13 NEW HABITS since moving to JAPAN!....part 1??

today we are talking about 13 new habits that i have since living in japan i have lived in japan for two years and i've had a lot of requests to make videos about culture shocks and things like that but i'm kind of past the point of the culture shock realm where i'm now at the point where things are just a habit now i absolutely love making videos like this so of course if you have other video recommendations let me know i actually have like a long list of things and had to narrow it down just to 13. what i really want to know from you guys in this video is if you do live in japan and you've been here for a long period of time if any of this stuff actually resonates with you like if you find yourself doing the same things if you've also lived or traveled abroad to other countries if you have developed new habits that you still continue to do to this day my experiences in japan could be vastly different from other foreigners this is just all to say like my new habits since living in japan habit number one is i have joined a religion a cult if you will and you might be wondering hmm that's very interesting because there are a lot of cults in japan which is true but the one that i'm a part of i think a lot of you guys are too especially if you've been a long time subscriber and that is the church of konbini [Music] the church of combini this is more of a joke than anything else but it is definitely a cult following and i am proudly a part of it basically what conbini is is it means convenience store and i'm really fascinated with convenience store or kombini culture in japan i go all the time like i would even dare say like once a day that doesn't mean i always buy something there but i get my coffee from there i get snacks sometimes i pick up dinner that's where i withdraw my money i can pick up packages order cakes print and buy tickets like you can do everything at the convenience store so if you guys know anything about lawson's 7-eleven and family mart and you are also a follower of that welcome to the church of konbini back home in the states like i do not go to convenience stores for like meals if anything i really only stop at them when i'm getting gas and then other things but here in japan konbini's like convenience stores like are not gas stations i go there for like everyday life things so that's definitely a new habit of mine that i will truly miss when i move to the states or somewhere else in the future the second habit that i've developed since living in japan is doing things alone so there's a few different aspects that play into this so the first one is the impact of covid right so we have this whole past year year and a half where getting in social groups just really isn't the best idea and i don't want to wait on my friends co-workers or my husband to do anything we have very different work schedules as well so i'm just not gonna wait for people if i want to go do something i would just go do it on the other hand the cultural impact i guess that i've seen on me is that i feel really safe doing things alone i've done solo travel trips before i feel just very very safe especially as a female traveler japan has one of the lowest crime rates in the entire world so i just feel comfortable doing things alone it's really not weird people don't really stare at you like i don't feel out of place if i'm sitting at a ramen bar like a lot of those people are just eating alone as well whereas back in the states i would have felt very uncomfortable or weird at a restaurant eating alone i don't know so yeah i do things alone all the time the third habit that has changed since living in japan is a complete direct result of the culture and that is going to be dressing more modestly so before i lived in san diego and it was a beach town so crop tops tank tops like short dresses things like that was like the style of living at the beach but that is not the case in japan you don't really dress athleisure going out in town you don't wear like leggings and a crop top and a tank top like you will get stared at it's not that i necessarily care like what people think of me because i think that when you are a foreigner you can get away with wearing certain things that maybe other people who are locals may not however i would rather just like blend into the society and yeah just try to be respectful and i tend to go for things with sleeves and longer dresses things that are flowy especially in the summertime those are going to be things that you want to wear um because the sun is actually pretty brutal here the summers are like horrible they're horrible i'm just gonna say it those summers are horrible so you want to protect your arms and yeah dressing more modest for sure so the fourth habit that i have started as a culture shock but is now a complete habit like i do this without even thinking and that is bowing so if any of you have watched any videos about people's culture shocks like this just had to be on my list so whether i'm answering a phone call or even getting on skype to meet with my japanese teacher i'm bowing like everything is always a bow and something that i catch myself doing that i just don't think about at first and then i catch myself giggling is so when you're even driving a car in japan and say you get in like a situation with another driver and you wanted to thank them in the states i would do like a little hand wave like hey thanks man um but in japan it's always a bow so you bow for everything and there's different types of bowels depending on how deep your bowel is shows a different sign of respect it felt so uncomfortable the very first time like i i did it but now it's like complete habit all the time even if i'm talking to my friends who are also foreigners we bow fifth habit that i have now is studying every day every single day i'm studying japanese i think that it is so crucial and important for at least my experience in japan to know and understand the language when i first lived here i did not know like any japanese and i started studying it because it just opens up a whole new world and experience when you live here just being able to go and make friends who are japanese or have conversations with my neighbors makes it so much more rewarding so the discipline of studying every single day is definitely going to be number five on my list it is totally a habit whether i'm using flashcards or rosetta stone or just going through my genki textbooks i'm studying every single day speaking of discipline and studying every day which is not something i necessarily always like to do i think this is a perfect opportunity to segue into today's sponsor which is rosetta stone my husband and i have been using rosetta stone since october or november and i love their software there really is a reason that it's been around for such a long time and it's regarded as one of the best language learning softwares out there so what they're offering you guys today is lifetime access to their software for 179 doll hairs you can flip-flop through all the languages as well right now i have my main setting on japanese but then i'm also dabbling in spanish and then eventually i would really like to go to korea when things lighten up so i kind of dabble in korean as well it saves your progress on the courses that you're taking and i really like that they have an accent correction software so you basically speak into it and if you get the accent wrong it'll have you redo it and my japanese teacher has totally noticed a difference in my accent it sounds so much more natural it also gives me a lot more confidence because i can practice on rosetta stone anytime i want i have it on my cell phone i have it on my desktop i also have it on my ipad if you guys are interested in trying rosetta stone make sure you use the link in my description i promise you won't