And I’m here with my friend Rachel today

Hi! From Rachel and Jun

So as you guys know we’ve been living in Korea for about seven years now

And Rachel’s been living in Japan for about a year but

you’ve been going back and forth there for, what, like

Five years. Five years or so, so

when we go to Japan to visit her, we experience a lot of cultural differences

and when Rachel comes to Korea she’s like, whoa, what’s happening here?

so today we’re going to talk about

some of the cultural differences when visiting each other’s countries

-Voice Pitch-

There’s a lot of really high pitched voices in Japan

So when you got to Starbucks and they say, like

good morning to us is not like OHIO GOZAYMAS

It’s like HI! OHIO GOZAYMAS!

Really high and cute, and I’m like WHOA!

How are you doing that. In Korea there isn’t really any voice change

We have, like Aegyo, when you’re trying to be cute

and you’re like “OPPA! WAYGOORAY!”

But it’s mostly like, kind of a flirty thing, right.

It’s not flirty in Japan right?

No, no. I do know some people who genuinely have high pitched voices

but Japanese as a language is spoken higher in your throat,

so it’s more natural to come out very high pitched,

I do it automatically, like, so many of my female friends do it

without realizing when they speak Japanese

Yeah, I’ve recorded some things in Japanese sometimes on my channel,

and I’ve looked through it later like WHAT?!?! WHAT?!?!?

WHAT AM I DOING?!?!?!?

And I have to force myself to speak very low

No, you know what? That makes sense!

Because I’ll notice that rather saying to someone like

ARIGATO, I’ll be like

HAI! ARIGATO GOZAYMAS! I’m already changing my pitch

It feels like that what you should do, right? So

But it’s still pretty shocking to me because

I really feel like I’m watching a cartoon.

-Music Law-

I will tell you something else that really stood out to me in Korea

The streets that I’ve walked down,

All of the streets have the doors open

And they’re just, like, blaring Kpop music out onto the streets

You can hear it everywhere

You want to hear something funny?

When we first arrived in Korea, umm, every single shop,

like, not even a clothing store, like every single store

would blast music so obnoxiously,

so you couldn’t sleep at nighttime, uh huh

and eventually they had to put a ban on noise pollution

REALLY?! OMG!

And so when we were in Hongdae that sound of music

Is, like, way quieter than it used to me.

Oh my god!

So I’m like, “I can hear myself speaking now!”

But it’s still really, really loud.

But I’ve noticed in Japan there’s, like, 8bit midi music being, like,

I go grocery shopping and it sounds like an elevator, like, elevator music,

like, it’s like

It’s the weirdest thing

My first year I was in Japan I was like

Wow! This is so unique, but now actually,

I want to hear real music. I’m tired of the,

it sounds like the 80s cellphone ringtones

Yeah…80s! WHOA! 90s cellphone ringtones.

Maybe, 80s?! They’re like 80s called and said it didn’t have a cellphone yet!

So, every time I’m out now it’s so noticeable,

and every five minutes I’m like, I know this song!

What song is this?

And then I have to pause for 30 seconds until I can remember

figure out the song

Jun! Jun! Who is this!

And he’s like Oh, this is AKB48

And I’m like OH RIGHT!!!!

So, then, you don’t mind the noisiness in Korea

like for the restaurants and stuff

Yeah, yeah, I…it’s loud and everywhere, but I like having words

and like real instruments. And. Gotcha. Yeah.

-City Sounds-

I’ll tell you a culture shock I didn’t expect to have, yes,

Korea is a very loud place, and it is very 24/7

Seoul is a city that never sleeps, uh huh,

I’ve gotten so used to hearing noise all the time and constantly,

that when Simon and I come to Japan and we’re walking down the street

It’s like maybe 8PM, on a Thursday, we’re going grocery shopping,

It is so pin drop quiet,

and I actually got anxious

SOMETHING’S GONNA HAPPEN! THERE’S A ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE!

I could hear the ringing in my ears

People are just, like, really respectful of noises here

and you don’t want to be super loud and inconvenience other people

Like, this is a problem that I still have,

without realizing it, I’ll talk very loudly,

especially in America, my family talks REALLY LOUDLY

WE’RE SHOUTING AT EACH OTHER ALL THE TIME,

So, like, even now, after five years,

sometimes we’ll be in public and Jun’s like SHHHHHH!!!

and I’m like “I didn’t even notice!”

