Subtitles section Play video Print subtitles Hey guys! Today we're going to talk about some of the things that we didn't do before we got to Japan and now we do because everyone does it here. Yeah. Okay, so something that I love that most foreigners still don't like. And a lot of Japanese people don't like, either, so this isn't even like "ooo~ so Japanese". I LOVE SQUAT TOILETS! I know, not many people do. NO. Not many Japanese people do, either. Because half the time when I'm in line waiting and a squat toilet opens up everyone in line is looking around like "Go ahead." That's me. And I'm like "I'll go!" I love them! They're so convenient and quick to use and you don't have to be butt buddies with someone. I don't want to sit on a seat that someone else's butt sat on. That's just... weird. It grosses me out. That's true, it is kind of gross. So I like that I don't have to touch anything. One thing that I started doing when I moved to Japan is wearing a white surgical mask when I'm sick or when I just have a sore throat. Or sometimes even when it's just cold out I'll wear it because the hot breath against your face warms up your face. Right. So if I have to ride a bike or something I'll put a mask on so I can protect my face from the cold wind. Right! I get wind burn really easily when it's cold outside. So my face will be really red, almost like a sunburn. So it really helps protect against that. Yeah, they're awesome. I don't LIKE having something over my face... but I got sick a lot the first year that I moved here, especially sore throats. They were always colds with sore throats. And it's really painful to breathe dry air or cold air. So I always wore one because it would warm up my air and keep my air moist when I was breathing it in and out, so it didn't hurt my throat as much. I would actually go to sleep with one on when I had a sore throat just because that's the worst, waking up in the morning with a dry, scratchy throat. Yeah. I love them. So that's really convenient. But when I go back to Canada and I put one on... I had one on in the airport in Vancouver and someone actually stopped me. Omg, really? The security there. They were like "Why are you wearing a mask? Do you have a contagious disease?" I'm like "No, it's a Japanese thing! Sorry, I'll take it off. I'm not gonna kill you." That's awkward. Yeah. But Canadians don't wear them. Yeah. I don't even remember what it's like not to think they're normal. Right? But yeah, if I was in America again and I had never come to Japan and I saw someone with a face mask I'd be like... "Oh they must have some kind of disease..." "What happened?" Okay, so, another thing that has changed is-- I still talk really loudly myself, sometimes. But when I'm on a train I'm very quiet. And now I get really annoyed if people are talking on the train. Oh god, don't go back to America. I know! If someone is not using their indoor voice on a train around me then I'm like looking at Jun like "These guys are so NOISY!!" Just like glaring at them, being the old, cranky lady on the bus. Glaring at the teenagers. I just wanna enjoy my quiet train ride! Yeah, that's so funny. You get used to stuff like that that didn't used to bother you. I know. Another thing that I don't really do anymore... I never did it too much in America. But, you kind of have to dress up more in Japan than in America. People don't really wear sweats out in public. Or, women don't go out with makeup... hardly ever? Yeah, they'll put SOMETHING on. Lipstick or mascara or something. Or draw their eyebrows on. Whereas in Canada I'd go outside in my sweats. Like if I just woke up and I want to walk down the street to my grandma's house, which is just a few blocks away, I'll literally just wear my pajamas and no makeup. But in Japan people feel the need to put on real clothes even if they're just going a short distance. Right. So that kind of changed. When I'm back in Canada I still do the Canadian stuff, though. I'm like "Oh, finally!" I can just wear my sweats everywhere! I still go without makeup sometimes out in public here because I don't feel like I'm THAT bad without makeup. But I do wear normal clothes. I wouldn't go out in pajamas here. I'd feel really embarrassed. I mean, I felt embarrassed in America going out in pajamas, but if it was late at night or I was sick I would just be like, "I DON'T CARE. I'M SICK. I'M GOING TO WEAR MY PAJAMAS OUTSIDE. I'LL DO WHAT I WANT." Here I wouldn't do that. Yeah. I'd feel really awkward. And just to kind of balance this out a little bit: a couple things that we HAVEN'T adapted to being here in Japan. Like Japan is very cutesy when it comes to girls' clothes. Bows and lace and frills. Yeah, and baggy, poofy, not form-fitting at all. I like clothes that form fit my body. Same. I think those flatter our body types a lot more. We have curves so if you add bagginess to that it doesn't look good. It looks REALLY cute on Japanese girls and you know I'm cool with whatever style people want to wear. But I don't like looking cutesy. So I don't do big cutesy eye makeup or anything. I stick with Western cat eye, winged eye. I do like the tights. Like the thigh-high tights. Yeah, there are some Japanese fashion things that I've incorporated that I really like. But just not the super cutesy stuff. One Japanese thing that I haven't really adapted to would be eating rice with EVERY. MEAL. Oh yeah. Like if I'll be hanging out with my Japanese friends, "Oh what do you want to have for lunch?" And I'll just be like "Oh, let's go grab something small like a sandwich and a salad at a cafe or something. I'm not really that hungry." But they'll eat that and they'll be like "Oh I don't feel like it's food if it doesn't have rice." Like it doesn't count as a meal if it doesn't have rice. I hear that so often. You can get full on other things. It doesn't have to be rice! They have this mindset that you need the rice to get filled up. When we travel, Jun was so excited when we went to Indonesia because they ate a lot of rice. And so he was like "I'm finally somewhere where I can get my rice!" He misses it when we're in America. We had to get a rice cooker when he's there so he can eat rice with his meals. Because he really misses it. And I totally understand that. If you grow up with something then you get used to it. Like I grew up with pizza. That's probably like bread. Right. If I all of a sudden couldn't have any bread, I'd probably be pretty pissed. Or maybe it's like us with cereal. Yeah. Another thing that I am a little ridiculously opinionated about in Japan is Japanese people back into parking spaces. Like always. Yeah, like 90% of the time. No, not even 90%. Like 100%. I don't think I've ever seen anyone pull into into a parking space. It's very rare. If you go to a parking lot, almost everyone has backed into the parking space. And the reasons I get for this is, "It's more convenient when I want to pull out" or "It's safer when I want to pull out so I can see and I don't run over any little kids." Well you know what? In America I backed out of all my parking spaces and I don't even have the little camera and I've never run over a little child. But like you could be running over the kids when you're backing into it? It's literally the same thing. You have to back in one way or the other. You're either going to back in or you're going to back out. Yeah, I've always found that really ridiculous. I know! And what gets me about it is it takes MORE EFFORT to back into a parking space because it's a smaller area than it takes to back out of a parking space. So you are spending more time backing into a parking space than you would be backing out. So it takes you more time in the end. If you're talking about efficiency, that argument does not work. I am very absurdly opinionated about this. Leave your arguments in the comments if you disagree with us. Why you should back into a parking space. Jun does it all the time. Every single time he backs into a parking space. Except on the very rare occasion he'll pull in, and he'll announce it to me because it's so unusual. He's like "RACHEL I PULLED INTO A SPACE!" and I'm like "YEAH!" Omg. So that's our lives. That's how we live. All right, so those were ways that we know we've been in Japan too long, and also a couple of things that we don't do here in Japan. Thank you for watching! Bye!
A2 US parking parking space japanese rice wear space How we know we've been in Japan too long PART 2 263 28 gotony5614.me97 posted on 2016/07/15 More Share Save Report Video vocabulary