During my senior year of high school in 2011, I enlisted in the U.S. Navy, where I had the opportunity to travel to multiple countries in Asia. My duty station was Yokosuka, Japan, where I experienced culture shock for the very first time. During deployments I’ve traveled to South Korea, Hong Kong, Philippines, Malaysia, Guam, Singapore and Australia. They all have a completely different way of living. Coming back to America for good, after discharging, was a culture shock because I became accustomed to life in Japan.
Yokosuka, Japan
To begin with, after enlisting in the Navy, I was deployed overseas for three and a half years. I was on the nuclear aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73). Yokosuka, Japan is one of the cities in the
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South Korea, Malaysia, Guam, Philippines, Hong Kong and Singapore have a different cultures and different ways of living. I experienced good and bad culture shock from some of these countries. It is amazing to see a place on a movie and then you end up living there or touring there on a yearly basis. I had the worst experience when our ship went to Manila, Philippines. As soon as we got off of the pier people were begging for money. Some were barefoot and some of them were even children and elderly. That was heartbreaking to see. One day it was raining pretty hard and the streets began to flood with water higher than your ankle. That very same day I seen an elderly lady and three children sleeping on the cold sidewalk with two small blankets. My friends and I, had children no more than the age of 7, walking around barefoot, begging for money. The entire country is not like that but that area definitely made me appreciate everything I have. Most of the other Asian countries have pretty stable economies. Singapore is by far the cleanest country I have ever been too. It is illegal to drink anything in public. It is even illegal to chew gum. You can go to jail very easily for littering. There are no trashcans or recycling bins on the streets to make sure they stay clean. There is not much to say about Guam. Guam is almost like being in America. They use …show more content…
Things between the two countries are very different. For example, in Japan, the main side of the road is the left side, in America, it is the right. I even got used to hearing the Japanese language, the over-populated streets and trains and the Asian cuisine. Everything in America feels weird to me because I am used to the service a received in Japan versus the service I get here in America. The culture shock I get from being in America isn’t bad. It is simply the same feeling I had when I first deployed to Japan. I just have to get used to being