Intercultural Competency

I believe the most important thing to do to ease my transition into Japanese culture would be to use Japanese almost always. I remember that during my trip, everything became much easier to adjust to when I really focused on avoiding English. It helped me to think more like a Japanese person, and I was able to step back from my culture and try to live in a new one. Of course, my home culture will always influence me; however, not comparing myself and what I know to be "normal" to the culture I was seeing, hearing, and feeling helped me transition a lot. I believe it will help deal with all of the adjustments I will face in Japan, as long as I look at it as "This is just the way things are here." This especially includes sleeping patterns, because there is no daylight savings in Japan. The sun rose around 5:30am in the summer.