Living in Japan

Five Things about Japan I Didn’t Fully Appreciate until I Lived There

What I discovered changed the way I think about Japan.

Photo by Masaaki Komori on Unsplash

The danger of romanticizing life in Japan as a traveler is very real; what you see on the surface as a traveler may not truly reflect what living in Japan is like.

It takes living and working in Japan to really appreciate some of the deep cultural nuances that can go unnoticed by casual observers.

In this story, I explore five of these observations. What unites them is the fact that I didn’t fully appreciate them until I started to live and work in Japan.

Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Words (No That’s Not a Typo)

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

Saying sumimasen — a very useful word that combines elements of thank you and I’m sorry — often lets you get away with many minor mistakes. Sumimasen also has an element of gratitude, while another word gomennasai doesn’t.

If that’s not enough, you can elevate it with moushiwake arimasen. Translated, it means something like “I have no excuses to…