Blog post#1

Cultural "Self" Awareness and meeting people for the first time.

Being from Costa Rica and having traveled to a decent amount of places throughout my life i have always thought of myself as someone with good cultural awareness. But after participating in an intercultural communication class i now realize that i have a lot more to learn, especially about the east and Asian countries in general. The culture in Japan is completely different from anything i have experienced in my life. From the behaviour of people in the trains to the rules in eating it is something unprecedented for me. We learnt about these cultural differences in class and where they stem from. It is very exciting to be able to learn about it first hand while seeing it in action when exploring the country.

 Before coming to Japan i had unconsciously created some stereotypes that i now see were mostly biased. For example, i thought the country had a bigger anime or "kawaii" culture than it did. When arriving i came to realize that while it is big here it is nowhere as big as i had imagined it. I thought the people where shy and closed but in my time here i've met many really nice and outgoing people.

Each day i spent here more and more stereotypes are being defied and im very excited about it. Im hoping to be able to learn a lot more in the coming weeks.

Comments

  1. Jnie20 April 2026 at 23:16

    I like how you reflected on your own assumptions and how being in Japan changed your perspective. It feels honest and personal, especially the part about stereotypes being challenged over time

    ReplyDelete

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