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Hello Lewis,

I lived in Rome, Bangladesh, Hague & Islamabad and will move to Tokyo,Japan in November.
As such there was no culture shock anywhere may be because I had so much information beforehand that my transition into the culture was nearly smooth. But sometimes yes, little things like taking off your shoes do remind you of the cultural differences. We Indians are also very big about taking off our shoes when going inside a home.
Everytime after coming back we experience a reverse culture shock, especially my8-year-old son who has to adjust to the new environment
of his new school.

Tanuja

Hi Lewis , first of all thank you for the colorful photos ( although it took ages to upload the page for me because of low NT speed and you may know filtering in my country :( lovely to see Tomono smiley and happy face and How cute is Oscar ! Touch the wood he looks a healthy boy .He is a mixture of you and tomono . I think his eyes most bring Japan for you , doesn't it ? I can imagin how much you feel reverse cultural shock in UK although it 's a bit strange . Nice to hear dear Tomono has built her own Bussiness ( I had a look at the link , well done Tomono ) . By the way You made me have a look in my dictionary after such a long time . Althoguh you use lots of slangs and idiom but it 's easy to understand beetween the lines ( not all the time of course :)and it make your Blog specail . If you don't mind I love to see more photo of dear Oscar ! You know the kids faces change alot as they grow up and I love to see him in different ages I mean being a baby , a toddler and a noughty young boy . wish you and your family happy time in Japan Mutsury and waitng for your next posts
please send Tomon my hello and hug dear oscar for me .
cheers
Pary from Iran

Hi Lewis! As ever I like your new post. It almost seems to me there haven´t been any such big gap since you taught us last time. Unfortunately, I didn´t have as much luck as Pary. I wasn´t allowed to look at links about cocoro by system here. It intrigues me a lot now and I just have to take the hut off to Tomono for being successful there. Photos are lovely. Warm greetings, marianna, Slovakia

Hi Lewis,
Hope everything's OK with you and had a relaxing weekend. Here where I live at the moment, it's been a long weekend and I have been so excited about it. What made it a long weekend is that on Friday we celebrated the Eid after fasting the whole month of Ramadan.

I consider myself one your dedicated online students, and as always, your job is very much appreciated. I just don't know how my English would be without the ��ѿ��ý LE website. But now I understand how lucky I'm to be able to have this wonderful opportunity to practise my English,and at the same time make some friends over this blog.

As I'm sure, it'd really be useful for all of the students of course including me if you'd just give us the explanations of the expressions that you write in your blog.

Thanks a lot.

Wish you the best of luck,

Abdisamad

Hi lewis,

I think that is the first time that i write on your blog. It's really amazing to know it. Beatiful family and beatiful photos.

Cheers - Natanael - Rio de Janeiro - Brazil

Hello Lewis,

Just to tell you about the big adventure of our lives. Be a Father.
I've a little daughter (3,5 years old), and i'm very happy as well.
I wish a very good path for you and your family. God bless you.

Cheers - Natanael - Rio de Janeiro - Brazil

Hi dear Mariana , How are you ? I just pop in to say that I opend the Link with difficulty , too . It took aged to show up some pictures but it gave me a view . UNlucky , I have to use Anti-filter to open ��ѿ��ý and FB and It take ages :( But as I have addicted to this fabioulus Bog I have to do it ;). By the way are you bloging , yet . Once I saw your Blog and a little angle but unfourtunately I lost the address . I use to Blog some times ( when there is somthing to say and i ahve free time ) Here it 's arddress : www.pary-diery.blogspot.com ( I can't find you in FB)
see you around and have fun
kisses
Pary from Iran

Hello Lewis,
Lovely photos! Lovely family - thanks for sharing! 6 years in Japan - that's quite a long time actually. I suppose you learnt to speak the language fluently. Do you rather use Japanese or English in your family? I have great admiration for your wife, too. She definitely seems to cope extremely well. I checked out that link of hers and have been asking myself who of my friends' or relatives' babies would look nice in a baby kimono... Are you thinking of going back to Japan eventually?
I like the idea of spending some time abroad very much. It certainly broadens one's horizons not only in a literal sense but also in that it helps to get rid of prejudices and to put views and values rigidly adhered to in one part of the world in a new perspective.
My daughter came back from the USA last year after having spent a year as an exchange student in a little town in Tennessee, and for all I could see, she suffered some symptoms of reverse-culture shock, too. She missed the American openness and easy-to-approach qualities and she felt quite out of place during those first few weeks at home. We Austrians can be very reserved and are generally a little more introverted than Americans, I dare say. And she missed the American high school where teachers seem to have more of a counselling and supporting role whereas in this country they often see themselves primarily as the examiners and judges of their students.
So much for my culture-shock story, which wasn't MY story after all...
Take care,
Elisabeth (Austria)

Hi Lewis,

Tomono is a real character, it really seems to me. I think she might be a motivating figure for the people who suffer from ‘culture shock’. I wish she could teach us how to swim fluently and smoothly in spite of being a fish out of water.

