Most Useful and Most Practical Travel Tips in Japan

Culture

Visiting a Japanese house

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Negative Questions

Negative question is bad way to ask something to Japanese.
Japanese reply “YES” even though their answer is “NO”.

Here is an example:

Don't you smoke? Yes, I don't smoke. <- Typical answer you will get from Japanese.  

This mistake comes from Japanese Language grammar.
It seems to be smart to avoid the negative questions to Japanese.

Mask

As you know COVID-19 is spreading in Japan. Especially the Omicron variant.
It is told that the manner of wearing mask helps pandemic in Japan.

The number of patients is increasing.
Anyway, everyone wears a mask when they are out.

Why do you see many surgeons wearing a mask on a street in Japan?

wearing mask

You really see a lot of Japanese people wearing masks in town.

These are the following reasons

There are two types of Japanese people who wear masks: those who wear masks to prevent colds and those who wear masks to prevent hay fever.

Prevention of colds

Until now, it has not been very common to wear masks to prevent colds.

Wearing a mask against COVID-19 is said to be effective in preventing exposure to COVID-19, but it also seems to be effective against cold germs.

Prevention of colds not only prevents inhaling viruses, but also keeps the mucous membranes in the nose and throat moist and prevents viruses from multiplying.

Hay fever

Hay fever sufferers begin wearing masks as soon as early spring arrives.

This is because the best way to avoid inhaling pollen through the nose and mouth is to physically shatter.

The masks that have been developed recently, such as COVID-19, are excellent and seem to be able to remove 98-99% of pollen.

When I return home, I flap my coat and other clothing outside to remove pollen before entering the front door.

It is said that more than 20% of Japanese people suffer from hay fever, including those with mild hay fever.

These people wear masks everywhere and when they walk outside, so it is assumed that a significant number of them are hay fever sufferers.

For these two reasons, there are many people in Japan who cannot remove their masks.

Since the COVID-19 epidemic encouraged people around the world to wear masks, I think people around the world have become accustomed to wearing masks.

People are no longer uncomfortable when they see someone wearing a mask.

Chopsticks

You will see two types of chopsticks at Japanese restaurants.

The top one is sacked with a paper sleeve and the bottom one is bared.off

Normally no different. Generally speaking, bare one is less quality.

How to separate it to Chopsticks?



How to Hold the Chopsticks?

Tuck one chopstick under your thumb.

It will behold with the ring finger, pointer finger, and thumb.

Add the second chopstick;

To hold it like a pencil.

Bend your fingers, pointer, and middle finger, up and down.

Try to set the head of the chopstick to meet at the same spot to be able to tuck food.

Now you can pick any small food with chopsticks.

Normally all foods served are chopped to the right size.

Sometimes you may need to use chopsticks to cut food in case of soft food; Tofu, fish, etc.