Comparing life in Japan to Life in South Korea. Can you share your experience?

Posted by Retropiaf@reddit | expats | View on Reddit | 4 comments

I spent a few months in Japan years ago and really enjoyed that. As a Westerner I didn't find it too hard to adjust to the difference of living in Japan (although I'm sure there's a lot I of pain points I didn't experienced during my temporary stay). I'm wondering what things might surprise me about life in South Korea that I wouldn't have already experienced by living in Japan. Of course I understand that the two countries are unique and have a lot of differences (and I feel bad for equating them due to the sensitive history) but I'm wondering about the specific cultural differences that might surprise someone who lived in another Eastern Asian country as a foreigner. For example, people staring at me because I'm a black woman wouldn't be surprising after living in Japan.

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Bomboclaat_Babylon@reddit

People make overt efforts to not stare or make eye contact at all in Japan. In Korea they make normal eye contact. In China they will stare directly at you with no bashfulness in the slightest. So you get the full spectrum between the 3. Another fun 3-way spectrum is in Japan, people only go to the beach in the daytime and all leave together at about 5pm, like there's an announcement only they hear. In Korea, people come and go normally as they individually please. In China, no one shows up to the beach until after 5pm to avoid the sun. None of this is hard and fast of course. Obviously some Chinese go to the beach in the daytime etc. Just some fun general observations.

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Complete_Food_5574@reddit

You lived in each country

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etherealemilyy@reddit

I’ve lived in Korea and visited Japan a few times. Black women might have a different experience, but as a white woman in Korea I felt less like a novelty than in Japan. The only time random strangers have asked to take pictures of/with me were in Japan and Hong Kong. I feel like strangers in Japan are more helpful overall, while Koreans are more willing to speak in English or very simple Korean. You’ll probably still get a lot of questions and comments about your skin and hair in Korea, especially if you work as a teacher and interact with children. Korea feels more westernized, for sure. Visiting Japan feels like I’m in a really cool time capsule from the 1980s sometimes lol. Koreans seem to have very little spatial awareness, which drives me insane, but I don’t remember if Japan was similar. Hopefully you’ll get more comments from people who have really lived in both!

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Complete_Food_5574@reddit

1) Do you consider Korea and Japan as highly developed and advanced countries ? 2) How would you personally rate Korea and Japan (from culture to technology, architecture, food, local products, scenery/landscape, standard of living/quality of life, etc.) on a scale level of 1 to 10 ? 3) How would you overall describe the characteristics of Korean and Japanese people ? 4) If you have 3 or more words to describe Korea and Japan, what would it be ?