Things You’re Forced to Learn for the First Time When Living in Japan

With seven years of Japanese study under my belt and a homestay experience, I thought I was more than prepared for living in Japan when I came here two years ago. I quickly discovered that was not the case, not only in certain aspects of language that you miss out on simply from learning from textbooks. No, there were simple everyday things that I discovered were very different from my home of USA that I was quickly forced to learn in order to survive in a new country. Nothing you read online can prepare you for what the reality is when it comes to every day, run-of-the-mill things. As an American some of these things are more difficult for me than for people from other countries, but here is my list of things I had to learn in order to survive.

1. All the difference sizes of printing paper – it’s not just 8 ½ by 11!

This is the equivalent of A4 in Japan. There’s also A5, B4, and B5, all different sizes ranging from lesson than 8 ½ by 11 to double that in one page. Working at a Japanese school teaching English, I frequently have to make copies for class, which involves selecting the size of paper to print it out on. Printing was another thing I had to figure out, which, depending on the machine, requires you to make a model of the page you want to mass produce, wait for the test print, then inputting how many copies you want before getting anywhere. If there was only one size paper in Japan you wouldn’t have to worry about finding the right size and loading it up every time you want to copy. But these sizes – A4 and 5, B 4 and 5 – are going to become a part of your everyday life whether you like it or not. I still haven’t memorized what everything is aside from A4.

2. What constitutes as burnable and unburnable garbage – and you will never truly get the hang of this; always to be flustered by sorting your garbage at McDonalds.

It’s proven, and it’s real. The terrifying moment you take your tray of the delicious food or drink you just devoured, and get slapped in the face with the reminder that you now have to figure out which type of garbage each and every object is. What’s more, my new city of Yokohama has an entire 30 page booklet devoted solely on how to sort and get rid of your garbage. It’s that complex. And depending on the city, you have to match the right bag with the right content. 

Garbage bags: who knew they came in so many sizes and colors? Collect them all!

It's not just regular garbage and the standard “recyclables” like paper or cardboard. In fact there are special “recycling days” – real actual events at schools – where people take huge stacks of newspapers, glass bottles, and cardboard to the park or disposal area (and there are designated garbage areas, which sometimes may consist only of a net to put over the bags, that everyone has to share). Milk cartons have to be washed out and flattened (yeah I stopped doing that a long time ago), and even plastic PET bottles (another thing to learn – what is this 'PET'? It’s just a regular old plastic bottle, but that’s what they call them here) are supposed to be rinsed out and have the label taken off before disposal. It gets worse. You’re supposed to squeeze as much water out of things as you can before putting it into the burnable bag to make it easier to burn, you're not supposed to put it out the night before but the day of, clothes go in their own separate bag. And big, bulky items? You have to reserve for them to be taken away and pay money. Yikes. Now I often think twice before buying something about how I will dispose of it – Nah. Too much trouble.

The complexity of throwing out the trash.

And if you somehow make an error in all this complex garbage sorting? The apartment sends out a notice that someone isn’t sorting properly. In my old city of Hitachi, everyone is supposed to use special bags that indicate the contents, yet here in Yokohama you’re supposed to use any old clear plastic bag. What-?!

And this is why I still have some broken glass in my house that I have no idea what to do with.

If only it were this easy – only four possibilities to choose from, giving you a 25% chance of being right!

Did I mention garbage cans in Japan are notoriously nonexistent? The only guaranteed place you’ll find them is at train stations, otherwise you’re stuck carrying it around all day until you go home. Or just conveniently “forget” it in the bathroom.

3. How to use a fax machine. 

You know – those ancient machines from the 60s? The ones where you simply slip in the paper and enter the phone number and it prints out at the fax machine of its destination? Those things. My family actually has one for our at-home business, so I didn’t realize at first just how antique these things are. And I had never sent a fax in my life. Actually it’s incredibly easy – just put the paper in the slot, enter the number, and go! But there’s no confirmation that it was received at your destination. Hm. Well, hope it worked.

4. If you’re from America, the metric system.

You’ll undoubtedly be forced to learn this, simply because you’ll probably be asked your height, want to know the walking time to anywhere (walking and biking is big here), and would like to understand the results when you step on the scale. And cooking-?! I just brought all my own measuring utensils from home. I still have absolutely no concept of grams, ounces, or liters. What I basically go by is kilograms is half of pounds, and kilometers is about twice miles. As for centimeters…Still haven’t got a clue. But it’s necessary to know when getting your hair cut. Darnit.

5. Military time – you will never get used to this.

Japan uses military time here instead to distinguish between AM and PM (although I have seen AM/PM used). What’s 15 o' clock?! 23 o' clock?! Yes, I’ve even seen 25 o' clock. Why don’t they just say 1 AM the next day?! Ugh! I can’t compute what anything above 12 o' clock is in my brain. I even had to tell someone on the phone who was explaining a time frame that I can’t understand anything over 12 o' clock, could you explain it without using? And of course he just explained it exactly the same, again.

6. Really large numbers – wow, is that 230 thousand dollars I’m getting paid every month?!

Seems better than the 100 dollar bill, right? Actually it's about the same.

For Americans it’s basically like thinking in pennies. 100 yen is roughly equated to 1 dollar, or 100 pennies. So 1,000 yen is 10 dollars, and 10,000 yen is 100 dollars! What about 5,000,000 yen? How many pennies is that? How much money? Ah geez. And if you study Japanese, it’s even more of a headache when you have to listen to big numbers and try and figure out how much that is in dollars, or even when it doesn’t relate to money at all. Here they count things a little differently than in English – tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands – here’s where it gets messy. One hundred thousand is counted as 10 ten thousands, and one million is 100 ten thousands. You pray you don’t have to deal with anything higher.

Here are a few others you’re bound to encounter:

-how to set up mail re-delivery – because they always deliver mid-morning when everyone is at work

-how antiquated store/company/restaurant websites are

-how to dry clothes without a dryer – everyone has to hang up their clothes on these

or hang it outside. Apparently no one worries about their boxers being seen or people trying to steal them or blowing away in the wind. Also the weather forecast tells you if you should take in your laundry due to rain.

-making use of your space (imagine a whole apartment in the space of barely more than your college dorm room)

-train system – I could have just bought a rechargeable card instead of buying a ticket every single time? I could have just changed the language on the machine to English to do this?

-bus system – you get on at the back of the bus?! You pay as you go?! You have to take a card when you get off and drop it in when you pay to get off? Wait, in Yokohama you get on at the front of the bus, pay a standard fare, and pay as you get on? Make up your mind! You have to pay again if you only ride one stop when you get on a new bus?! Wow in America I can go anywhere for 2 and a half hours on one ticket.

So now you know some of the everyday frustrations you’ll have to deal with when you’re a newbie here. But don’t worry, it all my seem complex and frustrating – but you’ll learn to live with it.