Culture shock as a boy

Posted by Sash (Adelaide, Australia) on 4 June 2007 in Abstract & Conceptual and Portfolio.

Living in Japan for three years enabled my wife and I to experience a multitude of life's positive outcomes, including the effect of emersing ourselves in a society rich in culture and a unique outlook on the world. However, one of the major drawbacks in such a changing sphere of existence was the effect of culture shock, which would spring into effect at the most inopportune moments from seemingly nowhere and at any given time.

This image reflects those times when knots would develop inside my head; when I would rather have been back home in Australia, sipping beer with my mates and talking about irrelevant bullshit that happened to be topical at the time than face another day of being the odd one out, and wondering if I'd ever be able to slot seemlessly into the fray again.

Help yourself to the blue cheese, but stay away from the green one.

Comments (8)

##AMIT## from Santa Clara, CA, United States

beautiful shot and wonderful thoughts..

4 Jun 2007 12:33am

@##AMIT##: Thanks Amit. I appreciate the positive feedback.

Aaron Schmidt from Auckland, New Zealand

My biggest problem was communication. After three years in Paris, I finally felt that I could converse fluently with people but I was still always a half second behind on getting out that perfect joke. In the end though, cultural experience is one of the best things for creating an open mind. The way I see it, your mates will always be back home, sipping beer, so why not spend just one more day in the unknown.

4 Jun 2007 5:57am

@Aaron Schmidt: Communication was a massive problem for us. In actuality, it was the most foreign part about the entire experience, and I never got interested enough in learning Japanese to make it a high priority. In the end, I was ashamed (as the Japanese would say) at how little effort I made. Then again, my reasons - and my wife's - for being over there were mostly about the cultural and work related experience, and not necessarily because of the language which we weren't going to use beyond our time in Japan.

I think your parting comment is worth its weight in gold. For what it's worth, I agree with you whole heartedly; my mates are still here yet we're the ones with three memorable years to add to our life portfolio.

Thanks for your comment, Aaron.

Alfredo J. Martiz J. from Tokyo, Japan

I believe that cultural experience is very important, the opportunity to live in a different country, doing your best everyday no matter how people look at you or what they think about you being different is something that makes you grow as a person and develop a strong character, it is true that there are times that you feel like what are you doing in that place, but the important thing is to take this negative thoughts and turn them into something positive and useful and keep going on!
This is a beautiful photo, great composition and tones, well done!

4 Jun 2007 10:28am

@Alfredo J. Martiz J.: Thanks for your comment, Alfredo. I couldn't agree with you more. :)

Evie from Fairfax, United States

Excellent, dramatic photo.

4 Jun 2007 6:03pm

@Evie: Cheers Evie. I wasn't responsible for the twisted weeds/grass but was most impressed once I saw them. They were always going to make a dramatic silhouette shot and I made sure I got at least one good image of them. Thanks for your comment.

Reza from Montreal, Canada

Great colors here !

4 Jun 2007 10:51pm

@Reza: Cheers Reza. :)

Stu from Kyoto, Japan

Interesting comments. Re slotting seemlessly back into the fray, it's something I've been thinking about recently. You know how annoying it can be to be stared at here because we're "different", well I wondered how I'd feel upon returning home, whether or not I'd hate becoming anonymous and "normal" again. I'm expecting the reverse culture shock to be more intense and depressing than when I arrived here. That's why I love going home for a vacation, to see if I can get a taste of what it might be like to return forever, but the holiday is always too short for that to happen. I do realize however, that I'll now become as annoyed with people and things back home as I do here. For all Japan's oddities and the problems gaijin face here, I reckon it's going to be alot harder to leave Japan than it was to leave Scotland. Go figure....

4 Jun 2007 10:59pm

@Stu: From my experience with the issue of reverse culture shock (Re-entry Shock?), it WAS twice as bad as first arriving in Japan and being exposed to another culture. There are several reasons for this, with (perhaps) the biggest factor being that I was exposed yet again to the two main "ugly sides" of Australian culture: racial intolerance/indifference which included a degree of multi-cultural impotency; our beloved coalition government and its almost bizarre stance on doing whatever the f*$k it pleased which also included the role of Australia's media in being nothing shy of a lapdog when it ought to be a guard dog ready and willing to pounce. Granted, the second re-entry shock was expected, but the former took me weeks (perhaps months) to get over. I was the proverbial rabbit caught in headlights thanks to three years of exceptional treatment at the hands of my Japanese friends.

Holidays to the mother land are the way to go provided you can handle life in Japan full-time. We had a baby girl on the way and predicted more trouble than it was worth had we decided to stay in Japan. In a way, we went with the percentages and shot off back home. In another way, it was well overdue anyway as I was beginning to wonder what I'd do with employment once T was off her feet and attending to baby C. Things have worked out well, though I still wouldn't pee on (the bulk of) Australia's media-ringed circus if they were on fire or agree with anything John Howard said about the environment or work.

You're right about the comments. Thanks for yours. :)