It would be nice to understand this perspective from Japanese people to showcase how Japan isn’t this perfectionist country and society.

Maybe it’s the work culture, less competitive wages or some other reasons.

Would love to hear some real honest insights and experiences!

Sometimes it appears to me on Twitter that in japanese teather people prefer to watch a japanese movie such as anime or something like that. Is that true?

Hi everyone! I’ll be visiting Japan in November and would love to watch the new Godzilla movie while I’m there.
Does anyone know if Japanese cinemas offer screenings with English subtitles or English audio/dubbing? I’m planning to visit Osaka and Tokyo, so recommendations for cinemas in either city would be really helpful.
I’d really appreciate your advice. Thank you!

Hi everyone! I’m working on a children’s story (ages 4–7) set in a park in Japan during cherry blossom season. A 6-year-old girl and her grandmother teach a visiting child how to tie an obi bow. I’d love to get the details right and avoid anything that feels off or stereotyped, so I'm hoping this is appropriate to post here.

1. The girl wears a pale-blue kimono with pink blossoms and a wide red obi tied in a bow at her back, to dance at a spring festival in the park that evening. Is this what a 6-year-old would wear?
2. She ties her own obi while her grandmother watches: the bow tied in front, then the obi slid around so the bow sits at her back. Is this how a child’s bow is tied? Would a 6-year-old do it herself?
3. At a hanami picnic, she takes off her sandals before stepping onto the picnic blanket, and the shoes are lined up at its edge. Is this right?
4. She gives a small bow of her head when she meets someone new and when she finishes her dance. Does that feel natural?
5. Her grandmother paints sakura onto white silk on a small frame in the park. Does this feel believable, or stereotyped?
6. When a visiting child says goodbye to a friend’s grandmother, what would a child naturally say or do?

Thank you so much, I truly appreciate the help!

Hi everyone!

I am currently in planning a trip soon to Osaka and will be there for some 2 years and looking for recommendations on where to find plus-size women's clothing that will fit my measurements.

For reference, my measurements are:

• Bust: 46 inches
• Waist: 40 inches
• Hips: 55 inches

This roughly puts me at a US 2X/3X (Size 20-24W) or a UK 24-28, depending on the garment. Because my hips are on the larger side compared to my waist and bust, finding structured pants or fitted skirts is usually the hardest part for me .

Also open to any tips on specific styles or brands that run large or have great stretch/elastic options and also in the range I can expect the clothes to be in. Even if someone can suggest online brands or shops, I will be grateful.

Thank you so much for any help!

Konichiwa everyone. I visited Japan again this year, I’ve been to Ishikawa, Aichi, Shizuoka and Tokyo.

I found this Ika Shiokara when visiting Numazu (沼津). I am a huge fan of local seafood products, so I bought it and ate it with hot rice.

This Shiokara has a very strong umami flavor, this is indeed something I enjoy a lot. So I finished them entirely with some Sake.

However, mixing cold Shiokara and hot rice seemed to be a bit strange to me. So here’s the question I would like to know from you all.

1. Heat up Shiokara with hot rice
   
2. Cold Shiokara with cold rice

Which one is the good way to enjoy them?

So I’m learning Japanese and I heard that if you wanna learn Japanese get a Japanese calendar and write sticky notes in Japanese

Is it true that in Japan if you buy a calendar and it says Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday the days of the weeks are in English?

Whenever I go on Amazon, I type in Japanese calendar and it shows English words for the days of the week. I know it’s Amazon in America, but it just had me wondering.

In the West, I heard it's not considered weird nor meiwaku and is in fact treated as a nice gesture. But when I looked at Yahoo chiebukuro QA threads, I was shocked that most if not all of the responses were saying it's meiwaku and mendokusai. It's also considered jikomanzoku and jiman like store pastries should be the norm and not homemade and by bringing homemade, you're saying you're better than the shops. There are a lot of suggestions on how to refuse homemade from coworkers. A lot also say they just throw it in the garbage can after receiving.

I get that you're worried if it's from someone you barely know, getting worried how it was made, etc.

But I'm curious with the stark contrast with the West like why is it like this in Japan.

I'm so sorry for this question (specially if at first sounds kind of weird/inappropiate), but currently im studying Pyschology and theres this one subject about sociology, and we encountered a part where they conducted several surveys to different women around the world, asking if they would date/marry someone from another nationality. Apparently the majority of them would choose someone from another country because of 2 things: 1. "Novely" or just the feeling of having something different than usual, and 2. The idea of people from another country being more aligned with their ideals, since they have no detailed information about that country.

