☆ENGLISH ONLY☆コミュのIn Japan too long syndrome...

Just curious if any other foreigners have this syndrome:

Basically when you spend too much time in Japan you reach a point where you don't adapt to the point that you're fully Japanese... however, certain things rub off to the extent that its hard to live outside of Japan. Its hard to explain... I sometimes joke to friends that Japan isn't really an Island... its sort of a strange religious cult... kind of an Eastern version of Scientology or EST, only with better food and social activities.

Anybody buy into this? Any other "stuck here" foreigners?

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[1] mixiユーザー 08月25日 22:09

I don't buy into the cult things, but I get what you're saying. I just got back from being there just a year, and even after 1 year I now feel like I don't relate to any of the people in my hometown at all.

I'd kill for some Unagi about now.

[2] mixiユーザー 08月25日 22:18

You'd KILL for some UNAGI... not a cult... ey?
What else would you kill for...
Don't relate to people...
They've got you ! ! ! Now you have to go out and recruit others...
sell flowers on the street... bring others into the fold...
oh, and you WILL be back... you WILL be back... mark my word...

[3] mixiユーザー 08月25日 22:25

You are not the only one, Eddy.
I'm a full blood Japanese, but I spend my youth outside of Japan.
Plus I share different religeous values from many others.
(Christian. You may think being a Christian is univeral, but it isn't)
Sometime I feel like I am a American Japanese or Japanese American, either way.
I don't even understand my own family, in terms of the culture and custom:)

[4] mixiユーザー 08月25日 22:52

かや>>
Actually, I worked in a school years ago who's students were mostly returnees...
they had it really bad...
a lot of bullying at public schools... even sometimes by teachers.
Most couldn't go back to Japanese schools, even if they were only outside of Japan for a year or too! ! !

[5] mixiユーザー 08月25日 22:56

i think you are referring to reverse culture shock (in a way)

[7] mixiユーザー 08月25日 23:28

Eddy,
Don't get me wrong.
People around me feel anything wrong with me, and they actually want to be my friends.
I am the one whom I feel like I don't belong their culture:)
No one, whether they live overseas or not, should respect teachers.
I hate to say this, but these students whom you described may not have been good students before they left, to begin with.
Sorry to hear you had bad experience.

[8] mixiユーザー 08月26日 13:20

been in Japan for more than 10 years.
I am still and always will be a Gaijin here.
Yet I am also like a foreigner in my home country. Reverse cultural shock indeed.

It's a normal situation, a society is a living thing, unless you keep constant touch with it, it will evolve in a way you won't be able to grasp completely.

As long as you accept that simple fact : you are not exactly the same as everybody else in the group, it's fine.
We should appreciate diversity, and if anything, there are enough ppl in the same situation to not feel completely alienated.

[9] mixiユーザー 08月26日 15:44

I wouldn't call it a cult, but a lifestyle, especially in Tokyo. I have been here way too long, and I understand how in many ways it is a pampered life here, some things are also annoying, but as with anywhere you live you get used to your surroundings. Some things you take for granted, like good service or safety, while other things continue to bother you, like long lines and foreigners who continue to question why my English is so good (this would never happen in NYC, at least to me).

It is hard to live outside Tokyo after a while becausr of the things you take for granted. It is the same for any place. Living in NYC, I always thought that I would die outside NYC, but I am thriving in Tokyo so you learn to do without and start taking afor granted the other positives that are offered to you.

[10] mixiユーザー 08月26日 15:49

I think that in Japan too long syndrome is where you forget how to say stuff in your native tongue and the first thought or notion that appears is in Japanese. You also forget about customs and practices of your homeland and adopt the Japanese way as your own.

I laugh to myself when I see foreigners bowing when on the phone. They are truly immersing thenselves in the culture... Or when foreigners are fighting over who should pour each other their beers. I find it kind of cute.

[12] mixiユーザー 08月26日 16:27

I wish I could truly relate, really I do. The longest I've spent in Japan was 31 days.

The thing is, even after just 13 days (on a separate occasion, the shortest stay as of yet) in Japan I felt relieved when I once again stepped foot on American soil.

Maybe I just missed my California burritos with hot sauce.

Good luck and, if it is really where you want to be, you'll get past this point.

[13] mixiユーザー 08月26日 16:40

Some people are born into this situation, others choose to live in it. Some make the best of it and get more out of society than monocultural people, some other people get mired in misery and try to drag others down to their level, and it's just the norm for still some others.

[15] mixiユーザー 08月26日 21:48

11>
I've ben staying in a small city of canada for about 2yrs. But i assume that staying in canada is not the same case as this(unless u r living in such small cities as i was, where had a great rate of white pop.). If you look at ppl in Toronto/ Vancouver, you get a feeling of what is Canadian? cuz there are too many imigrants which results in the huge multiculture. Theres no particular definition of the Canadian (nor American, im guesstimating)

[17] mixiユーザー 08月26日 23:08

I am a returnee (back to the West) after 7 years (and 3 more years after that going to and fro) and it took me a good 2 years to feel "at home" again. Like you all said, don't feel quite right back in the home country. Definitely Reverse Culture shock. I do think Japan changes you and I don't know whether I will really feel fully at home again... Not that I think that is a bad thing really, much rather have the Japan experience! But does make for a slightly unsettled life.

Many of the little things (bowing on the phone, not being able to speak English well etc) do go after a while, but some of the deeper things don't leave.

[18] mixiユーザー 08月26日 23:15

yeah theres definately somethin different about attitude to society in japan with the west. im not sure wat it is tho. i personally think japanese got the 'get everyone involved attitude' whereas in the west theres like little groups of ppl and thats it. but yeah i go to a japanese saturday school in london and, for some reason, although i go to the native college in london 5 days a week, my social life is kinda bigger with more connections at the japanese saturday school when its only for a day a week. weird.

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