Update on Japan

As an American that is so in love with Japanese Culture, I know some of the ins and outs that both Japanese and Americans when it comes to experiencing each other culture. Once interesting aspect of this how one expects the other to handle culture shock and become accustomed to their new live conditions/culture. Many times we do not expect a person from the opposite culture to internalize their society beyond what is expected and vice-verse. For example, One common thing to be easily accepted by Japanese when they come to live in America for long terms is to become Christian and sometimes adopt our bad eating habits which usually leads to them gaining weights. These are small things that are not to be usually expected, it seems that Japanese usually never lose their Japanese Character. On the other hand we American seem to blow to scale when we have the tendency to easily adapt the Japanese Character and being many Japanese to shock at our adaptation. We usually internalize it so when that we tend to start bowing while talking on the phone or quoting a kotowaza (Japanese Proverb) to make a point. According to an interesting online poll, some other things gaijin do that surprise Japanese include speaking using dialects like Osaka-ben, singing enka songs at karaoke, giving dates in the Japanese calender system (e.g. Showa 43 instead of 1968), drinking fruit-flavored milk with a hand on one hip after a bath, and sitting seiza, or in proper Japanese kneeling position. Another thing that surprises Japanese people is when foreigners are polite, or then they line up properly in crowds. When Japanese go drinking with a foreigner they always seem to expect them to order a Budweiser, since that's what all foreigners drink, right? But, I personally do not drink but I hear many gaijin tend to order popular Japanese drinks instead like atsukan, Hot Sake. The holy grail of a foreigner living in Japan is when a Japanese person temporarily forgets how to write a difficult kanji -- You know what I mean, we Americans usually call this a Brain Farts -- and you casually jot it down for them. I really wonder if this might happen to me someday.

Japanese Visa

It seems that more changes are coming for foreigners living in Japan, which will be welcomed indeed. Gaijin -- the work literary means "outsiders" -- living in Japan must naturally be registered with the Japanese government, and since 1952 foreigners have been issued an "alien registration card" which records the pertinent information Japanese officials might need access to. Not this card is going away, replaced by a streamlined ID card that embeds various information about cardholder in an IC chip. The new cards go out of their way to abolish the work "alien" (which a lot of people disliked), fingerprint information is also kept out of the registry system entirely (since it made honest foreigners feel like criminals). The new registration system being many improvements, including increasing the length of stay for most types of visa-holders and ending the requirements that zainichi ("residing in Japan") Koreans and Chinese, were born in Japan but maintain Korean and Chinese citizenship for cultural and/or political reasons, carry ID cards at all. Best of all, the "re-entry stamps" most foreign residents had to get before leaving the country (which required a day waiting in line and the local immigration office and cast $60 a year) are eliminated. The goal of the new system is to make gaijin feel more welcome in Japan and hopefully reverse the trend of foreigners leaving, just as the country needs them most. I know I feel a bit more confident that my stay in Japan one day will be much more pleasant because of these changes.