Since my other chatty thread is me asking you questions, I thought it could go the other way around while following a similar format.
You ask me whatever you want based on whatever topic I give you. I will give you context and details to work off of so you’re not squeezing questions out of thin air.
You can go back to old topics if you suddenly think of something to ask. Topics will change when I feel like it Just like my other chatty thread.
Most recent post will likely have the most recent topic if you scroll a bit.
So… I have lived in Japan since I was two and a half. I went to normal Japanese school from kindergarten to high school. Junior high and high school were connected and it was a Christian school, but they weren’t forcing religion down our throats.
For uni, I went to a Japanese uni with a program in English, so most of the classes were taught in English. I went abroad to Oregon for a year as part of an exchange program. Grad school was in Japan and it also had most classes in English.
I live in Japan currently and don’t have any plans to leave for now.
I speak fluent Japanese.
You can ask about school in Japan, a person who is Japanese-American living in Japan in the 90s as a kid, food in Japan, traditions in Japan (as much as I know), and the Japanese person’s perspective on Japanese things
For studies, story research, or maybe you’re just curious, drop in your questions.
I can answer some questions about politics but personally I have lost a lot of faith in the Japanese government (you can ask about this, but I might prefer to DM you), so I don’t keep up with the news unless some big change happens. So, politics-related questions might not give you many answers.
Forgive me if you already mentioned this, but when you say Japanese-American, do you mean one parent is Japanese and the other is American, or are both Japanese but you were born in America? I have a Japanese-American friend whose parents are both Japanese, but he moved to America as a child and got citizenship.
Fellow former Christian school student was it a non-denominational Christian school, or did it follow a specific branch? My school was non-denominational, but I also have friends who went to Methodist schools, Catholic schools, and all other kinds of schools.
Related to the above question, in what ways did the Christian school differ from a regular Japanese school aside from the name? My primary school was very Christian but in a good way, and the Bible was a mandatory book alongside our other textbooks. Meanwhile my secondary school didn’t feel Christian at all aside from the plain crosses in the classrooms and the school logo
Did you go to school on Saturdays? I remember that was one culture shock I had when I went on an exchange program. I forgot whether it was the girls’ school or boys’ school that had half-days on Saturdays, but as a very lazy person I couldn’t imagine waking up on a weekend for classes
When was the last time you traveled outside of Japan?
What were the biggest culture shocks you experienced when you studied abroad in Oregon?
What dish in Japanese cuisine do you think is underrated?
When you go to Japanese restaurants outside of Japan, what are things they usually get right, and what things do they usually get wrong?
Related to the above, I noticed that chawan mushi is a very popular menu item in Japanese restaurants where I grew up, but it’s extremely hard to find them in the US. Did you experience anything similar… sorry, I don’t know how to word this right I mean when you set foot in another country, are there any Japanese dishes that you usually look for that turn out to be “rare” in that country?
What big differences do you mostly notice between Japanese-Americans (or those who are just Japanese) who grew up in Japan, versus Japanese-Americans who grew up in America?
How are tourists in Japan, and how have they changed over the last decade or so? I haven’t been to Japan since 2015—unless you count the airports —but I heard that not only are there more tourists, but that they’re more obnoxious too. Wondering if that’s what you see too?
I know you didn’t ask me lol, but I was a tourist in Japan last year, and, like, half the people I know are travelling to Japan these days. So I’m sure the overall number is huge. Based on that alone, the probability of obnoxiousness has likely skyrocketed. Most places I went to were fine, and Tokyo being so big didn’t feel so crowded. But all of the popular temples in Kyoto…yikes. I hated every moment of that. At least we did them all in one day I then went to the Heian temple by myself, it was so beautiful and barely anyone there.
It is hard to find information about disabled, specifically Autistic, people in other countries in English. Do you have experiences you’d like to share about how disabled people live in Japan?
My dad’s Japanese and my mom’s American. I was born in the U.S.
Hi It was protestant, I think. They really didn’t force the beliefs onto us, although we did sing a song in the morning and read a passage of the bible. It was a ten to fifteen min mini mass.
So, like I said above, we had morning mini mass. Japanese schools already practice morning talks from the principal, so it was like in place of that. We had one class where we learned about the Christian founder of the school, and something about Christianity. I honestly don’t remember much about Christian class because we only had it in junior high, and it was one of the easiest classes with no homework and easy tests.
We had a Christmas pageant where some kids volunteered to be non-talking, only moving actors in a pageant play around Christmas. We did sing Christmas-related church songs around that time. As part of the choir club, some kids chose to be part of the hand bell group, and around Christmas, they would perform Christmas specials.
To add, the school was junior high and high school, so from 13~18 years old. Junior high 1, 2, 3, is from 13-15. And high school is from 16-18. For me, I never knew any other junior high or high school, so I can’t really tell you about any other differences other than the really religion-based ones.
