Hello!

いつも日本の好きな所を話していますが、

Today I'm here with Sharla!

というか好きな事ばかりですが、

Everyone always talks about

今回は日本 (外国)に住む私達にとって

how awesome it is living in Japan

難しい事を話したいと思います。

and it is really awesome but today we thought we'll talk about

外国人視点になると思います。

some of the things that are harder for us, living in Japan,

と言っても人によって異なるとは思いますが、

especially maybe us - foreigners, coming from other countries.

１番辛いのは家族と離れている事です。

The number one thing that I think is difficult in (Japan)... This is always gonna depend on a person but for me

そうね。

it's being so far away from my family. -Yeah

すごく家族が恋しいです。

I miss my family a lot. And that's not something I actually was worried about, the first time I came to Japan.

でも、来日前は心配していませんでした。

I was a lot younger then and I was like: 'I'm so ready to move away from my family'' I was like

当時は今より若かったですし、

''Yeah, I'm gonna start a new adventure somewhere else!''

新天地に移ることにワクワクしていました。

But then, now that I've been away from my family for like five or something years already... I started understanding more... -Yeah, it started going on you

でも、５年程離れて暮らしてみて

And I realised that you know, we are all human and they are not gonna be here forever

恋しくなるよね

And sometimes I think like ''what if they get sick while I'm gone?'' -Exactly

家族がこっちに移り住むことは無いし、

''Will I be able to get there on time?'' -Yeah, I'm always thinking about that.

もし病気になったりしたらって考えると心配になります。

I'm missing my family's lives right now. -I feel like we are missing so many important things!

最悪のケース、間に合うのかって事も考えます。

That's so hard living abroad cause like of course, there are benefits to living here that's why we are here but

いつもそれが心配。

then you start thinking about all the things you're missing back home... -Riiiight and now that I am in an inernational marriage too

今も恋しいです。

no matter where we live, one of us is always gonna be away from our family so it's kind of difficult. -It's soo difficult.

何か、もっと一緒にいた方が良い気がしてくるよね。

Okay, one other thing that is not hurt for me personally because I absolutely love walking and I really enjoy it is walking everywhere!

本当に難しいです。

You need to walk everywhere and a LOT! When you come to Japan. -If you might live in a city where you walk a lot right now, I mean

外国で暮らす理由があって、今私はここにいますが、

if you're from New York or something then that's probably normal for you but -Right, right!

色々考えだすと、恋しくなります。

I'm from cities when you drive and you don't walk a lot -Taking a bus or something

特に配偶者が外国籍だと、

Yeah, I enjoy walking but you walk SO MUCH, if you in cities here. And Japanese girls wear high heels -I don't know how they do it! How do you do it?!

どちらか一方は自国を離れなければいけませんし。

And it's so cute! And I love high heels but I can only walk like half an hour in really high heels -Yeah, I at MOST maybe ten minutes really!

家族と離れて暮らのが、私達には難しいです。

But if you're in the city, especially when you're travelling- you're walking like hours and hours a day.

これは全然私には当てはまらないのですが、

Not even exaggerating- hours!

どこへ行くにも歩く事が多いです。

So if you're visiting make sure you wear really comfortable shoes and if you're living here, you have to get used to like carrying your groceries...

ニューヨークとか、普段からよく歩く人は別ですが、

Yeah, that's something you don't really think about because like back home you'd always like have a car or maybe like a bus system or something

私なんかはどこへ行くにも車が多いので、

Right.

バスとかも

But in some areas there is no like bus that would be convenient for you to take home so you need to either take the train or walk

私は歩くのは好きですが、

And you never see people on the train carrying groceries so I'd feel so silly to take groceries on the train so I'd probably walk even if it was super far

日本の都市に住むと、歩く機会が増えます。

Yeah, if you're in the city, living in a city then your grocery store might be like fifteen minutes walk or bike and then you have to like get all that back to your,

しかも、ハイヒールで歩き回っている女性もいます。

your place without the car so. -Yeah.

どうしてヒールで歩き回れるの？

Even though Jun and I have a car now, when I moved first here we didn't. -Yeah.

私もハイヒールは好きですが、

And we had to ride a bicycle to the supermarket which was twenty minutes away

30分が限界です。

and if it's raining, you have like your groceries under rain. -And they go wet!

私は10分で限界。

You need to think about like ''Oh, what can I buy that's okay if it gets soggy'' like ''this package is okay'' no cardboard boxes -Right.

