What you'll learn:
- Basic manners at Japanese restaurants — seemingly complicated footwear removal rules (shoes, slippers, and toilet slippers!), drinking manners, chopstick manners, gratuity custom in Japan, and simple Japanese phrases useful at restaurants
- Basic manners on Japanese transportations — noise manners, queueing manners, priority seat manners, when drinking and eating is okay and not okay, as well as information about convenient rechargeable IC cards that you can use for transportation, how to find boarding points on a platform, busiest holiday time in Japan when it’s hard to reserve Shinkansen bullet train tickets, and useful phrases that you can use on public transportations.
- Basic manners when visiting Shinto shrines — definition and philosophy of Shinto, how to do purification ritual when entering Shinto shrines, how to do greeting to Shinto deity, photo manners, as well as explanation of things you see and can buy/try at Shinto shrines.
- Basic manners when visiting Buddhist temples — definition and philosophy of Buddhism in Japan, commonalities between Shinto and Buddhism, footwear removal rules at Buddhist temples, what to do at Buddhist temples including incense ritual, what not to do at Buddhist temples.
- Basic manners at Japanese traditional accommodation Ryokan — what to expect, difference from western hotels, footwear removal rules in Ryokans, tokonoma rules, things you have to know about yukata (cotton kimono you wear at ryokans), and how to take Japanese bath.
Are you visiting Japan soon?
This course offers practical lessons for people visiting Japan so they know what to expect, what to do, and what not to do in the light of Japanese manners, as well as simple and practical Japanese phrases.
When you are planning to visit Japan, you must be both excited and worried about the difference in language, culture, food, transportation system, etc.
Every single client who I have guided in the past said that Japanese people are so kind and helpful, and I really do agree. Even though not many Japanese people are necessarily good at speaking other languages than Japanese, they always try to help you and be friendly with you.
But at the same time, Japan has a unique culture with its own rules and manners. Visitors could be sometimes viewed as being rude in the eyes of local Japanese by unintentionally doing things against Japanese rules and manners.
Japanese people understand visitors do not do it intentionally, but if people who come to Japan are informed beforehand of what not to do, they don’t have to be viewed as being rude and the experience they have could be even friendlier and even more memorable.
In this course, I would like to share with you basic but very important Japanese manners so you won’t surprise or offend anybody when you are in Japan and you could be treated nicely with respect.
When you finish this course, you will be ready to have fun, memorable experiences in Japan!