In the first year of Junior High. No. From my second year, suddenly the school decided to have Saturday school which ended right before lunch. So, we would get to go home before lunch.
And yeah, it took some getting used to But the teachers often relaxed on these days because they don’t want to do it either XD Sometimes they had fun games and easy tasks. Sometimes they’d let us out early. And it was kinda fun getting to see my friends on the weekend and sometimes eat lunch out with them.
A few years ago, I went to the states. I have family there, so I went to visit them.
Cashiers chat, people want to hug you, and teachers who want to be on a first name basis with you. One of the professors told me to call him by his first name and I refused XD Also, people disappearing from campus around Thanksgiving, winter break starting really early (in Japan, it’s either the 23rd or 24th, or the 25th for schools), and parties going on almost every Friday (when do people study around here? XD).
Hmm… I don’t know. I don’t keep up with what people outside Japan like. Personally, fried shrimp with tartar sauce.
Okay, okay, I have a great one. When I went to Oregon, there was a restaurant called Teriyaki. Now, that’s a Japanese sweet sauce. But they most definitely served Chinese food.
I think people get wrong what exactly IS Japanese food XD It’s not Chinese food XD
Chawan is the type of bowl used. “Cha” is “tea” and “wan” is a type of bowl, so now I’m wondering if it used to be put into a tea cup Mushi means “to steam” and that’s what it is. I like chawanmushi because it’s like a treasure hunt when you eat it Do you think of it like that, or is it just me?
I think I’d put the two words together. Idk. Either way might be fine. You can get chawanmushi at the supermarket here.
When I go to another country, I don’t eat Japanese food. I’ve been deprived of American food, so that is what I will indulge in, so, I don’t have an answer.
Well, if you grow up in America, there’s just an American openness. At least with the people I’ve seen. Japanese tend to keep things to themselves, go with the flow, not stand out in the crowd. Again, not everyone is like this, but it’s a tendency I’ve seen.
Yes. And it made the news of tourists disrespecting Kyoto and bothering the locals to the point where the locals couldn’t go about their daily lives. I live in a non-touristy place, so thank goodness traveling obnoxious tourists don’t often come here.
I feel like people who don’t care about others have decided to travel. A big part of that is the popularity of games and anime, and influencers who are not Japanese but living in Japan.
Some influencers make it out like Japan is either too conservative (you cannot talk on the train, they say, which is wrong. You can. Just don’t be loud), or too nice and forgiving (Japanese people will be politely nice. But you can’t take advantage of that.)
I saw a lady literally chasing a geisha down a dark alley I will admit that I got our group to cross the street at the same crossing the geisha was waiting, just so we could stare for a bit but we just happened to walk the same way she did, anyway, then she turned and of course we kept walking on our merry way, but other tourists took out their phones and chased her down…
OMG, yes! More like, “how they don’t get to live in Japan”. Unfortunately, that’s the reality here.
Short answer: Japan is behind. We might have cool anime and tech here, but in terms of society’s progress, there’s more work that needs to be done.
I have strong opinions about this
So, for those kids or adults who need assistance, they put them in a “special needs” school up in the mountains or in really rural areas, in my opinion, to keep them away from the public. Very far from their families. I understand not all parents can take care of their disabled children without assistance, but putting them so far away from society in general…
Idk. I think some people might disagree with me on this, but these people aren’t getting the chance to thrive up there. I think it’s just so ridiculous! Only in the last few years or so have major television channels been featuring people with disabilities, and I have been keeping up with how acceptance is going in Japan. Well, it’s not good.
Any developmental or mental disability or neurodivergence… none of that in the media. Not as much as the states. Some people disagree with me on this, but I think Japan is WAY behind the U.S. in terms of acceptance of people with disabilities. Like, I always think, “Where are you guys???”
There are some organizations that are trying to train people with disabilities, so they can get jobs, but it’s not enough for any massive change. Honestly, Japan needs to try so much harder when it comes to visibility and acceptance of people with disabilities. And it starts with what the government is doing with taxpayers’ money.
it really is I was really tempted to give that woman a piece of my mind, but I guess I chickened out lol. the poor geisha was already walking so fast in her geta sandals, I can’t even begin to imagine how scary it must feel to have people chase you down the street like that.
I think so, too, but in general. not just tourists. I hate going to the cinema these days because people can’t sit still and watch a movie they paid for without taking out their phones and/or talking to each other. I love the cinema, but tickets are too expensive now for me to take time out of my day just to put up with rude ppl
Feel free to revisit the Japan topic at any time if you’re curious.
