How hard was it adapting to Japanese Culture when you first got there?
Well, having studied Japanese culture and history for so long I knew pretty much what to expect when I got here. There were a few surprises, seeing how they've melded a lot of older cultural concepts to the modern day (not very well, a lot of the time), but otherwise meh.
As for adapting? It's definitely one of those cultures that you will always be appreciated for emulating, but your efforts will never be accepted for doing so. In the United States, we're a melting pot (though some segments of society tend to ignore or hate that fact); we've got a lot of flaws, but accepting in and morphing with new cultures is part of our collective history and culture. In Japan, because the population is so homogeneous (98.5% Japanese), they have a particular outlook towards foreigners and foreign culture. They perceive themselves as being exceptional and without the need for change. Some segments of Japanese society still believe foreigners should be expelled from the country and the policy of isolation re-instituted (alongside with a return of the Emperor to power [*cue rolling of eyes*]) so as to keep Japan and it's culture and society "pure"; disregarding the fact that modern day Japan couldn't survive without international trade and cooperation.
If you're a foreigner in Japan, you get stared at a lot. Either because the person staring at you has never seen a foreigner in person before, because they've never seen a foreigner in the location your visiting or standing at, or because they're simply curious. It feels a lot like being a zoo animal, at times. When children do it, it's cute and innocent -- when old salary men (white collar workers) do it, there's likely a more malign meaning behind it. That's largely because there is an endemic racism to Japanese society and culture. It's not like in America or some other nations where if you're of a different color skin you'll face prejudice or whatnot. In Japan if you are not Japanese then that's it. That's the dividing line. Japan is one of the only nations on Earth that still maintains it's citizenship upon
jus sanguinis - "citizen by blood". Half-Japanese children and people have faced tremendous hatreds, bullying, and even ostracism. It's only *now* in the second decade of the 21st century that being half-Japanese is not the same black mark that it use to be. Though the Japanese approach to this change hasn't been quite how you'd expect (or exactly how you'd expect); many women these days desire to have half-babies (as they call them) because half-children usually have attractive features and the ideal of looking Japanese but having blue eyes is a huge draw -- but for them it's more about a status symbol than having a child because you want a child.
Those are just a few of the things about modern Japan that are weird, disturbing, or scary (in some ways). But even for all that, there are positive aspects as well. I enjoy Japan immensely and don't plan to move away any time soon, even for all it's faults.
