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Morelia
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30 May 2013, 8:22 am

LupaLuna wrote:
I went to japan a couple of times and I will have to say that it is aspie friendly. If this is your first time over there. Things will be a little rough for the first week until you get settle in.


Agreed. I lived in Japan for three years. I found it difficult for the first six months (I was set up for a full-time job but that fell through after I arrived) and had few contacts, but after that it was so much easier.* I think you will find most Japanese metaphorically bending over backwards to help you - it's their culture to help.

Things that are "Aspie friendly"-

* Most interactions have set formats with little or no variation, which are easy to learn. For example, when you meet someone for the first time, there are usually only one or two things you can say as a greeting. Plus the bow, of course. So much easier than in Western cultures, where interactions seem to follow no format at all.

* Things are expected. You take off your street shoes when entering an office, shrine, temple or someone's house. You bring a gift when visiting someone at their house. You don't blow your nose in public. There are many simple rules to learn, but if you follow them you can't go wrong.

* Meals are easy to find once you learn to recognise restaurants and not confuse them with bookshops.

Get a guidebook, research the culture before you go, if you have time.

*My caveat: It would have been even easier if I were male. Japan is a very paternalistic society.



Adam_Raki
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02 Jun 2013, 5:55 am

Hi!! ! :)

I have read during the last week every single reply concerning my post.
I would like to THANK YOU very much guys! This is very helpful!! !

Just one last thing, but unfortunately not the least...
Is there anyone, here, who lives in Japan or who would know Japanese aspies / Japanese AS Group?
I have looked almost everywhere but I found very few (interesting) things such as AS&Japan...

THX AGAIN!! !
:)


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AspieOtaku
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02 Jun 2013, 6:35 am

Akihabara is an aspie paradise! :D


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beneficii
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02 Jun 2013, 7:43 am

Adam_Raki wrote:
Hi!! ! :)

I have read during the last week every single reply concerning my post.
I would like to THANK YOU very much guys! This is very helpful!! !

Just one last thing, but unfortunately not the least...
Is there anyone, here, who lives in Japan or who would know Japanese aspies / Japanese AS Group?
I have looked almost everywhere but I found very few (interesting) things such as AS&Japan...

THX AGAIN!! !
:)


There might be Japanese language resources. I've watched some documentaries in Japanese on developmental disorders (発達障害) and there are groups for people with those disorders at least in the big cities, but they are in Japanese. You could start off by searching in Japanese "Asperger (name of city you will be staying in)." You will probably want to start seeing a mental health professional when you arrive in Japan as well, so that might be a good starting place.

I'd like to ask, how much Japanese do you speak, or how willing are you to incorporate Japanese into your daily life?



shamo
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02 Jun 2013, 9:54 am

Adam_Raki wrote:
Hi!! ! :)

I have read during the last week every single reply concerning my post.
I would like to THANK YOU very much guys! This is very helpful!! !

Just one last thing, but unfortunately not the least...
Is there anyone, here, who lives in Japan or who would know Japanese aspies / Japanese AS Group?
I have looked almost everywhere but I found very few (interesting) things such as AS&Japan...

THX AGAIN!! !
:)




in japan what iv'e seen on youtube what i think is related somehow to asperger is "Hikikomori"
i could be wrong its just a guess.

Quote:
Hikikomori (ひきこもり or 引き籠もり Hikikomori?, literally "pulling inward, being confined", i.e., "acute social withdrawal") is a Japanese term to refer to the phenomenon of reclusive adolescents or young adults who withdraw from social life, often seeking extreme degrees of isolation and confinement. The term hikikomori refers to both the sociological phenomenon in general as well as to people belonging to this societal group.




Quote:
The article tracks the stories of a few hikikomori (about 80% are male). It also follows an organization called “New Start” – a support group whose goal is to reintroduce hikikomori back into society, after extremely long periods of isolation. It’s a slow process, even at the best of times. In one particularly extreme example, a worker for the Tokyo Mental Health Academy counseled a hikikomori for more than 10 years (over 500 visits), before convincing him to leave his home.