Oh, we’ve been shushed on the subway and busses,

like, I think we’ve gotten better since being in Korea for seven years,

but, like, when we first came, 100% we got shushed.

SSSHHHH! And Simon and I are like

I didn’t even notice! I know!

Foreign struggles

-Color-

So one thing I’ve noticed when I’ve been to Korea

The temples that I’ve seen in Korea

are very brightly coloured, like super bright paint

Like that aqua, right! But generally a lot of the temples and shrines

that I’ve seen here in Japan are just kind of like

their natural wood colour. Ohh!

Very nature-ey, and like,

it feels more like, you know, it’s set into nature

it feels a little more mystical to me.

I’m not really into colourful things, so…

I’m not really into the neon coloured temples of Korea

For the first time here in Japan, just yesterday,

visiting Kyoto, so the temples there were a very bright red

but there was a little bit of green lining to it

-TAXI-

Korean taxis are super affordable,

it’s very expensive in Japan

and it looks that way, so when you approach a taxi driver

they have suits on, and some of them have little white gloves,

Yeah, yeah. THE DOORS OPEN LIKE MAGIC!!!

Don’t touch the doors.

You don’t touch the doors, guys!

I’m talking, the door just swings open like magic!

And Simon and I can’t break that habit,

because in Korea you have to open the door to get in

like other parts of the world I guess!

Here it’s like, you go to touch it, and you see them inside being like

and then the door just swings open and you’re like

What!

And you get in, and it closes automatically!

However, what I will say is, Rachel, yes.

I have a concern. Yes.

All your Taxi Drivers are dying!

They’re like, 90.

They’re adorable! They’re so cute looking,

and they’re very polite, quiet,

but they look like they’re dying, like

we had a guy that we handed the phone to,

and he pulled out an actual magnifying glass,

and then switched on a light on the bottom

that could shine on our phone.

Are you sure you should be driving?

And then another guy tried to help us with our luggage,

And then Simon’s like NO PLZ NO

And the guy is like HHHHHRRRRRGGGGG

But I never feel like I’m in danger in a Japanese taxi,

and I never feel like I’m going to throw up.

Have you taken taxis in Korea? Yeah! Yeah.

I’ve taken taxis, and one of my friends in Korea

has told me something that seems to be true

You have taxis in Korea, where the taxi driver’s really nice and talkative

and they just talk to you the whole time

and then you have taxi drivers in Korea

who are really angry that they’re driving you somewhere

I mouthed the word, I didn’t even…I literally mouthed the word “angry”?

Cuz I was gonna say…

There like, they seem inconvenienced

that you’re paying them to drive you somewhere

and they drive like…they’re gonna crash.

I was really afraid that I was gonna throw up,

and he was angry at us, because he stopped a block earlier

than what we asked him to, and we were like,

can you just…we’re the next block

and he’s like just…I’ll just stop here

And we’re like “you can drive us more”

And he’s like no, this is good.

I was like, why, why is it a problem to drive us?

We’re gonna pay you more! You’ll get more money!

This is such a common problem. That’s why I can’t say

that I hate Korean taxis because I’m split between the two,

You definitely have the ones that are super happy

They want to hear where you’re from,

they want to practice their English,

They’re like really excited that you’re in Korea.

For those of you who visit Korea you might have

the really nice awesome drivers and you might have the angry ones,

but try not to let them taint your experience of Korea,

-Question-

Have you guys ever traveled to two different countries

and experienced a culture shock when you thought they would be the same?

Like, I feel like we could have the same thing about America and Canada

Yeah! We’re like so close by each other, right,

but if I travel to America I experience culture shock immediately,

like Fahrenheit. OH YEAH! What is that, guys?

I know something that happened to Simon and I in Japan,

We were in Tokyo, and we were going to a maid cafe,

and something really crazy happened, but

I’m gonna talk about that on your channel actually!

Oh right! Yeah! So I think if you guys click over here

or here or somewhere here, it’s gonna take you over to Rachel’s channel,

and we’re going to continue our discussion.

We have at least three more points that we want to talk about in comparison

and make sure you subscribe to Rachel and Jun. Thank you!

You have excellent adventures in Japan. Aww!

Yeah, so, let’s head over to your channel now. Whoo!

I’m taking my imaginary stairs. Hahaha.

Well, I ran out the window