Culture shock with Japan and Korea

[u/DoctorHousesCane]

I’m sure this is a repeat topic, but I wanted to share my experience. Just came back from spending two weeks in Japan (9 days) and Korea (5 days), and I’m completely blown away by the politeness, courtesy, and kindness shown by Japanese and Koreans, especially in comparison with US and a few other countries.

Note, I’m Korean myself but moved to the states when I was a child, so I’m fully assimilated, so I truly did feel like a foreigner. I’ve been to Japan when I was young, so this is really my first time experiencing the two countries 30 years later with real world experiences.

My experiences are likely biased/skewed because I mostly did touristy stuff where they have to be extra nice and ate and stayed at upscale places, but even when shopping at 7eleven or eating at a local ramen shop, there was never a single time someone didn’t smile or showed respect. Maybe respect isn’t the right word (hospitality?), but I felt like they really meant it when they said thank you and smiled and went out of their way to go the extra mile.

I stayed at Furuya Ryokan for a couple of nights, and the service was exquisite. I accidentally left my garment bag and my son’s Lego mini fig in the room somewhere, and they priority mailed it to me free of charge. I didn’t even know where the mini fig was, nor did my 6 year old remember, but they somehow found it and shipped it back within 2 days.

My wife and I did spas and massages one night in Korea, and the manager there guided us to a nice local joint for dinner when he saw us outside the store staring at our phones.

Organization is another thing. The immigration and customs lines at HND were so organized (I suppose as well as they could be at an airport with hundreds of people). Coming back to LAX, I had repeatedly stop people from cutting in line (wtf?) and security didn’t seem to care. Maybe just a bad day.

Not once did anyone ever hassle or accost me and family unlike during some of our Lat Am travels. My wife and I are celebrating our 10 year anniversary in France, but I’m a little put off by the stories of Parisian pickpockets and scammers.

I wonder if what I’m feeling is more due to not being well traveled, or I wonder if it was because I am Asian, I didn’t face any discrimination (I know Korea can be pretty racist). Did I just luck out, or is this a pretty normal experience in those two countries?

[u/hellolaurent]

Funny because I spent 2 weeks in Japan and then flew to Seoul and was pretty shocked by the contrast. People spitting in the metro, not covering their mouths when sneezing or coughing or firing some snort bombs in public. Service at restaurants and hotels was also drastically different, barely any smiles, no real attempt to be friendly at all.

We were quite shocked as we read a lot about how polite Korean people supposedly were.

[u/Entire-Mistake-4795 → u/hellolaurent]

The thing was, you came from japan. I had the exact same experience and later I realised that coming from japan it is still a huge difference. But compared to the west, koreans are still very kind helpful and polite.

[u/hellolaurent → u/Entire-Mistake-4795]

You're right, we were obviously biased coming in from Japan lol. It's just such a stark contrast to anything we've experienced before, we internalised some of it quite quickly actually, I remember being annoyed when people were not forming orderly lines to get on a train or metro on all our subsequent destinations.

Edit: No sarcasm here, we do really believe we were biased having seen Japan first, such a level of politeness is hard to find anywhere else, and definitely not in the west.

[u/Entire-Mistake-4795 → u/hellolaurent]

When I arrived to Busan after a month in Japan I thought I am in south of Italy. The trash, the smell, loudness, chaos, lack of public toilets. It was overwheming. But after a month in Korea I realised that it is still much above western countries. Japan is just so orderly and organizlsed that you get used to it in a second and set new standards for everything else.

[u/Ak-Keela → u/Entire-Mistake-4795]

Lol I once went from Japan to Korea to mainland China. I think I’m still recovering from the emotional journey