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02 Jun 2013, 10:19 am

shamo wrote:
Adam_Raki wrote:
Hi!! ! :)

I have read during the last week every single reply concerning my post.
I would like to THANK YOU very much guys! This is very helpful!! !

Just one last thing, but unfortunately not the least...
Is there anyone, here, who lives in Japan or who would know Japanese aspies / Japanese AS Group?
I have looked almost everywhere but I found very few (interesting) things such as AS&Japan...

THX AGAIN!! !
:)




in japan what iv'e seen on youtube what i think is related somehow to asperger is "Hikikomori"
i could be wrong its just a guess.

Quote:
Hikikomori (ひきこもり or 引き籠もり Hikikomori?, literally "pulling inward, being confined", i.e., "acute social withdrawal") is a Japanese term to refer to the phenomenon of reclusive adolescents or young adults who withdraw from social life, often seeking extreme degrees of isolation and confinement. The term hikikomori refers to both the sociological phenomenon in general as well as to people belonging to this societal group.




Quote:
The article tracks the stories of a few hikikomori (about 80% are male). It also follows an organization called “New Start” – a support group whose goal is to reintroduce hikikomori back into society, after extremely long periods of isolation. It’s a slow process, even at the best of times. In one particularly extreme example, a worker for the Tokyo Mental Health Academy counseled a hikikomori for more than 10 years (over 500 visits), before convincing him to leave his home.



Haha, no. Hikikomori is not aspergers. It's something completely different. Though, I wouldn't be surprised if some Hikikomori have aspergers.

To sum it up, they are basically like a hermit. Someone who refuses to leave their home, and sometimes even their bedroom. Many require family to support them. It's not necessarily aspergers, as many people with aspergers (I'd wager the majority) don't have problems actually going outside. Hikikomori usually aren't from birth either, from what I gather, it's more of a thing that happens later in life (usually around start of adulthood). Welcome To The NHK is a good anime to watch to learn about Hikikomori. http://myanimelist.net/anime/1210/NHK_ni_Youkoso! The character in the anime is "normal" until he graduates from highschool, and then slowly becomes a hikikomori. He slowly starts to get help from some people he met by chance. There's also a few characters in the anime with depression. Overall, it's pretty good to watch if you are curious about it.


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02 Jun 2013, 10:59 am

Ai_Ling wrote:
LupaLuna wrote:
I went to japan a couple of times and I will have to say that it is aspie friendly. If this is your first time over there. Things will be a little rough for the first week until you get settle in.


aspie friendly setting? I thought japanese had strict social rules and looked negatively upon people that are socially odd. Well you might get the foreigner treatment where they excuse a lot of socially oddities. One thing, I've met a lot of japanese internationals that come over here and never really got along well with any of them. Idk if this has anything to do with being aspie.


Japanese are introverts. They don't talk to you. They don't look you in the eye. They don't get in your space. Basically you are on your own in Japan. That makes it aspie friendly.



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02 Jun 2013, 11:05 am

shamo wrote:
as a foreigner you will get a lot of questions , iv'e seen other vids of ppl in japan complaining about it.
that some stranger in train will talk to you and ask questions.


It's rare. The most likely strangers who would try to talk to you on a train in Japan, would be other foreigners.



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02 Jun 2013, 11:13 am

Max000 seems to have better knowledge about the Japanese than some others.



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02 Jun 2013, 1:16 pm

Not Japan specific, but to do with moving countries. It can actually be a blessing in disguise (or not in disguise if you love the place as I did!): people are likely to be more forgiving of social errors and put it down to your being a foreigner. They are more likely to explain if you have done something wrong and it is less awkward to ask if something is appropriate or not because the difference between country cultures is obvious, unlike the difference between AS and NT cultures within a country.

So don't be too scared! Also, though this might not be relevant to you, it could be a different perspective, I didn't find it hard to make the changes of moving to a new country - to me they seemed no bigger (or even less of a problem because I was prepared for them) than issues in day to day life like changes in routine, conversations with people etc.

Good luck and enjoy it!



shamo
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02 Jun 2013, 8:36 pm

Kafke wrote:
shamo wrote:
Adam_Raki wrote:
Hi!! ! :)

I have read during the last week every single reply concerning my post.
I would like to THANK YOU very much guys! This is very helpful!! !

