Hitting a few bumps on the road... (setbacks and culture shock) & field trip!

by Josie Losh

I can’t believe it, but it’s been a month since I’ve come to Japan. Somehow, it feels like I’ve been here longer than a month. Every day seems to stretch out inconceivably longer than a day in America, even with going to bed earlier and getting up later than I typically do at Pacific University.

My post today is about the setbacks I've encountered so far in daily life and about the bumps in the road I've hit recently. During a presentation for international students not long ago, we were taught about the stages and progression of culture shock. Of course, there is the initial shock upon entering the country. Then, the first month is nicknamed “the honeymoon stage” because you are still in awe about being in a new country and exploring the exciting differences. Nothing is too troubling and you don’t yet miss your home country or your friends and family much. This has definitely been my experience up until now. Already, I’ve traveled to lots of exciting and beautiful places and had loads of fun with my newly-made friends. However, I am certainly moving past the honeymoon stage with the amount of stress I've undergone in the past two weeks.

The smallest ordeal is that fact that my immediate upstairs neighbor is a Chinese girl who's as small as a mouse, but makes as much noise as an elephant rolling bricks around. I don’t know how she does it. Goodness gracious.

The biggest and scariest interruption in my life so far was trying to transfer money from my American bank account to my bank account in Saga. On my end, I had to obtain the SWIFT code from the Bank of Saga and give my parents the code and my account information for them to internationally wire money to my new account. At the same time, my temporary card at my American bank was expiring, and the new card had to be activated by my mom and sent to me via snail mail. Right as my temporary card was cancelled, the transfer fell through, and I was left with an entire 863 yen to my name (that’s about $8.63). I didn’t know when I’d have to pay rent, I didn’t know when the transfer was going to eventually clear, and I hardly had any food in my fridge.

I’ve never lived so perilously before. One afternoon, I carefully selected a half a block of tofu and half a cup of rice for lunch. For dinner, I ate a carrot and half a package of curry over the remaining half a cup of rice from lunch. I ran out of cream for my morning savior: coffee. I felt like bursting into tears all the time I wasn’t being distracted by a class lecture. I was hungry and unsure about everything. Sometimes, you’re not sure where life is going to take you, but in my case, I’ve never before felt worried about where my next meal is going to come from. Suddenly, this was the case of my life. I biked to the grocery store and picked my way through the aisles, only selecting the lowest priced items. I walked out after much deliberation with a bag of bean sprouts, a block of tofu, and two packages of curry, and some coffee creamers for 364 yen. I’ve never felt so thrifty.

In the luckiest way possible, I met a friend from Pacific on campus. She, like me, was an exchange student at Saga and after she graduated from Pacific, she decided to come to Saga for grad school. Her example is actually the reason I decided I’d be able to study abroad at Saga. She offered to loan me money to grocery shop with in the meantime. I am so, so thankful that I had her to rely on. Even better: a day later, my scholarship money from JASSO arrived in my bank account! I suddenly had 80,000 yen in my account!! I went to the grocery store and oh my, did I buy wonderful things: bread, three types of meat, and shoyu dango. However, when I shop now, I have a different perspective. I’m not as impulsive. I look for the REALLY good deals. I think this experience taught me an important lesson about saving money for the things you really need.

It also gave me a new perspective about judging people from how they look or act. Any Japanese person who sees me—a white American living in Japan—probably thinks I am quite well off. I don’t think anyone that saw me during my “week of peril” would have thought that rattling around in my wallet were only several hundred yen. I didn’t even have enough fare for a bus ride to Fukuoka to try and pick up emergency money my parents were trying to send. And I don’t think any of my classmates could have guessed from my studious composure and outwardly cheery attitude, that in my personal life, I felt extremely unstable. But finally, after much discussion over messaging and Skype, my parents were able to rectify the situation, and the transfer cleared. I am so thankful to my parents, who went through drastic measures to try and send me money as soon as possible. I have probably caused them unbelievable amounts of stress.

After that ordeal was through, I felt much, much happier. However, there are still things I encounter all day long, cultural differences, both good and bad. This is culture shock! I’ll list some of the biggest differences here:

1. Yes, you have a snack with you. No, you cannot eat it as you walk around. No one eats while walking. This is a HUGE difference from America. I often eat the rest of my lunch or a snack while I’m walking to class. Here; it’s a no-no. Also, it’s impolite to eat when the professor’s in the room. As long as they’re not there, I notice that people bring out their snack to quickly eat before class starts.


2. Want to cross at a crosswalk? Forget about it. If there’s traffic, you’re stuck. Unless it’s a cop or a taxi driver, no driver will stop to let you cross at a crosswalk. This drives me nuts because I’m from the Pacific Northwest where almost everyone will stop for a pedestrian. The road adjacent to campus is always busy and you can count on adding two or three minutes to your commute to cross at the crosswalk during morning or evening. In fact, it takes me longer to cross the road than it takes to get from my apartment to the main road.


