Before I did the 2016 Global English Camp program, I felt decently prepared for Japan. I watched all the JVloggers on Youtube, studied Japanese language for five semesters, and taught English to Japanese study abroad students for two years. When I arrived to Japan, most of Global English Camp’s training week segment on cultural norms felt more like a refresher — don’t walk and eat in public, don’t talk on the trains, don’t stick your chopsticks upright into rice—the usual. But now that I’ve been to Japan six times, I’ve noticed a few things that I’ve never read anywhere else.

some small things that aren’t covered during global english camp’s training week:

• The only peanut butter you can typically buy in Japanese grocery stores is Skippy brand. For some reason.

• Grocery stores usually have cheaper food prices compared to conbinis like 7 Eleven and Family Mart.

• Tech accessories in conbinis, I’ve found, are especially overpriced. My iPhone headphone adaptor that I pay $8 for in America was $25 at a conbini, and my iPhone charger was $30. Buy tech at Donkihote instead.

• Book Off, a used book and tech store, is a great place to buy new video games for a cheaper price. If you’re buying games for a console that isn’t region locked, then you can buy them in Japan without any problems. I got Fire Emblem: Three Houses for thirty bucks, and my friend got Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for forty.

• Often times, people wait for red walking signals to change green even if no cars are coming. If you walk through the red signal when the coast is clear, people may stare at you strangely.

• Although trains in Japan are quite easy to navigate once you understand the system, there are a few quirks foreigners still tend to screw up because of the language barrier. Sometimes, multiple trains, all going in the same direction on the same platform, will have different stops along the way. These trains may be separately marked as local, rapid, special rapid, or commuter rapid. Usually, different trains are marked with different colors. In the case of my platform, my slowest local train was yellow, my rapid train was orange, and my commuter rapid only accessible during rush hour was purple. Use Google Maps to double check if you’re stepping on the correct one.

• The bottoms of your feet may get ugly. In Japan, you walk everywhere. No matter how great your shoes are, you’ll build up some wild callouses and tough heels. After dealing with foot pain in Japan for a long time, I finally found two pairs of Doc Martens that no longer destroy me. It’s also a smart idea to own at least two pairs of shoes so that you can trade them on and off. This helps your feet become less damaged over time.

These are some small things I’ve noticed, though I’m sure there’s plenty more. Someday, I may do a round two.

Good luck out there!

Paige

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Written by Paige Goetz, Director of Communications