This is a Japanese girl’s (Akimi Iwamoto) perspective on coming to America for the first time with her boyfriend, Dan Moeller, who works for the JET program.
What Surprised Me About America …
Americans go in their houses wearing shoes. They track in dirt and walk barefoot on the same floor. Sometimes they sit and lay on the floor. I heard about this custom many times before, but it was shocking to actually see it. I wore sandals in houses when everyone else was wearing socks or barefoot. Hopefully no one noticed! I don’t think I could ever get used to shoes indoors.
American houses are very lovely and most houses have chimneys. They are so cute. A lot of Americans have big yards. Some even have basements and pools.
Americans talk loud and fast (without exception). They all seem so confident. I want to be confident in this way, too, but it’s shocking that even some Americans are shy.
They sometimes hug and kiss people they know. I think this is a good custom. It’s quite possible we are put on this earth to love everybody all the time. Being close and sharing feelings is very important. Maybe Japanese people don’t show their feelings enough in this way.
Many people are tall. This is very cool from afar. Up close, this can be quite intimidating. Many people are obese. This is unhealthy and I wonder how they feel about all the problems that come from such circumstances.
There are big supermarkets in America. The shopping carts are huge. They have many kinds of food and big “economy” sizes, too. Moreover, they need even bigger fridges for all this food they’re storing. This is all very strange for me. If I only shopped once a week, I still couldn’t make use of an American shopping cart. How do they carry all those big bags of groceries into their homes?
There are fast food restaurants everywhere. Also, they serve big portions in many restaurants. These big meals are very delicious, but sometimes too fatty and/or too sweet. My body was definitely not accustomed to the high fat and caloric intake. Taco Bell was delicious, and cheesesteaks…wow. The pizzas are generally much bigger than Japanese pizzas. I also ate a square “Sicilian” pizza. Mmm!
Some Americans say Japanese food doesn’t have any taste. I enjoy a bowl of rice, but I don’t think Americans would agree with me. Americans don’t enjoy the taste of fish as much as Japanese do. Dan and I brought some takosen, or octopus crackers, for his parents. They were semi-mortified and maybe the dog was the only one to eat them.
Their kitchens are very cute and have a big oven, a range, a microwave, a toaster, and a toaster oven. I have half of these appliances and they are all smaller.
Dan’s parents joked about my daily wash loads. I’m not sure I saw his parents do one load of wash while I was there, which is a little mysterious. They have huge washing machines and dryers and they don’t hang their clothes to dry. Doing wash and hanging clothes outside is very simple. I don’t get it.
I really enjoyed my time in America…it is a very interesting culture…Well, Ganbarimasu!