regret it it's definitely an investment within yourself and yeah lifetime access to the software for 179 number six on my list is elongating words which it sounds crazy but in japanese like if you want to say something's cute like kawaii like that's how i learned it but in real life you go kawaii you drag it out or if somebody's talking to you they're like eh like huh it's like like you just kind of exaggerate your expressions a lot more when you're speaking japanese or at least that's one of the habits that i have now number seven on my list i don't know if you want to call it a habit or a hobby but it's definitely something that i may not have done if i hadn't moved to japan and that is collecting pottery specifically japanese ceramics and pottery i do take pottery lessons but i will even take trips to go pottery shopping and if you see behind me i had a custom shelf built just so i could display all of my pieces and what i really love about my pottery collection is that whenever i pick up a piece or i use it on a daily basis i can specifically remember who i was with where i got it what i was feeling so it's like picking up like memories so yeah that's number seven number eight is that i do not get my nails done as often if anything i will typically do them myself so i currently have a really wonderful manicure i'm kind of at a point right now where my youtube channel is doing really great and i want to give back to the local community so i've been going to a small nail salon to get my nails done but they normally cost me like 118 us dollars to get my nails done so i i don't get them done all the time back home in the states i would get my nails done and pay for myself quite often because it would cost me like 45 us dollars to get gel manicures i really don't regret it right now because it's really fun to do especially for special occasions but i would definitely say that i do not get my nails done as often as a way to save money and i usually do them myself for like ten dollars i just get the kiss glue on nails but yeah it's kind of a fun thing to do on occasion number nine is gift giving if you guys have watched any of my past videos you guys know how much i love giving gifts it was something that i couldn't really afford to do before but now that i can i will i just i buy it for people all the time it's literally my favorite thing to do i just like you know just small memento so people know that you're thinking about them and gift giving is actually a really fundamental and important part of the japanese culture so for example if you were to travel really far away you would get something which is called omiyage and omiyage is a souvenir typically food but it can also be like a handmade local item that you bring back to your friends family neighbors your co-workers and you give them as gifts so i love gift giving it's definitely been something that the culture has taught me to do more of and yeah i think it just feels really good to be generous like that and i'll continue to do that when i move home to the states for sure number 10 on my list is going to the grocery store like three four times a week back home in the united states we have like really big refrigerators like i remember talking to some of my japanese friends and they were like is it true like you guys have big appliances and i was like what are you talking about yes but they had only seen them in movies so when you have a big refrigerator in the united states you can go grocery shopping and it can last you a week or two but in japan we have small refrigerators small appliances and to be quite honest the food is typically local and there aren't a lot of preservatives in it which is a good thing so you have to go to the grocery store on a need be basis so that your food doesn't spoil and that you can eat it in a timely manner when i first moved here i found it really inconvenient to go to the grocery store multiple times a week but now it's just part of my routine and it's something that i do number 11 which i actually have an entire youtube dedicated to is being a lot more aware of my waist or our household ways being a little more eco-conscious so in japan we separate our trash into nine categories yes i said that correctly nine categories which is just such a it was such a culture shock when i first moved here but now it's a total habit i don't have a choice but it's also a habit and when you have to touch your trash the way that we do and clean your trash all the time it makes you so much more aware of the waste that you're putting out into the world and japan really does have a plastic consumption issue so i just try to be a lot more mindful of how i consume and then produce waste number 12's habit is a lot more internal so i definitely complain a lot less than i think that i did when i was living in the states and i really appreciate the present and where i am now so a lot of that does have from different japanese philosophies that i've studied you know for example um sakura cherry blossoms everybody loves cherry blossoms but people don't always understand why cherry blossoms are so important it's because they represent the fleeting of life and how we need to honor and just be present and enjoy things that are in front of us because you just never know when they're gonna go away and cherry blossoms and sakura are extremely delicate flowers like they could bloom and then overnight there'd be a strong wind or heavy rain and they could be all gone the next day so there's just many different japanese philosophies that i've collected over the past two years of living here that make me realize that like complaining isn't going to solve anything and to just really appreciate what i have in front of me and that's definitely a direct result of living in japan lucky number 13 is a huge shift in mindset that i definitely think a lot more about so my new habit since living in japan the past two years is thinking of things that could benefit people as a collective unit instead of an individual mindset now this does have its own strengths and weaknesses it can pertain politically it can pertain to so many different situations but without doing a deep dive into it um i grew up in the united states so we were always kind of trained to think almost in an individual mindset and kind of selfishly you know you think of things as mine mine mine and how can things benefit me how can i get ahead how can i you get where i'm going with this whereas in japan i have learned that thinking of things as a collective unit sometimes is a better decision this is not always a better decision but sometimes it is so to make a decision or to be okay with something not going my way as long as it benefits other people as a whole then i'm okay with that then that's a decision i would like to do because it benefits more people than my own prerogative my own mission if that makes sense again there's strengths and weaknesses to that if you want to do a deep dive politically you can but i think that now i have almost a good balance of both so now that you know the 13 habits that i've developed since living in japan the past two years i would love to hear from you guys maybe compare and contrast where you live maybe things are the same or different or maybe there's a habit that you picked up living or traveling to another country that you love cherish or just catch yourself doing all the time now if you've made it this far in the video make sure you subscribe to my channel check out all my other videos we have a lot of fun here and as always be safe i'll see you guys later bye

Channel: her.atlas

Views: 44,407

Rating: 4.9634705 out of 5

Keywords: rosetta stone, life abroad, culture shocks, japan culture shocks, expat, gaijin, good habits, bad habits, iwakuni, japan

Id: hKsYyXBVskg

Length: 16min 20sec (980 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 18 2021