3. If you bring your umbrella with you because it’s raining, leave it outside to drip in the umbrella-holders. No one is going to steal your umbrella because it’s Japan. Also, yes, you should certainly lock your bike, they do sometimes get stolen, but you don’t have to lock it around a pole or tree. The lock is fixed to the back of the bike. This is sufficient enough. No one’s going to steal it.


4. Mailmen come on Sundays at 6:00 at night. This blew my mind. I never expected to receive a package from my parents on a Sunday evening. It was so exciting.


5. Life is a constant battle of removing your shoes and putting them back on again. Of course, you remove your shoes at the “genkan”—entrance to a house, but you also remove them to step onto any tatami mat flooring (like where the instruments are kept in our orchestra room) or when you go to eat at a Japanese restaurant.


6. Paying “betsu betsu” is like pulling teeth with the restaurant staff. In the U.S., paying person-by-person with a split bill is no big deal. I don’t get it. It’s not a hard concept to understand, especially when your diners are single college students. My friends and I have gone to great lengths trying to properly split the bill.


7. Raw food is everywhere. I am still getting accustomed to this, but I really like it. Sashimi, sushi, fish eggs and raw chicken eggs galore. I haven’t gotten sick once, so I’m totally in favor of eating raw. It’s a whole different flavor.


8. On the topic of food: produce. Yes, I can attest that Japanese fruits and vegetables are unparalleled in their freshness and flavor. I’ve eaten the best kiwi, grapes, and melons here in Japan. However, I cannot bring myself to buy an apple for 200 yen. It’s ridiculous.


9. Also, for someone who is used to eating cheese on a daily basis, Japan is quite a hard place to live. They just don’t eat or sell cheese here. I’ve found some mozzarella cheese-sticks and that’s about it. (As an afterthought, I should have bought them.)


10. Lastly, phone-obsessed culture. Everyone, and I mean, everyone, has a cell-phone. I’ve even seen little fourth and fifth-graders with flip-phones. I thought the Americans were quite preoccupied with texting, games, social media, or talking on their phones. The Japanese are even more dependent on their phones. As someone who doesn’t really care to text and has close to zero apps on her phone, I hate this aspect of the culture. I’d much rather talk to someone in person than text them, and I’d rather use a computer than a phone for social networking.


11. (BONUS) Living alone in your own apartment is usual in Japan. For me, as someone who had 5 other roommates in my dorm suite last year, living alone is not all it owes up to be. Sure you can do whatever you want, whenever you want, but it’s quite lonely. I realize now that I don’t want to spend much of my life this way. For someone social like me, it’s not something I think I can do for much longer than a year. Maybe I’m still adjusting, but I still hate coming home to an empty, dark apartment and having no one to say, “Tadaima!” (I’m home!) to.

As well as my main topic, I'd like to introduce the lovely trip I went on with all the exchange students to Ureshino, Takeo, and Arita this past weekend. We were accompanied by "global leaders"—students that were both Japanese and foreign, to take care of us, so to speak. The staff of the international affairs division also came, as well as some teachers! The whole affair of being around your peers and teachers all the time was an unexpectedly nice experience. I feel like I got to know a different side of the people I see everyday. Furthermore, it was nice to get out of Saga to see a different part of Kyushu. I finally got to see some forests and rocky peaks which really don't exist on the flat agricultural plains of Saga, so I was in love with looking out the window. I love being a tourist too.

Wishes tied to branches of a tree at a Shinto shrine

Looking at the map of Mifuneyama's garden; full of sakura, azaleas, and Japanese maples with the backdrop of an impressive mountain.

An odd azalea flower blooming in late October. 

Taking the path down to the cave.

The Arita Porcelain Park's impressive European-style building and gardens inspired me!

An interesting wall with broken pieces of ceramics thrown in.

Another pretty piece of pottery

Lunch!

My friends posing with cosplayers! They were quite excited to be able to take a picture with them. And I think the feeling was mutual.

Tangerine-flavored soft serve!

The leaves of the Japanese maples in Mifuneyama were still quite green but magnificent reflected in the water of the pond. I want to return in a few weeks when they've changed to reds and oranges! There's a festival for the changing of colors there, but since I don't have a car, I don't think it's going to be possible to go! 

We stayed at the lovely Hotel Sakura overnight. It has a hot spring on the tenth floor, but I chickened out and didn't go in the end. However, the rooms and meals were spectacular.

Well, this was an unusually long post. Maybe it makes up for the fact that I didn’t write a post in the last two weeks? I hope this wasn't too much of a “downer” for those reading. I wanted to point that it’s not all roses and rainbows when studying abroad. Although I tend to look on the positive side of things 90% of the time, things definitely get me down too. Writing my thoughts down helps me get it off my chest though. As always, thanks for reading.

<3 Josie