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Published: July 26th 2008
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Well, that's it. I'm officially the last of the language school gaijins in Japan.
Well, not
all the language school gaijins, that would be a bold, ridiculous statement to make considering how many foreigners come here to study, but I am the last one out of my group of friends I went to school with when I first arrived.
The second last to depart these fine shores is Italian Jane from Germany. We met up at Mysterious in Shinjuku to have a few drinks and a massive catch up as I haven't seen her since she flew to South Korea to get her Japanese visa re-issued. It was soooooo much fun to see her, I found out to my absolute joy that all the frustrations I'd been going through about 2 weeks ago was almost identically mirrored by Jane as well. So after tirelessly going through the list of things that had aggravated us so completely before and comparing notes on how we got over being so pissy we sat down and made a list of all the Japanesey things we do now by matter of habit, that we will probably do back home accidentally, but not realise it at the time and all of our friends will laugh at us and think we're being either show offs or wankers.
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Sumimasen This is the first one on Janes list, as she used this word far too many times when in Korea, where, unfortunately they didn't understand her, being as they speak Korean and not Japanese
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Daijoubou This is one of my favourite over used words. It means "I'm OK, You're OK, It's OK." Why should I have to say 6 different words when I can just say one? Well, because no one in Sydney will understand the one word that I say and I will have to explain it, which will take a lot more than 6 words and to do that I'll have to explain that I just came back from Japan, and people will just think I'm being a show off.
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Arrigato, Domo, Janai, Hai, Iie, Damai, Dozo "Thank you, Thanks, Good bye, Yes, No, Really No, Here you are". Very common words. Used all the time in Japan, unfortunately not used in either of our circle of friends in Germany and Australia.
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Adding San, Chan and Khun to everyones names -
Giving the peace sign in photos As supported by photographic evidence on the left side of this page.
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The massive arm cross When Japanese people say no they don't just shake their heads, they hold both arms in front of them in a massive X, shake their heads and say No. Once we got over the initial shock of someone physically blocking us for a simple question like "Does this train go to Akabane?" We both took to it luck Ducks to water. I have done it so many times in class that I do it now without thinking, I dread to think about how much my sister will laugh at me when I casually block her with both arms, shake my head and say No when she asks me quite simply if I want another drink from the bar. (Although if my sister was offering to go to the bar for me, I doubt I would say no, so that's a bit of a poor example)
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Not pushing and Pushing to get on a train In Japan you stand to the side in an ordered line and wait for everyone to get on the train, and then you file on calmly. If there is no more room in a carriage you just turn your back on people and push and push until there is room and no one gets mad at you for doing it. If I can't fix my Japanese train habits before I get to Sydney I could get into a lot of trouble as it's pretty much reversed there. Everyone pushes like mad to get onto the train, and once you're on the train, if someone tries to get into a almost full carriage there's a lot of eye rolling and muttering under the breath about "no space"
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Chopsticks I cook with them, I eat with them, I live by them on a daily basis. Knives are now cruel strangers in my life.
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Footwear In Japan I have indoor slippers (for home), indoor shoes (for school), balcony shoes (for home), outdoor shoes (between home and school) and toilet slippers (that one's obvious). Jane and I agreed that the one thing we really don't want to do when we get home, but may do accidentally, is take our shoes off when we go to a restaurant. Quite common in Japan, but major faux pas in both Berlin and Sydney.
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Bowing We agreed this will be the hardest one for both of us. On average I bow about 40 times a day, I have a whole bunch of different bows, there's the shopkeeper bow (slight tilt of the head), the parents of my students bow (quite a deep face to the floor scenario) Sanaes Mum spoiling me again bow (quite fast bobbing kind of thing), The giving up my seat for the old lady on the train bow (very gentle and polite tilt of the head) and of course the dancing school bow (red faced, panting, facing the floor and clapping at the same time).
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