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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 2nd, 2023

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  • OP has only only been here for 4.5 months on an exchange. He clearly has rose-tinted glasses on.

    I’m not denying what he is saying but I visited the UK back in February last year after 5 years here and I had a wonderful time. It felt so good to just talk to people in English and share banter, spend time with family, not have to overthink every interaction. Sure people can be loud and it can be a bit grim but it felt refreshing after being here so long. I don’t really understand what these “conflicts” OP is referring to. I’ve only really had a bad encounter with some chavs before.

    I had a good think about what I wanted out of life after that trip, and decided to move back in April (especially for career reasons). I think being the only foreigner in a traditional Japanese company has really burnt me out. But I’m glad I got to spend some time in this country!


  • 20 upvotes but no comments? Strange. Anyway, I think a big factor that you did not mention is that Japanese people generally don’t complain. The concept of “shouganai” is so ingrained here that idea of complaining about something can be interpreted as “well what do you want me to do about it?”. But in the scenario that you mentioned, they probably do think they are burdening you, otherwise you wouldn’t say you are busy . Or it could be a case of 思いやり

    This was a big culture shock compared to the UK where people complain all the time, even just to vent their feelings.