Wednesday, October 8, 2014

The different ways to live between US and Japan

I'm from Japan, and I'm living in US, but there are especially three different ways to live between two countries. First of all, the way to use a bathroom is definitely different. In Japan, almost all bathrooms are separated from restrooms and rooms where I take off clothes, and we have bigger bathrooms. Then I can take clothes off in a big space, wash my body and hair by sitting a chair, and sit and stay in a bathtub to make my body hot and relax for a long time. However, all bathrooms in US are unit bath, and people do nothing but taking shower for instance. Some American think that they want to save time to take shower and save water. In contrast, some Japanese likely to spend about 1 hour staying bathroom to recover from fatigue, so I'm missing Japanese bathroom. Second, the way to wear my shoes is different. While I take my shoes off in my house in Japan, I never do so except for the time when I sleep on my bed in US. Japanese people consider that entering in a house with shoes is dirty and impolite. Then I think it is better for us to take shoes off in house so that we can clean our house easily. Third, traffic rules in US is different from those of Japan. Drivers have to sit on right side of seat in cars and drive left side on road in Japan, which are totally opposite in US. Also, it is very confusing for me to understand traffic lights in US. Traffic rights is Japan is very simple. For example, if a right turns into green, we can go, and if it turns in to red, we must stop. However, in US, I sometimes get confused with rules on traffic lights and mistake to go ahead, then some cars honk a horn. In addition, many people drive too fast despite there are limits of speed, so I am always scared while I driving with my friends or mothers here. In short, I have difficulty in getting accustomed to live in US because there are many differences from Japan, but it is good for me to learn different culture.

1 comment:

  1. The bathrooms here are really different, but for me it's different because I had no bathtub at home. While the traffic, you can believe that here is much more relaxed than in my country, because we have many reckless drivers. In Brazil the traffic light is equal to that of Japan, but here, the cars can turn right even when the signal is red.

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