Expat Life in Japan: Baby Shower Lost in Translation

Feature And Above Photo: tanki

Ive been to three baby showers in my life. we cant say we enjoyed any of them. The decorations. The games. The gushing over baby gifts. It all strikes me as overblown.

So how did we finish up hosting a baby showering in Japan?

I met Yumie a couple of weeks after my attainment in Okinawa, as well as she became my initial real friend here. She helped me in all aspects of daily hold up from programming a difficult air-conditioner to introducing a best soba shop. we really valued our friendship. So when she asked me this preference when she was 6 months pregnant, we longed for to please.

But we fast satisfied which Yumie had expectations for this party, as well as they were often subsequent from Hollywood movies.

To be clear, in Japanese society, theres no such law as a baby shower. Its an imported event.

And whilst we veered towards a low-key affair, Yumie envisioned a showering of grand proportions.

I wish baby baby baby everywhere! She said, fluttering her hands for emphasis.

Huge baked sweat bread with whipped cream frosting!

I wanna open presents in front of everybody!

In addition, Yumie approaching games as well as prizes, insisting upon Starbucks gift cards as well as Victorias Secret smelly lotions.

As she rattled off her ideas, we deliberate a situation.

Living abroad for a past year, we had been trying hard to integrate in to Japanese lifestyle as well as internal customs. Then suddenly, we was asked to stage an knowledge with all a trappings from my own American culture. Whats more, which knowledge was mostly defined by exaggerations in media.

Despite Yumies enthusiasm, we felt pressure meditative about how to pull it off. we knew from training English abroad which delivering a slice of ones culture often challenges internal etiquette as well as beliefs.!

In fact, something as soft as an American baby showering was a strange eventuality upon many levels.

First, for many Japanese, its not customary to celebrate a brand brand new baby until after a birth. There is an underlying cultural belief in not contrast fate, as well as making a prolongation forward of time might infer unlucky. People are some-more comfortable waiting a couple of months after a protected delivery to revisit a mom as well as compensate respects.

Next, starting to someones home for a celebration according to American tradition is uncommon. Given a tiny size of houses as well as subtle rules for social interaction, its standard to horde events at restaurants. When a guest is invited in to a home, it is deliberate a good honor. But because we was a foreigner as well as a stranger, Yumies friends were reluctant to enter such an insinuate environment with me. A couple of of them expressed discomfort, as well as we altered a place to her home instead.

Also, American baby showers are characterized by which mandatory opening presents time with lots of squealing over booties as well as tiny outfits. But in Japan, friends usually bestow gifts of money for brand brand new babies. When they do give gifts for birthdays or other occasions, they seldom open them in any others presence. Many hold which we do so puts a emphasis upon a element object, upstaging a person bestowing it.

In all honesty, we was never certain how Yumie sole a baby showering judgment to her friends. we wondered if they approached it as a novel, if not slightly wacky event, in a same way which many Japanese are attracted to prison as well as church themed restaurants in Tokyo.

On baby showering day, Yumies friends arrived temperament smiles as well as gorgeously wrapped boxes. The agenda followed a typical report of introductions, games, food, some-more games, gifts, as well as afterwards cake. Some aspects of a eventuality were hits as well as others definite misses.

Surprisingly, a sin! gle succ essful feature of a baby showering transcending culture was playing games. In planning, we often attempted to find tasks which wouldnt be potentially offensive. (Blindfolding guest as well as forcing them to eat pureed goo? Thankfully we crossed this a single off a list forward of time)

Of course, initially there was feigned hostility to join a contest to drink juice a fastest out of a baby bottle. And her friends were shy to theory a circumference of Yumies waist. But in a end, they showed true rival spirit.

Opening presents time was a different story. All which pretty gilded wrapping paper as well as ribbon was not enough to rage a awkwardness of which interaction. When it came time to gush, guest sat eerily still as well as unbending looking on.

Finally, remember which outrageous baked sweat bread with whipped cream frosting specifically requested? Well, we certainly was not surprised by a outcome of that.

In all my experiences vital abroad, a single of a many common differences observed between Americans as well as other cultures is in a consumption of sweets. Yumies guest left a thick slices of sugary baked sweat bread often uneaten upon a plates.

Community Connection

Have we ever been asked to replicate an eventuality from your culture whilst vital abroad? How did it go over?