Culture Shock: A Firsthand Guide

Culture shock is a very real thing. It's something that can turn a wonderful trip into an absolute nightmare. All the exciting sights and sounds from when you first arrive suddenly become unwanted noise and irritatants. You get frustrated with the language, the culture, and just the life of your new place in general.

The bad news is that if you're planning on staying in a foreign country for over a few weeks, culture shock will almost-definitely hit you sometime. Of course it varies from person to person, but to an extent, everyone has it.

If you're thinking "Oh no, not me. I love Japanese culture!", sorry to tell you, but there's almost 100% chance it will hit you too.

I definitely did, and I had visited twice before moving to Japan long term.

Now the good news is that if you know about what's going to happen, you can make the experience a lot smoother. Something like knowing it's going to rain before the storm actually hits (don't get caught without an umbrella!).

When I first arrived in Japan I was told about the various stages of culture shock by my school conselor. Here is basically what they covered, interposed with my own experiences....

The First Stage

1)Honeymoon-This is the period when you first arrive. Everything feels really new and exciting. Especially in Japan, people will seem extremely friendly, and open to meeting you. The places you go will often feel fresh, and interesting. You will probably notice some negative aspects, but often they you'll just brush them aside due to your excitement. The language also isn't a big problem as you won't pay too much mind to it, discovering you'll still be able to get around fairly well. This phase can last anywhere from a week to over a month, but it's gotta end sometime.

My Story-Honeymoon: Before coming in the fall of 2007 year for college, I had traveled to Japan twice on vacation before, for about a month each time so I definitely had an idea of what to expect as far as Japanese culture and customs were concerned. Back then it was nothing short of a heaven on earth. I didn't care about smoking in restaurants, or cramming onto a train, it was as if I had entered a dream where a world I wanted was right in front of me. I found similarities between my hometown and Japan, and the differences were almost all good. Japanese customs were extremely interesting and I was keen to learn everything I could. It was absolutely wonderful. I also had this for a while at the beginning of my stay this time. Of course, it had to wear off eventually, and it did.

The Second Stage

2)Big Shock-The next phase of culture shock is when the honeymoon phase wears off, and you start to start to get homesick or notice all the negative things around you. You might get tired of the lifestyle you're living, struggles with the language, and perhaps you miss the way things were done at home, the food neighborhood, and so on. This is the part where people either give up or find out their new culture isn't for them and go back, or they stick it out, and enter the next phase. This can take from weeks to months to years.

My Story-Big Shock: I'm pretty fortunate that this phase didn't hit me too hard. There really was a point though, where I got frustrated with the Japanese lifestyle in general. “Why can't I just say no?”, “Why can't people talk more directly?”, “Tokyo life is way to fast!” are some of the things that went through my mind. Fortunately, I still loved the food. But still, mashed potatoes and gravy with a thanksgiving turkey had a real ring to it. Like I said though, I was the fortunate one. Other people around me were having culture shock much worse than me. Thankfully, I was able to take a trip back to California during winter break and things got better

The Final Stage

3)IntegrationThe final phase is an objective life in the new culture. You judge things like you did in your old culture, bad if they are and good if they are. You're still going to have problems, but you should be able to deal with them more objectively than before.

My Story-Integration: When I cam back from California after my winter vacation, I was genuinely happy to be back. Unlike when I first came though, I wasn't looking at the place in awe of it's big buildings and fast trains, it was just Japan. And there was nothing wrong with that.

Personal Note: There are a lot of things I still have trouble with in Japan. However, I still love it and am glad to be living here. I hope whoever reads this page can find the same love for it I have. Don't let culture shock stop you either.

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