Just one last thing, but unfortunately not the least...
Is there anyone, here, who lives in Japan or who would know Japanese aspies / Japanese AS Group?
I have looked almost everywhere but I found very few (interesting) things such as AS&Japan...

THX AGAIN!! !
:)




in japan what iv'e seen on youtube what i think is related somehow to asperger is "Hikikomori"
i could be wrong its just a guess.

Quote:
Hikikomori (ひきこもり or 引き籠もり Hikikomori?, literally "pulling inward, being confined", i.e., "acute social withdrawal") is a Japanese term to refer to the phenomenon of reclusive adolescents or young adults who withdraw from social life, often seeking extreme degrees of isolation and confinement. The term hikikomori refers to both the sociological phenomenon in general as well as to people belonging to this societal group.




Quote:
The article tracks the stories of a few hikikomori (about 80% are male). It also follows an organization called “New Start” – a support group whose goal is to reintroduce hikikomori back into society, after extremely long periods of isolation. It’s a slow process, even at the best of times. In one particularly extreme example, a worker for the Tokyo Mental Health Academy counseled a hikikomori for more than 10 years (over 500 visits), before convincing him to leave his home.



Haha, no. Hikikomori is not aspergers. It's something completely different. Though, I wouldn't be surprised if some Hikikomori have aspergers.

To sum it up, they are basically like a hermit. Someone who refuses to leave their home, and sometimes even their bedroom. Many require family to support them. It's not necessarily aspergers, as many people with aspergers (I'd wager the majority) don't have problems actually going outside. Hikikomori usually aren't from birth either, from what I gather, it's more of a thing that happens later in life (usually around start of adulthood). Welcome To The NHK is a good anime to watch to learn about Hikikomori. http://myanimelist.net/anime/1210/NHK_ni_Youkoso! The character in the anime is "normal" until he graduates from highschool, and then slowly becomes a hikikomori. He slowly starts to get help from some people he met by chance. There's also a few characters in the anime with depression. Overall, it's pretty good to watch if you are curious about it.


iv'e seen that anime, it was good.
yes you are right about that it's late in life that they become like a hermit.
at youtube iv'e seen some clips were they are very introvert and quiet.



Adam_Raki
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05 Jun 2013, 2:37 pm

Thank you guys!

Yeah, I have read something about the Hikikomori, some moths ago. And as it is written in Wikipedia, if I'm right, I confirm, this is not related to aspergers :)

Well, I think I have some materials now, thank you again.
I have to find now some aspies living there, Japanese or not. :D


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alwaystomorrow
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05 Jun 2013, 2:53 pm

Not sure if this is still required, but: basically everything Morelia said, plus eye contact is not a mandatory requirement during conversation, and if you're a white foreigner, you essentially get a 'get out of jail free' card. Not saying you should use it too often, and not that it's always a good thing to have, but there it is.

Caution:

Many textbooks etc. tend to generalise all foreigners into one big mass, and that's what people who haven't been exposed to many foreigners tend to take for granted. Just as many people in Europe couldn't say how China, Japan, and Korea are culturally different, many Japanese don't really know of differences between, say, "the" Americans, "the" Russian, and "the" Spanish -- they're all foreign, so they must all have first-name culture, like to be hugged/ have their hand shaken, etc. People will also try to speak English at/with you.

I lived in the Kansai area for two years, and Kyoto is fairly open to foreigners (though people in Kyoto do tend to get annoyed with tourists; you probably will, too, after living there for a while ...). It's also close to Osaka and Kobe, where you can get pretty much anything you'd like regarding food items etc.

If you have trouble with crowds, you'll probably have to work something on the commute -- the greater Kyoto area isn't as bad as central Tokyo, but the trains and buses still get fairly crowded, especially during rush hour.

That's all I can think of for now.



Adam_Raki
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05 Jun 2013, 3:04 pm

alwaystomorrow wrote:
That's all I can think of for now.


That is very nice of you!! !
Thanks again! :)

If you have any other idea or things to tell me, do not hesitate! You can also use the PM way.


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