30分も持たないかも。

There's so many different things you have to think about that you never like really considered or really so I didn't.

都市部に観光に来る場合は、1日中歩き通しです。

Right? You don't really expect those things.

数時間は普通に歩くことになると思います。

The benefit to like this kind of thing is like with the walking- it's really healthy.

初めて観光に来る際は、快適な靴を持参してくると役立ちます。

It's awesome! You get so much exercise without even thinking about it. It's just... yeah, you could eat lots more food because you burn so many calories that you didn't use to burn.

住む場合は、買い物袋を抱えて歩いたりするかも。

Yeah, you're like- this is why Japanese people are so skinny!

カナダいた頃はいつも車とかバスだったけど、

Yeah! I know, honestly if you think about it like of course gene is a part of it but they walk soo much and walking is so great for you so.

都市部では電車か徒歩で帰宅するのが最短な場合があります。

Yeah. It's a benefit but your feet hurt.

でも、電車で買い物袋を持った人は見かけないので、

Another thing that like comes to mind when we're talking about weather and stuff you don't really think about is laundry, cause they don't really use dryers here.

私は遠くても歩いて帰ります。

Yeah. They have them but unless you get one unsepareted, if it's like the combined washer-dryer, they don't actually dry very much.

もし、都市部に住む場合は

They like remove the water, I guess it spins it really fast or something. I don't even know how they work but they don't completely dry your clothes.

自宅からスーパーまで徒歩か自転車で15分くらいで、

You have to do it several times and it's still not... might not be completely dry when you pull it out so most people hang their clothes outside.

車を使わない買い物が普通になるかもしれません。

Yeah, they hang them outside which is awesome!

今は車がありますが、当時は無かったので

Probably I'll do it even when I move back to Canada.

自転車でスーパーまで買い出しに行っていました。

I did it in America, it's better for your clothes. -Yeah, exactly, they don't shrink. And it's cheaper, it's free the sun.

20分かけて。

But when it's raining you're kinda screwed.

雨天時は最悪でした。

You gotta hang your clothes inside and you need to buy like one of these machines, dehumidifier to remove the water from them.

濡れても大丈夫なものを選別したり？

If you get a nice apartment or like a nicer house then they might have like the systems set up in the bathroom where it removes...

日本に来る前までは全然考えなかった事が沢山あります。

Oh, yeah! Those are cool! My new house has that. I love it!

でも、別視点で見れば

So you can hang your laundry in the bathroom. -Yeah.

とても健康的です。

A lot of new places have that set-up.

無意識に運動してるので

But if you're moving in for the first time you'll probably be living in a really cheap apartment and it might not have features like that.

消費カロリーが増えて食事量も増えるかもも。

Another thing that might be a little bit abstract in trying to explain is that rules here are stricter then they are I think in North America in some cases.

だから日本人はスリムな人が多いのかも。

And in a lot of cases I really like that because I like how polite society is here, I like how everyone thinks about everyone else, is organised.

それだけじゃないと思うけど、

Yeah, everything works really well together. -The trains are like always on time, if they aren't they'll announce it. Its very like, yeah strict! Everything is by the books.

頻繁に歩くのは貢献してると思う。

But if you're from America,

でも、慣れないと足が痛くなります。

-Or Canada!

うん。

where you used to be like more hapy-go-lucky and carefree and like loud or maybe 'My friend is really loud!!' in America.

これも以前は考えなかったことで、

-Yeah, we're pretty loud too.

天気と洗濯です。

Then you have to learn how to tone yourself out

乾燥機はあまり一般的ではありません。

and um like in the first place I sometimes felt like America was a little too open in some respects for me like

ありますが、専用の乾燥機じゃないと

I don't personally go around making fart jokes but I mean like that's really common for a lot of people in America amd that's fine there

仕上がりに満足できない場合があります。

so I didn't always fit in to like how loose some rules were there but I don't always fit in to how strict some rules are here.

完全に乾燥しないタイプの洗濯乾燥機もあります。

-I feel like I'm the same.

何度か回さないと完璧に乾燥しないこともあります。

I feel like I'm in the middle.

天日干しが一般的です。

And if I'm in America sometimes people might think I'm too uptight and in Japan sometimes people might think I'm -Too loud

天日干し最高です。

I think I prefer the Japanese side of things because I like being polite most of the time but then when I go home

カナダに帰っても、天日干しします。

But then I mean, when I go home I just wanna like on my couch and just like slouch around you know, stick my feet up on the table, I don't care

縮まないし、

It's not that big of a deal for me.

