Culture Shock and Awe

This morning I woke up with a little black cloud of culture shock hanging over my head. If you’ve never experienced culture shock, it’s like culturally-induced claustrophobia, and involves a general disdain for whatever it is about the culture that you find different, uncomfortable, or shocking. Once you get it in your head, it’s really hard to get it out. The resolution to culture shock is acceptance and assimilation (finding ways to exist within the confines of the culture).

As I was headed downstairs for breakfast, I was just hoping I wouldn’t have fish on my breakfast plate. I also thought, “If I see any more seaweed, pickled plums, or ramen noodles on my table, I’m going to scream!” Guess which of them were on my plate? Yep. All three. Hahaha… but don’t worry; I didn’t scream!

For my processing purposes, and probably for your entertainment value, I offer the following mind-boggling components of my culture shock (not all of them are bad things):

• Why, in a place so obsessed with hygiene, is there rarely toilet paper in public bathrooms?
• Why, in a place so obsessed with hygiene, is it so difficult to find warm water, soap, and any form of hand-drying in public bathrooms?
• (side note: I have to point out that Japan is much cleaner than, say, Paris or Barcelona, whose lack of public restrooms leaves the bladder-full to their own devices.)
• Why pickle fruits? Why can’t I just eat them fresh? Really.
• I am SO sick of ramen. Udon noodles are still good.
• Why are “fashionable” women the same ones who can barely walk in their pointy-toed stilettos and boots by 10am? Is it really fashionable to hobble? (Honestly, I think this is more than just Japanese culture, but it's very noticeable here!)
  
• I am amazed that no one here owns a Bluetooth headset or walks around talking to themselves. I’m really impressed with the commitment to not talking on the phone in crammed, public places (such as the subway or train). I have yet to hear a Japanese person’s annoying ringtone (at all, much less at an inopportune time/place). I also have not heard someone screaming/talking loudly into their phone in public. I can vaguely remember a time in my life when people didn’t do this in the States.
• No matter how crowded it has been in a public space, I have not been pushed or shoved like I was in Europe.

Here are some things I’ve had to deal with to stay sane:

• Trying to get around without knowing all the Kanji on signs can be exceptionally frustrating, and often makes me spend more time than I want to just trying to get around.
• It’s emotionally trying to lose time because I can’t figure out which train/bus/stop to take. So far, I’ve dealt with this with some “self-soothing”. I just have to remind myself that I’ll get there when I get there. This is supposed to enjoyable, even if I don’t consider it a vacation. I’m not going to enjoy it if I’m all stressed out over the clock. (There have only been a few exceptions to this rule, such as the last ferry of the night to Hiroshima and back to Miyajima Island, and a few incidents that involved me running to a train station.)
  
• Yep. The schedule. “The schedule”, I have to remind myself. It’s better to enjoy what I am seeing than to be stressed out or hurried through everything. Oddly enough, the only things I’ve really had to hurry through were the World Heritage sites. (Hmm… what a strange coincidence!) I didn’t really have time to appreciate them when I was standing right there. Like the pyramids in Mexico, I have a feeling it will take me awhile to fully absorb the whole experience.

Sound repetitive? It’s even more challenging because it is a recurring problem!