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First official episode of my new vlog, this Japan Life! This episode covers an intro about the channel as well as a few experiences about what it’s like to live as a foreigner in lovely Japan. Thanks for watching!

Today I’ll discuss words borrowed from English that have integrated into the Japanese language. Some retain their meanings! Others...do not. Fun all around! Edit: Allegedly, the term “Guts Pose” comes from a pose a famous Japanese boxer named Guts Ishimatsu would strike! The learning continues!

I forgot to add translations to the two places I included Japanese so here you are: The woman on the beach said, “I’m so fat, look at this.” And the woman on TV “praising” the totally normal woman for losing weight said “I’m so jealous of you.” I made this video weeks ago and never got around to posting it, so sorry for the wait. But timing-wise it turned out okay as this week is National Eating Disorders Awareness Week. In this video, I address a variety of body image disorders and unhealthy eating habits that I’ve witnessed in Japan. The worst part to me is no one seems to talk about these issues, and women everywhere continue to starve or purge themselves to fit an impossible standard of beauty. And not just women, but men also (I spend a lot of time talking about women in particular due to being a woman myself but do not want to leave out men who also suffer from body dysmorphia). These issues need to be brought to the public eye and they need to be discussed. Now. Because the longer we wait, the more people will suffer, and continue to torture themselves over he their physical appearance and forget the things that truly matter in the short lives we are given. Thank you for watching and see you next time. For more reading material on what it’s like to be a foreign woman in Japan, please feel free to check out this amazing article: http://nbakki.hatenablog.com/entry/2014/06/25/123855

I describe my experiences with culture shock upon arriving to Japan as well as reverse culture shock when I go back home to America!

This time around there's a serious lack of plum wine as I discuss dating in Japan; what it's like to be a foreign woman attempting to date Japanese men, the work ethic of Japanese people, and societal expectations in Japan. Something I wanted to add; another big deterrent for Japanese men to date foreign women is the cultural barrier. Foreign women are not so easily convinced to stay at home and become a homemaker and child rearer as Japanese women are (both due to how both cultures developed in recent years). Foreign women are also more quick to express their opinion or complain that they aren't shown enough affection, where as in Japan people are used to not showing intimacy. There's a bunch of stuff I wanted to talk about but didn't get to, but enjoy anyway!

I drank some wine and talked about Japan. This is what happened.