Be Prepared for...

There are certain things that you expect to be different when coming to Japan. Somethings you have no idea about so there is simply no way for you to prepare for them. Lets start with the obvious things first.

Language

It is a language like nothing else commonly spoken in America. It sounds nothing like English, Spanish or French. It is no where near a romantic language so its not easy to pick words out to try to figure out a sentence. Reading is harder by far. Example: これは、日本人がどのようなものです. After a while, you may be able to pick up on a few of the written words but without taking a class (which there are many of) it will be hard to make sense of it. The further away from base you go, the less and less English translations around.

Yen

I have had so many people ask me about buying things here and they keep on assuming that things are so much cheaper here....WRONG! Be prepared to spend a heck of a lot more money that you plan to. Sure, a soda is only 150 yen but that equals far more than $1.50. Our dollar sucks right now and you really wont get a lot for your money if you are using yen out in the city. So do not come here thinking you are going to get a great deal on that new Canon lens you have been wanting or that you will pick up some souvenirs on the cheap.

Size

If you are average or tall in America you will most likely be one of the tallest or the tallest person around. I am only 5' 7'' and I tend to tower over the woman and a lot of men. My husband is a giant at 6'2". Also, be prepared to feel fat. If you are over a size six or so you will be bigger than most Japanese woman that you come across.

Some less obvious stuff:

Sexuality is a lot different here. It isn't so taboo as it is back at home. We have been in stores that have all sorts of things like action figures and video games and on one shelf they will have dolls that look like porn star on steroids. They are not hidden in the back for adults, but out in the open. Another time my hubby was in a store looking for a video game and he went to be rung up and the little old lady store clerk was packaging anime porn. So be prepared to come across things like that cause it really surprised me.

American Words

You will see a lot of Japanese people wearing clothes that have English on them. Sometimes it can be a little funny because they just like the look of the writing and have no idea what it says. We saw a grandma looking lady with a playboy shirt on. Sometimes they will have curse words. A bar near base is called something like F*** ya bar. OK maybe they knew what that one was but probably not that its the mother of all curse words in America.

Train Seating

A lot of times on a train Japanese people will choose to sit somewhere other than next to you. THIS IS NOT BECAUSE THEY DON'T LIKE YOU! It is because they know Americans are chatty people and most people don't feel comfortable with their English enough to sit next to a talkative American.

Shhhhhhhh

Japan is quiet. On trains and other public areas people are not loud and making noise or listening to their music so other people can hear. They are very respectful of each other and I will bet you anything, if you do find a noisy commotion going on, it will be an American.

Portion Size

Japan uses more proper portion sizes than what we are used to. A regular size drink that you get is much larger than the normal fast food drink here. If you go to a restaurant, your glass will be the size of small cup. A lot of times there are not refills. It does take some time to get used to, but you will get used to it. We visited Hawaii recently and when we got our drinks we were shocked to see how big they were. Meals will be smaller too. You will get used to it though.

Finally the thing you will notice right off the bat on the plane:

Air conditioning

On the four flights I have been on to and from Japan there is not air conditioning like we are used to. You will not be blasted with cool air and you will probably not need that blanket that they give you. That is the same for most cars, buses and buildings here. Places on base do have pretty decent air and in base housing it defiantly does the job. The best way to describe Japanese air conditioning is to take your car air and put it on the lowest setting and set it to low...that is as good as it gets.

So there are so basics on being prepared for Japan. There are so many others but these are somethings that I think would be helpful for anyone coming here for the first time.