Hello there! Welcome back to the blog!
This post will be a little more brief, as I wanted to quickly share a few daily life changes that I’ve experienced, or that tend to happen while you’re living in Japan.
The first difference made in my routine from day 1 was my sleep schedule.
I woke up at around 6 or 7 am every day my first week of being in Japan without an alarm. Of course, my first week could have also been influenced by jet lag, but I honestly don’t think it made that much of an impact. The main factor behind this early rising habit is more because of the time the sun rises and sets in Japan. Japan is a country that never changes their clock for Daylight Savings Time, so the sunset is always around 6 pm and sunrise is always around 4 am. Because of this, and also because many shops close at 8 pm (discluding bars), it’s much easier to end your day earlier and have an early-riser attitude to your sleep schedule here.
Now, of course, being a student with responsibilities and a social life, and also having family in a different time zone, I can’t always go to bed before 11:30 pm or even 12:30 am, but it has been much easier for me to wake up to get ready and leave for class at 8 am.
Another habit that quickly changed here has been bathing. Japanese people LOVE to bathe. They bathe every day!
But Japanese baths are a bit different from the bath system we’re used to. Compared to Americans, Japanese people clean their whole body and rise off completely before entering the tub, so the bath is simply used to soak and relax.
Anyway, I’m used to taking a shower every other day back home, so it felt unnatural at first, but I really like it! Especially because in Japan, the summer is quite humid, so it’s easy to feel gross after a long day. Also, sitting in a bath helps relax your body and mind.
Another interesting habit change is that I hardly wear any makeup here. Of course, if you know me, you know I don’t wear that much in the first place, but I don’t feel as much of a need for it here. Often times, I will just put on mascara and a little bit of cover-up for blemish spots. This is mostly because the weather is warm enough that anything I put on will melt off anyway, but it’s also because my skin has become clearer here. I think school back home is much more stressful and causes more acne than school here.
Staying on the subject of beauty, this was something I was not expecting to happen: I have begun to wear more skirts and dresses!! I have nothing against those types of clothes, but my style is very casual and more comfort-oriented, and I feel strange not having leg holes. Of course, my style is still mostly that way, but it is so incredibly normal for girls to wear slightly more girly clothes that my style has kind of adapted to it! No worries, though, I don’t feel forced at all to wear anything; I think it’s fun!
As well as skirts and dresses, the bottoms in these pictures are verrrrrry popular in Japan right now! They’re kinda like gaucho pants and appear to be skirts from far away. I’m actually not a huge fan (reminds me of that awkward time in middle school when stretchy gauchos were popular…*shudder*), but they do look comfy!
Something else I was not expecting when I came here was the difference in the air. My allergies have changed a little bit after being exposed to so much city air so suddenly and so often. I have found myself waking up every morning with a slightly dry throat or nose, or with the urgency to lightly cough a few times right after waking up. The other day I forgot to take my medication and my sinuses were actually less stuffy than normal, so I’m curious as to whether there is a correlation with my medication dosage and the change of atmosphere. Who knows?
Anyway, those are some small examples of how easily your daily life can change in a foreign country! Feel free to ask any questions or leave comments about things that I may not have mentioned!
See you in the next post!