I’ve always associated as being a Japanese thing because it’s everywhere. It’s ubiquitous. It’s one of the things they sell at all the tourist spots for you to take home to your, you know, friends and family after you’ve traveled, you know, omiyag style, the souvenir food that you take back. Mumbra, which first time I heard that name, I’m like, that doesn’t sound like a Japanese word. And it’s actually the Mont Branc, like the French uh the the mountain in the Alps. And it’s the maron or the chestnut dessert. Like for me, that’s always just been a Japanese dessert because I’d never heard of it before I moved to Japan. So there’s a whole bunch of foods like that that I just in my mind, they’re always Japanese. I’m never thinking that they’re uh foreign food and I’ve never had any of those things outside of Japan anyways. So yeah, to me those are Japanese food. I take it for granted that they’re Japanese food and that they’ll always be on offer wherever you go. Okay. A lot of people who watch my channel are long-termers in Japan. What are things that you take for granted and you fully realize are not normal when you think of traveling abroad or going outside of Japan? Let us know in the comments your own suggestions for this list. And if you made it this far without hitting the like and the subscribe, what are you doing? Please do so. It’d be great to have you on board with the channel. And I thank you very much for watching this particular video. I’ll catch you on the next one. Peace.

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