Hi, I’m enjoyjapan.
I’m a dad in my 40s, living in a small town in the countryside of Tohoku, in northern Japan.
This blog is about the unwritten manners of Japan: the small things almost every Japanese person knows, but nobody ever writes down.
How this blog started
One day, I took my son to a sento, a Japanese public bath. While I was showing him what to do, I suddenly thought:
“Wait. These are all unwritten manners. Would a visitor from abroad know any of this?”
For me, it was just normal. But if nobody teaches you, how could you know?
What you’ll find here
Each article takes one place, like a sento, a sauna, or a shrine, and walks you through it from the moment you enter until you leave. I add the moments where I got confused myself, because those are usually the moments you’ll get confused too.
I also try to tell you how strict each manner really is: what is a real rule, what is just polite, and what changes from place to place.
A note on how I write
I’m Japanese, and I write my drafts in Japanese. I use AI to help me turn them into natural English. Every experience in this blog is my own, and I check every article before it goes up.
Questions? Corrections?
If you live in Japan, or you’re planning a trip, and something here confuses you, please tell me through the Contact page. Your question might become the next article.
I also write in Japanese on note: note.com/enjoyjapan