The land of the rising sun is a pretty safe place when it comes to crime. Even the areas natives label as "dangerous" are laughably so in comparison with the states. Still, life in japan is not a constant dandy ride on the gravy train. Just ask the thousands of gaijin who ended up dead broke with nova or who are still foolishly hanging by a thread with newest corporate demon, G. Comm. Survival in japan goes beyond just having steady work and a minimal grasp of the langauge, and today I hope to enlighten those who maybe visiting or perhaps hoping to be gainfully employed in the big red dot.
Tip #1: Books written in your native country about japan are mostly obsolete and absurd.
No one cares if you point with your chopsticks, mix the wasabe with the soy sauce, or grab food with the wrong side of your hashi. This might be a concern if you are breaking bread with an oldschool jiijii conservative with a nationalistic head wrap still worshiping the emporer like a god. But the last time I checked it was 2008 and japan, just like other countries, is moving on. This means almost 90% of the etiquette advice you read in books like "japanese for dummies" is exactly that.
Tip #2: Learn japanese from people your own age.
When I first came to japan I thought I would just pick up a few japanese classes where ever they were offered and sound like a native speaker in no time. WRONG! My first lessons were from a nice old lady who, unbeknownst to me, taught how to speak in ultra formal settings. How well did that work out? Well lets just say I ended up sounding like a peasent begging for mercy beneath the blade of samurai in the edo period when I was merely attempting to order a burger at McDonalds.
Tip #3: All japanese are not super intellectual study-a-holics.
I once had to teach a lesson on lying in english. It was suppose to be a humorous lesson that showed a few examples of lies in my native langauge. The examples given where profusely obvious lies that would allow the students to call me out on my bluff. I started off with the most detectable lie I could..."This is a picture of the Eiffel Tower. It is located in Brazil." My students age 40-53 responded with great surprise and began to hastily take notes on the blatant lie I had just told them. I waited for someone to point out my error, but instead found out later that none of them had heard of the Eiffel tower and instead had taken my lie as a geographical fact. It was one of the longest lessons of my life.
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Gamer K here saying that I like the site and your advice is dead on. Just like to add that its better to learn japanese from native speakers then in a classroom. That was my mistake years ago but thanks to my loving girlfriend/fiance I learned more in a a few months from her then I did from four years in college.
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