In 2000, I think she not only made you laugh but also hurt you deep in your heart. I guess she deserves the quality. I can’t pronounce how lovely the 'White Angel' looks in the photograph on your special day. She’s real beauty, I wonder!

Thanks fore the picture of Oscar, as I was waiting for it eagerly. Look forward to hearing about ‘Japan Matsuri’ soon.

Thanks.

Ashish, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Tanuja: I think your experience is not only quite interesting but also exceptional. In my view, Bangladesh and Islamabad might not appear with a lot of differences to you, as they are your neighboring country, but the experience about Rome and Hague really makes me surprised. Anyway, I think your strategy will also be effective in others’ case.

bbllmm: Hi Marianna, now the difference between Marianna and Marina is clear to me. I admit I misunderstood you as Marina, our August blogger. I appreciate the idea of Natanael on writing name, city and country at the end of our writing that will help us in identifying each other clearly. Keep in touch.

Natanael: I thought that you’re only a fan of Brazilian football. But, now I understand that you’re also a captain of a happy team consisting three players. Ha.......Ha........... Wish you all the best. Anyway, what’s the name of the youngest (3.5 years old) player of your team?

Pary: Hi Pary, EID MUBARAK. How have you enjoyed your Eid holiday?

Thanks to all.

Ashish, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Hi Lewis,
what a lovely pictures! and how beautiful you look in your Japanese clothes specially Oscar he is so cute.
and yes your comment above made me laugh, maybe because I do have experience with culture shock.
I ve been living in Germany for almost six years and since i came from South America I still wonder new things I live here. if I felt a fish out of water? well just going to "Hauptbahnhof" in Berlin and believing that my husband was the tallest man on earth and to see those security people being much much taller than him.... that was shocking and what a relief to discover i was married with a normal guy!
...and could someone define if there are positive or negative culture shock? Well, I was positively surprised for example how punctual and reliable german people can be, although this can be quit nerving because you do all your best to be on their “watch”, specially coming from SA where you have at least 15 min time tolerance, after a while it gets better :), I must admit to know the language it has great advantage ...even if it is for excuses..it is just wonderful to live in both cultures also when cooking once sauerkraut and another time beens with rice :)
I wish you and your family much fun at Japan Matsuri!
Regards,
Violeta

Hi Ashish, you´ve got it! I´ve been on the Blog ��ѿ��ý since sep 2006, but have read the grammar pages yet some time before. First active commenting entry I wrote in nov 06. However, my ´English´ could be hardly named as English than and probably won´t be as good as your´s despite ´tons´of comments from me written here.
This month blog is really excellent thanks to Dominique, you, Pary and all commenting audience. Marina, Pocahontas, was an awesome blogger too and I admired her commitment and understood much of the life she wrote about. Greetings to Natanael´s team and to All! marianna, Slovakia

Dear Marianna,

Thanks for your comment. It's my pleasure that you think my writing is good. No doubt, your feedback will encourage me in developing it towards next stage 'Better'.

I've been writing here since April 26, 2010 and to tell the truth I've got addicted to it. I always get busy in this site during my leisure period while my other friends are crazy about Facebook or twitter. In my view, this site provides me a lot of topics to think about as well as to express myself. And, in this case, all credit goes to the student and teacher blogger and undoubtedly all other students who contribute a lot. So, I take the opportunity to thank all.

I'm delighted that you're enjoying the deliveries from Dommi this month. I think Dommi is a versatile person in terms of thoughts. Moreover, I also thank other friends for their comments which motivate me in writing more.

Thanks to all.

Ashish, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Hi Lewis,
wow,that's beatiful photos!and your son is absolutely adorable!
I've had experiences of culture shock here in New Zealand.I've been living and working at a Japanese restaurant in Auckland since 2007.the first day I arrived here,I saw people who walking barefoot on the street in downtown!I'd read about that issue before I came here and thought it was just exaggerated!I'm used to seeing them though.
Also,there is one thing I finally got used to recently is "eye contact" at work.most of our costomers are local people.as you know,we yell "sumimasen!!(Excuse me in Japanese)" when you want to call a waiter at restaurants(not at expensive restaurants) in Japan,but here,they don't do that. they just try to do eye contact or lift their eyeblows up a bit.I used to miss it so often when I started working here.

gotta go to work.I'll write more if something come up to my mind.

cheers,
Yoshiko