Topic: Self-Publishing Journey
I self-published YA Fantasy Between Roses. First, the E-book (2024, and at this time, I wasn’t planning on making a paperback) and then a paperback (2025, after I realized I had the budget for it).
I can talk about this, but let me preface this by saying that there’s a WHOLE TON of different experiences when it comes to self-publishing.
I did what was best for me, what I could financially afford (because yes, it comes down to money), and what was available to me as someone living in Japan and wanting to sell a book in English to a global market.
Editing 1: Used alpha readers and beta readers for a long, slow, self-editing process. It was slow because I wasn’t going to publish this book at first. I was only posting it on Wattpad. Slow and steady was the best way to go for me.
Editing 2: I was 100% confident in the flow of the story (shoutout to @J.L.O who pointed out an inconsistency in the timeline!), so I decided to not get developmental editing and went straight for line editing. I used the line editor’s comments for more editing.
(Fun story: this line editor, I had contacted through Facebook years ago for a different project, but ended up going for someone else. BUT I did like her style, so I sought her out once again. Luckily, she was available!)
Editing 3: Proofreading. Found a proofreader through IG. Someone who also writes fantasy and loves reading fantasy. Perfect. I used her comments to fix any little thing I missed.
Formatting: For both E-book and paperback, I used the same formatter because I trusted her, and we got along well. Getting along well with the formatter was so important. It was a much more involved process than I had imagined. I learned a lot from her.
The Cover: E-book was someone I found on IG, but who also happened to be on Dreamland Discord a.k.a Wattpad user. Small world. For the paperback, I had found a cover artist on Facebook that I loved. Beautiful illustrations. Just what I wanted. Also, we got along well Very important.
Distribution: Both books are sold through Draft2Digital which distributes your book to many different platforms. I went with them because of their free ISBN, and I can get my book onto Barnes & Noble online (personal big win for me because of all the fond memories there).
You can ask me the whys of my choices (why I didn’t do formatting myself or made my own cover or didn’t buy ISBNs, etc.), or anything about D2D, or whatever else you’re interested in!
Thank you for sharing, Enna! Everyone has a different process and it’s great to see what yours looked like. D2D is a great platform and it’s awesome it worked out for you! My 12 month experiment is coming to a close, and in January I’ll be moving some of my works to D2D, too (for another 12 month experiment! Yay science!).
For me my publishing process this year has been a little unique, mostly owing to the fact all pennames that received books were brand new. The process has been:
Do research → figure out penname and niche → write the book(s) → throw a cover together → run it through ProWritingAid → quick and dirty formats with Kindle Create (and now Atticus) → publish. Ignore the first two on projects for existing pennames.
I am up to 3 pennames for 2025, and potentially looking to expand to a fourth in January for my next experiment to keep things fair, but it does require some planning before the end of the year.
All these people I’ve been following them, reading testimonials, and sometimes even talking beforehand about their job or about other writing things, or art things. I start talking with them way before to get to know them. Not all the people I talk to are ones I decide to work with.
They also have to have a website which I can check, and preferably somewhat of a social media presence that isn’t just about advertising their services. And they all have some kind of contract to sign before I work with them.
I don’t just ask anyone to tamper with my manuscript.
It sounds like the first stages of editing from alpha and beta readers you did via WattPad? Did you make changes based on alpha/beta feedback, and update WattPad accordingly or was there a point where you took the story down because now you were moving onto other stages of editing and planning to publish? And so you made changes to your own personal copy.
Yes, at first everything was on Wattpad and I was updating Wattpad as I got alpha and beta feedback, but once I decided to publish, I stopped updating there. I didn’t take the story down yet, but I was editing behind the scenes. And some beta readers got the manuscript in E-pub format as I got closer to the end.
Just like my other chatty thread.
was it a non-denominational Christian school, or did it follow a specific branch? My school was non-denominational, but I also have friends who went to Methodist schools, Catholic schools, and all other kinds of schools.
—but I heard that not only are there more tourists, but that they’re more obnoxious too. Wondering if that’s what you see too?
I then went to the Heian temple by myself, it was so beautiful and barely anyone there.
It was protestant, I think. They really didn’t force the beliefs onto us, although we did sing a song in the morning and read a passage of the bible. It was a ten to fifteen min mini mass.
But the teachers often relaxed on these days because they don’t want to do it either XD Sometimes they had fun games and easy tasks. Sometimes they’d let us out early. And it was kinda fun getting to see my friends on the weekend and sometimes eat lunch out with them.
I will admit that I got our group to cross the street at the same crossing the geisha was waiting, just so we could stare for a bit 
I was really tempted to give that woman a piece of my mind, but I guess I chickened out lol. the poor geisha was already walking so fast in her geta sandals, I can’t even begin to imagine how scary it must feel to have people chase you down the street like that.
Very important.
