{"id":339,"date":"2012-09-26T10:12:48","date_gmt":"2012-09-26T10:12:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.craigpratsch.com\/blog\/?p=339"},"modified":"2013-02-05T13:07:12","modified_gmt":"2013-02-05T13:07:12","slug":"things-you-learn-to-know-and-accept","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.craigpratsch.com\/blog\/things-you-learn-to-know-and-accept\/","title":{"rendered":"the things you learn"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not speaking the language (still, I know) forces you to learn how to respond in particular situations…<\/p>\n

If I’m buying something at the supermarket and they start speaking to me, they are probably asking if I want a bag with that. \u00a0I can either shake my head, do a hand wave signifying no, or respond with\u00a0\u3075\u304f\u308d\u3044\u308a\u307e\u305b\u3093 (fukuro irimasen), meaning “I don’t need a bag”. \u00a0I actually took the time to learn this phrase because they over-bag in Japan. \u00a0They put everything in bags! \u00a0You buy a stick of gum, they put it in a bag. \u00a0You buy a bag of chips, they put it in a bag. \u00a0My apartment was filled with plastic bags! \u00a0So I learned to say\u00a0\u3075\u304f\u308d\u3044\u308a\u307e\u305b\u3093.<\/p>\n

If I’m at a store and I pay with a credit card, they may ask me a question, accompanied with a hand\u00a0gesture\u00a0indicating a one or two. \u00a0They are asking if I want to swipe my credit card once or twice. \u00a0This one took me a while to figure out. \u00a0I used to just say yes, but that confused them. \u00a0After talking to some of my Japanese friends, I learned to say, one swipe. \u00a0I’m not really sure why you would pay with two swipes, maybe there is a transaction limit on Japanese credit cards. \u00a0One of the mysteries of Japan…<\/p>\n

If you are on the train and all of the sudden everyone gets off. \u00a0Get off too! \u00a0I’ve actually not noticed everyone getting off before, or thought, “that’s weird, everyone in this car needed to get off at this stop”. \u00a0At this point a Japanese man rushed up to me and\u00a0gestured\u00a0to get off the train. \u00a0Since then, I’ve learned that when everyone gets off the train, it means that they are switching trains and you have to walk across the platform to another train. \u00a0Just follow the people, a philosophy I use a lot here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not speaking the language (still, I know) forces you to learn how to respond in particular situations… If I’m buying something at the supermarket and they start speaking to me, they are probably asking if I want a bag with … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.craigpratsch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.craigpratsch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.craigpratsch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.craigpratsch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.craigpratsch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/www.craigpratsch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":487,"href":"http:\/\/www.craigpratsch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339\/revisions\/487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.craigpratsch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.craigpratsch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.craigpratsch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}