English 111 - Your First Visit to a Country Japan

Martavious C. Jones

Professor Nicole Ghanayem

English Composition 1

08 September 2016

Your First Visit to a Country (or To a Large City)

“In Japan, you have no idea what they are saying, and they can’t help you either. Nothing makes any sense. They’re very polite, but you feel like a joke is being played on you the entire time you’re there”, Bill Murray said. I can totally relate to Bill because the two years I was there, I had no idea what they were saying. The Japanese locals were always very polite, but their culture made my two year experience feel unreal.

There were many moments during my two year assignment in Japan where I felt lost. In fact, majority of my encounters with the locals were feelings of awkwardness and being lost. Whenever my friends and I went out to grab a bite to eat, it reminded me of my early toddler days. I had to point to the menu at what I wanted to eat. Using chopsticks was like learning to use a fork and spoon for the first time. Hand gestures became my form of speech as if I was speaking sign language. The difference in dialect was very frustrating but the Japanese continued being very polite.

There was not a single day that I felt like someone was being rude or disrespectful. The locals took pride in being polite and generous to their visitors. I truly believe it is frowned upon for the Japanese to be rude. Here in the U.S., slurping your food is considered to be annoying and you will get weird looks from people. But in Japan, slurp away if you find yourself enjoying a bowl of soup or noodles because it is seen as complimentary to the chef. The fact that they were so polite made my experience even more pleasant. It felt like a two year long dream.

Growing up as a kid I did not picture myself traveling outside the U.S. I definitely did not see myself living in Japan for two years. When I initially received my assignment notification, my training instructor told me I was going to Japan. I was speechless! I just could not wrap my mind around the fact that my first duty station would be outside of the United States. I departed from the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on January 02, 2013. Yes, the day after New Year’s. On January 04, 2013, I landed at the Narita International Airport in Tokyo, Japan. This was the beginning of a forever memorable journey.