私はアメリカでもしてた。

But like if your friends come over or something -No, I -you cannot do that! -I wouldn't do that!

電気代かからないし。

And um, some of it it's probably the people you hang out with in Japan, so some people are more strict about rules then other people are.

でも、雨天時はお手上げ。

So like I have people that I'd hang out with and I'd be very proper and more polite with them.

部屋干しする場合は専用の除湿乾燥機がないと上手く乾きません。

Whereas I have other people in Japan I'd hang out with and they'd just go crazy and it's totally like being in America. -Yeah, they'd be like similar to like.. yeah, yeah!

良いアパートやマンションだと、風呂場に乾燥機が付いていることもあります。

I've got those friends too. Many of them have like studied abrodad where they could've picked up those like mannerisms.

ああ、家（新居）にも付いてる！

Right.

最近の物件には結構ついています。

So it depends on the people.

でも、最初に住むアパートには付いていないかもしれません。

Our gestures are more open and like our facial expressions are more extreme.

これはちょっと説明が難しいですが、

Yeah, you'd be able to tell what people are thinking by those things but in Japan they don't do them.

アメリカと比べると時々ルールが少し厳しい気もします。

It's more subtle -Yeah

でも多くの場合、その方が好きです。

It's a lot more subtle and I'm not yet to that level of subtlety.

丁寧で、整理されていて、

Sometimes I feel like if I can find myself to the Japanese like norm, that it's gonna change my personality so much, so I find that difficult.

電車なんかも常に時間通りだし。

I think that's the hardest for me in business situations when we're working with Japanese businesses for example for like youtube videos. -That's so hard.

非常に上手く回っていると思います。

Um, the way we do our meetings is different from the way I'd work with people in America. -Ohh, it's SO different!

遅延の場合は必ずアナウンスが入るし、

Like in America I'd just joke with people, we'd talk about current topics like we might even talk about Game of Throns or something. -Yeah!

色々な事がカッチリしてるよね。

And that's totally fine.

でも、あなたがアメリカとかカナダとか、

Whereas here it's definitely more like business. Like people make jokes and you could have fun but it's not as...

もう少し緩い環境に慣れていると

It's definitely more like proffesional. -Yeah

あと、騒がしい人達（家族）とかも。

And also like telling your ideas, you wouldn't go into a meeting and tell them like 'Oh, I have a list of cool ideas! We should do this, we should do this...''

公共の場で声のボリュームを抑える必要もあります。

If you [?] like listen to the other side and you're like think carefully about how you answer and how you like wanna express your opinion...

でも、むしろアメリカが他国よりオープンだからだと思うけど、

It's really different. Like the processing of things, we could talk about that for hours. -Yeah, so it's not a bad thing at all, -It's just different.

例えばジョークを言い合ったりとかは普通だし。

it's just something that takes a lot more effort and so sometimes at the end of the day I feel more drained and tired because I put so much more effort in that day to making sure I was being

だから時々アメリカでも自分に合わないと感じる側面はあるし、

okay around everyone that I wouldn't have done in America. -I agree.

日本にいても、同じように感じることもあります。

Oh yeah, another thing regarding like rules and being a little more strict here, I don't know if it's more strict- it's different is clothing.

それ、よく分かる。

In Japan it's very normal for girls to show their legs, lots of legs sometimes some buttcheek -Yeah

だから、アメリカにいると時々私は固い奴だと思われるし、

but upper body is very like covered most of the time. Shoulders, cleavage, um this area is often like... this is even like I feel like this would be more than you'd see. -I'm very low cut for Japan right now!

日本だと

-Rachel is like WOW! -Wooow!

ちょっとうるさいアメリカ人みたいな？

We should give this video a rating! -Censored!

私は日本の丁寧な習慣の方が合っている気がしますが、

But it's so diff... I feel like it's the opposite of North America -Right

でも、アメリカに戻ったら

Cause for us we would... it would feel kind of scandalous to have a really short skirt or something, right? -Yeah like mini skirts

うるさいアメリカ女になりたいのよ。笑

Whereas we'd wear striped tank-tops and like don't worry about it. -Cleavage is normal, you wear cleavage to the office.

実家ではカウチにドカっと座りたいっていうか。

Yeah, right?

足とかテーブルにみんな乗せるし。

So that is kind of something to get used to and it's difficult if that's the fashion that you're comffortable in and then all of sudden you have to switch to being more covered up.

