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A trip abroad wouldn’t be a trip abroad without a few mishaps and culture shock moments. Those who say they never experienced any culture shock are LIARS, but culture shock isn’t usually as severe as some make you think. Most of the time you just laugh it off.
Mishaps
- My bed broke! It was my 2nd or 3rd night in Iida when I decided to go to bed early. I laid down and decided that I needed to pop my back. So I began to stretch when all the sudden half of my bed collapsed! I was so tired and shocked, I just pulled the matress onto the floor and fell asleep. There I slept several days until I decided it’d be best just to sleep Japanese style. I had bought the bed from my predecessor and it was really shoddy; the part that holds the matress up was a bunch of flimsy boards stapled across an equally flimsy frame. My caretaker’s family helped haul the mess away. What they’ll do with it.. fix it up or burn it.. I don’t know (or care really.)
- Standing people up. The first week was so tiring with everything that I’ve had to do, I forgot to go to at least one event, and upon going to my 2nd high school yesterday, I forgot i was suppose to meet one of the teachers at the train station. I just walked to school. That’s not good anywhere, but as long as I don’t make that mistake anymore, I think it’ll be ok.
- I didn’t realize that I needed to plug in a small adapter that I already had to my phone charger first in order for it to charge my phone so I ended waited around for a weekend with a dying phone for no reason.
Shocks
- My phone can turn into a tv!
- Scented toliet paper is the norm. I ended up buying Japanese grape scented~
- Paper towels are little stronger than napkins and come in a tissue box.
- My kitchen looks like a commercial kitchen, all stainless steel. At first I thought that was weird, but I guess not so much. I mean, my boyfriend’s kitchen is 70s styled in his apartment in the US. Stainless steel is timeless.
- Stocking your kitchen is a bit annoying at times. What the heck did I eat last summer? Seems like it was easier then.
- English textbooks can help me learn Japanese.
- My tub. I guess my tub is alittle clogged or something, because when I have the water on for over 30 seconds or so, water will spill out into a little drainage area outside the tub and preceed to flood the bathroom. The fact that there’s an area for water to flow into ouside the tub itself is a little strange.
- No airconditioning. Not a shock, just a little sad. But I think I’ll just deal with it instead of buying an airconditioning unit. Besides, the school doesn’t have airconditioning either. Might as well get used to it.
- Cats are bad for tatami mats.
- Buying an oven. So the range part of the oven and the actual oven are two different things. I bought a small oven from my predecessor, but had no range. Faced with the problem of having to spend $200 on a decent range, it turned out that another JET who just left the program left his range behind. It was really gross - had to spend an hour cleaning it, but hey, it works and beggars can’t be choosers.
- What Japanese teachers have to put up with. This year two JETs left my high school and two new ones (me and another guy) came in. One JET in particular left his house absolutely disgusting, forcing the Japanese teachers to clean it up in their spare time. I’m lucky these high schools didn’t say, “Forget it! We’ll get ALTs from Altia or JapanInterac.”
- Shy, keep-to-yourself Japanese. I’d forgotten how much Japanese people are like this, because my greatest memories from last summer were of my wonderful host family and the members of the Imada troupe. On the train, on the streets, etc. people ignore you, probably because they think you don’t know any Japanese, or they just don’t know what to say. It can be discouraging at times, but from now on I’ll keep saying “Ohayo-gozaimasu” to everyone and hope for the best. (Also, I force some students to talk with me while walking to school every day. They have no choice. XD ) This means, however, that when Ryan moves to Japan he’ll be in paradise. XD
- How much you don’t know. I found out my Japanese is only decent when making introductions and other light conversation. In other areas, however, my Japanese isn’t good at all. Time to study.
Good news though, my apartment is pretty much all set up now and looks good. While it is farther away, it is the newest and niceset teacher apartment complex around, which means no ‘ghetto-style’ living for me. I’m guessing two or three people could spend the night here pretty comfortably so I look forward to playing host sometime. 