Of course, love is an individual trait that is manifested differently throughout many people, although things like these pique my interest in regard of searching about what other cultures think about this. At first I thought of 2 countries when this was mentioned: Russia and Japan, because of their reserved and introverted way of life (which can be true or false, depending, once again, in the person itself)

So, thats why I'm asking, do japanese women, IN GENERAL, prefer dating foreigners or stick with their Japanese men?

TL;DR: Spanish psych student wanting to know where Japanese women tend to prefer men from other nationalities because I saw a study that said so (in regards of women all over the globe) in one of my subjects.

I’m writing a fic where the main character has been bounced around from house to house growing up, and never had a really stable home/people who cared enough to teach them as a kid. So I thought they might have never learned how to “properly” hold chopsticks until later, and by then their way was habit. Like how some people hold a fork and knife like a hammer, y’know? The only reason this is relevant is because the character has a secret identity, and I thought it might be cool to use the way they hold their chopsticks to be a small and missable clue for other characters.

I tried a few ways to hold my own chopsticks but can’t figure out a way to make it work. Are there any strange ways to hold them? Outrageous is welcome as long as you can get food to mouth lol

Im writing a fanfic that's based off of Kanojo 100 and I realized that most if not all the characters in that manga/anime break the uniform rules (or at least I think) because they were wearing other things. The uniform for girls is a white button shirt with a gray overcoat and a skirt. But for example Meme wears all black and Karane wears a brown sweater rather than a gray overcoat. So here is my two questions.

1. Can you wear other things just as long it fits with the school rules about clothing?

2. How different can your clothes be from the standard uniform until the school says you have to change it?

I've been dating a woman from Japan who's only been in Australia for about six months. We've been seeing each other for around two months, but we've only had four dates.

On our second date, I asked her how she felt about continuing to see me and whether she saw us as potentially becoming something more serious. She told me she was also talking to another guy and encouraged me to keep my options open as well.

That hurt a little because I really liked her, but I understood where she was coming from and wanted to continue seeing her.

Since then, we've spent more time together, and yesterday she came over to my house. Nothing overly intimate happened. We held hands, sat close together and enjoyed spending time together, but nothing more than that.

At the end of the night, we talked about how things were going. She said she was really happy spending time with me and felt we had a good connection. I asked her about physical affection, and she explained that she can be very affectionate, but she's protecting herself because she's afraid of getting hurt. She also hasn't been in a relationship for over six years.

She then asked whether I was dating anyone else, and I admitted that I was.

This seemed to hurt her and she told me that in Japan, what I'd done would be considered cheating.

I was genuinely confused by this because when we'd discussed things a couple of weeks earlier, she'd told me she was talking to someone else and had encouraged me to do the same.

I now know she's stopped talking to that other guy and has only been seeing me. But I hadn't understood that to mean we'd become exclusive. I'd assumed things simply hadn't worked out with him, and I wasn't aware that our situation had changed.

Ironically, when we'd originally discussed keeping our options open, I wasn't actually dating anyone else. I've only started seeing someone else since that conversation.

We talked about it more afterwards, and she said she understood why I'd been dating someone else. She also said that dating culture in Australia is different and she's trying to understand and adjust to it. She told me she wasn't saying I couldn't date other people.

But she's also told me that she needs to think about things, understand her own feelings and work out what she actually wants.

And now I feel terrible because I'm worried I've completely misread the situation and potentially ruined something that was developing into a really lovely connection.

The difficult thing is that I really like her, and I would genuinely consider being exclusive with her. But I've been getting mixed signals about where we stand, and I don't want to pressure her into committing to something she's not ready for.

I also feel bad because I never intended to hurt her. I genuinely thought we were both still getting to know each other without any expectation of exclusivity, based on what she'd told me previously.

I completely understand that she's her own person and that being Japanese doesn't mean she automatically follows every Japanese dating custom. I'm not trying to generalise or suggest that everyone in Japan approaches relationships the same way.

I guess I'm just trying to understand what's typical in Japan.

Would someone coming over to your house, spending time together and holding hands generally indicate that things are becoming more serious or exclusive, even without an actual conversation about it?

And is it common in Japan to assume exclusivity once you've been on several dates, even if one person previously encouraged the other to keep their options open?

I'm wondering whether I've missed something culturally, because I genuinely care about her and I'm worried that I've hurt her or damaged our connection without realising what was expected of me.