Reverse Culture Shock

[Tsuwabuki]

This is something most long term residents like Nyororin will understand, but perhaps might be something to consider for most of our regulars, few of which live in Japan, and fewer of which have lived in Japan for a number of years. Despite "Cool Japan" and the truly amazing amount of anime and manga available these days, many people have severe culture shock when they come to Japan, especially if they move to more rural or bedroom community Japan instead of Tokyo. I've had coworkers that couldn't adjust and left after less than a year in Japan.

I am not one of those people. Quite the opposite. Despite keeping my location as Fukuchiyama here on the boards, I actually have been spending large amounts of time in Texas earning my MA. I stay with my parents during these times, in the room I essentially grew up in, but I feel more like a temporary boarder, and not like I am in my own "home."

I got back to Texas yesterday (I had been posting from Fukuchiyama and Tokyo) after renewing my Japanese drivers license and paying my city taxes, and I went straight to class from the airport. The experience has been... surreal. I found the things I miss most about Japan when I am away are the small things. The way roads are paved, the way gutters are set up, the smell of wood and rice paper, the constant ding ding and clackity clack of trains. The corner shrines I never visit but always have a reassuring presence. Now, back in Texas I am discomfited by the lack of these things, and that is the strongest possible affirmation that this is not home. The atmosphere itself seems wrong.

I only have eight months until I'm done with my MA and I don't need to spend large swaths of time in Texas, and as proud of Texas I am in a historical and cultural sense, I'm going to be glad when I go back to only coming to Texas on one or two week vacations during holidays...

[Nyororin]

I know exactly what you mean.

I haven`t been back to the US for 6 years now, so imagine that any reverse culture shock is going to be multiplied by a hundred next time I go...

But the last time I went, even from inside the airport on the US side, the feeling was sone of total surrealism. Everything was something I should be familiar with, but it all felt exaggerated, like a parody of itself. This is probably not something that will make sense if you haven`t experienced it.

Maybe this is just me and the way I link the US to childhood more than anything else - but the best comparison for the sensation I can come up with would be this. Imagine having a dream that you are back in elementary school, with all the familiarity of the surroundings, but you are the current you. You know the place in and out, but just being there again as a child feels incredibly strange. You should be comfortable, but you simply do not belong there any longer.
Traveling from Japan to the US is, for me, something like time travelling. I don`t mean it in the "Japan is so advanced that the US feels like it is in the past!" sense, but that it feels like I have gone back in time in my own life. It is a very very weird sensation.

Small things add up VERY quickly, so it really feels incredibly strange. Combine this to the awkwardness of knowing that you should be totally familiar with everything (as, well, you grew up with all of it) and you get this sensation of unease that is hard to explain.

It is kind of odd because I never experienced anything like it when I moved to Japan. I can`t recall feeling any particular culture shock. But... before I came to Japan I was already living a life without a "home", so there was no reason for me to feel "homesick". (I had moved in with my mother, who I didn`t really know well, a few years before... And the feeling that I was "staying" with her instead of "living" there never went away. I never felt like I was "at home".)

[JohnBraden]

Originally Posted by Nyororin

Imagine having a dream that you are back in elementary school, with all the familiarity of the surroundings, but you are the current you. You know the place in and out, but just being there again as a child feels incredibly strange. You should be comfortable, but you simply do not belong there any longer.

I had that same feeling when I visited "home" in Madrid after spending 2 years in the states and 2 years in Japan. It was familiar and comfortable, yet I knew deep down that I didn't belong there anymore....

Well put....

[samokan]

I went back to the Philippines last year after 5 years though I was very happy to be back with Family and friends, there was a feeling of something missing.

I think its the convenience of everything here in the Japan. The impecable customer service even in Public offices , even the vending machine in the streets.

I was there for a week but it took me day or two to fully realize I am not in Japan.
The weird part is that I kept converting the prices back to yen