Welcoming Millie (in yellow t-shirt) at Kansai AirportThirty-one years ago on another hot summer day like today, Bernie and I first arrived in Japan to begin our two years as special assignment missionaries (SAMs). Never in our wildest dreams could we have predicted that this short-term assignment would stretch into twenty-eight years! But that’s another story.
I can remember some of the “different” things I met early on in Japan as clearly as if I discovered them yesterday. There are many examples, including these:
*Driving on the left side of the road. I was sure we were going to end up as casualties in a head-on accident as the missionaries who met us at the airport drove us to their house;
*Eating cold noodles in the summer. Thinking about cold spaghetti and congealed meat sauce, I couldn’t imagine that somen, a cold noodle dish, could possibly be appetizing. I was wrong. Now somen is one of our favorite summer dishes;
*Using tissues for napkins at the table. Although this has changed, you couldn’t even buy napkins when we first came to Japan. But at least we didn’t have to make a roll of toilet paper double for napkins, a common practice in some Asian countries;
*Having bugs in our house. I used to think cockroaches meant a dirty house, but now they and other “critters” are just a part of the décor. I must admit, however, that I’m not quite as casual in my thoughts about the snake I once found in our kitchen;
*Pointing to your nose when talking about yourself. How odd, I thought, having assumed that everyone in the world points to their chest as Americans do. Now my pointer finger finds the end of my nose as instinctively as I breathe;
*Bowing to a telephone. Bowing is so ingrained in the earliest teaching of manners that the Japanese unconsciously bow to someone on the other end of the line as they conclude the conversation. I used to laugh; now I bow with the best of them;
*Being aghast at prices. Japan has one of the highest costs of living in the world. But soon you learn to quit converting yen to dollars whenever you shop and to make price comparisons within Japan rather than with the United States. If you don’t, you’ll starve to death, thinking you can’t afford to buy anything.
Four days ago, we welcomed a new SAM at the beginning of her two-year assignment in Japan. Today, as Millie sat in the back seat while I navigated some streets barely wider than our van and with inclines worthy of San Francisco, I heard a slight gasp, some nervous laughter, and the comment, “Culture shock!”
Looking back on our SAM experience of so long ago, I recall that I knew we’d survived culture shock the day we realized that different had become normal. I pray Millie will meet that day soon. In the meantime, may she delight in discovering new ways of thinking and doing, and laugh a lot in the learning process.