でも、日本じゃ絶対にダメ。

Right.

でも、もちろん日本人でも人によります。

I mean if you have bigger boobs if you're coming from the [?], it's harder to find clothes that don't like emphasize that.

厳しい人も、そうでない人もいます。

Yeah, it's harder to find clothes that are flattering for that when you're used to wearing like the tank-tops and you have to switch to wearing like T-shirts...

厳しい人と接する場合は自分にも厳しくなりますし、

Yeah, it's really hard to find flattering clothes I find. -Yeah

緩い人と一緒にリラックスして騒いだり。

Yeah, for our body shapes, our body shapes are different so. -Right.

私の友達の多くはアメリカに留学したから、アメリカ人っぽい所があるし。

And when I first came to Japan, I mean this is a whole different topic like 'how I changed since I first coming to Japan' like um

なので、人によります。

I was definitely more careful with rules like that but over time I've realised that it's, I don't think it's that big of a deal -I don't either.

ジェスチャーとか顔の表情とか、もっと大げさな感じだよね。

Like if I'm going to a temple or like a business meeting I'm gonna dress way more um conservatively but

顔を見れば気持ちが分かるよね。

I mean a body is a body, everyone has a body and -For everyday like going shopping like Harajuku or something

日本では、もっと落ち着いています。

Yeah, I do feel slightly uncomfortable when I wear a tank-top here because I know that not many people are and I'm kinda looking there in the crowd like

私もそこまで落ち着いていません。

Uhh, I'm the only one like showing all of this shoulder but... -Right.

日本的な基準を自分に当てはめると、性格が変わりそう。

You kinda get away with it a little bit being a foreigner. -Because you're a foreigner.

仕事のシーンで、よく感じます。

Like they expect you to be different, they don't expect you to um, be here at the same rules

例えば日本企業とビジネスをする際なんかに、

And I'm not saying that so you can be like ''I don't have to pay attention to anything in Japan, I'm a foreigner!'' -Yeah, definitely like, yeah, yeah!

会議のやり方が全然違います。

Like I mean- definitely no! -Please, don't do that! Try to follow

アメリカだとフランクに冗談や世間話をしたりしますが、

I mean, definitely think about this situation, what you're gonna wear, like lower-cut shirts

全く違うよね。

but like I'm just hanging out with friends today and -And I feel like it's not being offensive to people.

日本ではカッチリしています。

Right.

冗談も言ったりしますが、

It's not really that you're offending somebody by showing your shoulder, it's just that it's not common here so.

プロフェッショナルな姿勢は崩しません。

Yeah.

あとは、

People might look at you a little more than they normally would when you're showing like a little bit of skin here. -Right.

自分の意見を気軽に発言しないというか

But I don't think you're hurting anybody -Noo

相手方の意見を尊重しつつ、自分の意見がどう相手に解釈されるのか慎重に（略）…

if it's just in a casual situation like that, like shopping with you friends. -Yeah.

ビジネスの姿勢が全然違います。

So those are some of the things that are a little bit more difficult for us living here.

良し悪しではなく、慣れていないと違いに慣れるまで時間と努力が要ります。

It's not like anybody's like ''I have to WALK today!'' -''Uh, this sucks!''

会議が終わったら、アメリカにいた頃以上にクタクタになります。

It's not THAT bad.

ルールでもう一つ。

But it's just some more difficult things that you guys might not have taken into consideration so maybe we can kinda like help you prepare

厳しいというか、異なるという感じですが、

in case you're planning on living here.

服装です。

Yeah, and um let us know if you have any other things that come to mind for you down in the comments and thank you for watching!

日本では女性が脚の見える服装をしていても普通ですが、

And if you aren't subscribed to Sharla, please check out Sharla's channel!

上半身は露出が少ないです。

She makes lots of...

肩、胸元、

hjvjdkcbflevbjfkl

特にこの辺りです。

If you aren't subscribed to Sharla, check out her channels too! -Aw, thank you!

鎖骨が見えるだけど、ちょっと不適な感じがします。

She makes videos about Japan and she has a lot of different perspectives on things that I don't talk about in our videos. -Yeah, yeah.

これはちょっとローカットです。

So um, check her out too and thank you for watching!

モザイク入れてなきゃ。

We''ll see you guys later!

北米とは反対だよね。

Bye!

ミニスカートはもうスキャンダラスな感じで、

Bye bye! :)

胸元のローカットは全然普通です。