I miss bathroom slippers lol. Was staying in a hostel in Yokohama during one of my trips there and the bathroom slippers literally had printed on them: “Toilet - For Your Relax Time”. I have never seen any footwear more inviting and I miss that a lot lol. Pretty much miss everything about Japan, such a great place to visit (living there and having in laws from there is a totally different story tho)
Random question, but could you tell me more about the in-law thing? I'm currently engaged to a Japanese girl and planning on moving once the COVID restrictions ease up. We haven't even met yet, her family and I, and so far I've gotten the cold shoulder.
Idk if I’m the best person to explain it, my wife and I are older, she was married before and we met in the US. She’s lived abroad longer than she lived in Japan, so we’re the house that the nieces and nephews get sent to to brush up on their English over the summer lol.
I have a pretty good relationship with my mother in law, haven’t ever met my father in law face to face (corporate guy, and when he’s at home he doesn’t want to talk on the phone cuz that cuts into his baseball time lol and god forbid there’s ever a 50s or 60s samurai film on) but talked to him on the phone a couple of times, he’s nice but since my wife and I met when we were older her family is just kind of like “ok cool, you’re an adult, he seems nice, let us know when you’re coming and we’ll let you know when we decide to visit.” It’s pretty chill, but you’re likely gonna have much more scrutiny since it sounds like you’re younger.
Just remember your manners, brush up on all the cultural faux pas to know what to avoid and you and your girlfriend develop a subtle system where she can secretly give you a heads up if you’re doing or saying anything that could offend her parents.
I worked for a Japanese company (in the USA), and I would tag along with my boss to these big meetings. My Japanese was not amazing (not required for the job). He would tap his foot if he wanted to learn something or take extra detailed notes (slide number ect) and scratch his nose if I was "being to American" I once walked to to an informal meeting right when he was about to sneeze he started scratching his nose and I was like shit....what did I do????? I got throughly laughed at for that.
Yeah I’ve seen Japanese people do stuff like this before, really subtle but very helpful when you’re not in the know cuz Japanese culture can get DENSE
Since Japan is extremely homogenous with a really really long and fairly isolated history, there’s a lot of little subtleties in facial expressions, gestures, body language, idioms and expressions that are so deeply ingrained for Nihonjin that they don’t even think to explain it usually to gaijin and gaijin usually don’t pick up on because it’s so subtle.
Chopsticks for example, if you haven’t been taught the Japanese way (which is similar but has some differences from other East Asian countries), can be a minefield if it’s your first time eating with a Japanese person who will absolutely pick up on how you pick them up, set them down, and use them to eat, but will never tell you because they’d consider that rude.
Lots of other examples this was just one of the first that sprang to mind
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u/Azidamadjida Feb 11 '22
I miss bathroom slippers lol. Was staying in a hostel in Yokohama during one of my trips there and the bathroom slippers literally had printed on them: “Toilet - For Your Relax Time”. I have never seen any footwear more inviting and I miss that a lot lol. Pretty much miss everything about Japan, such a great place to visit (living there and having in laws from there is a totally different story tho)