What’s it like to be a Cafe Owner in Japan as an American?
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- Опубліковано 21 жов 2022
- Hey guys!!
I got to interview my friend James on how he opened a cafe in Tokyo(Harajuku area)
I really enjoyed this episode since it was my first time doing an interview at a cafe!
And some of you might know how much I love cafes 😂😂
Cafe Chairo instagram account 🥰
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James’ instagram account 😗
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Joshua’s instagram account ❤️
@jj.jj.7
My Japanse podcast
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Enquiries: joshua.japan777@gmail.com
James, the owner ;) is so intelligent and independent.
I could see the customers complimenting the staff for hiring such a talented foreigner to work at the cafe.
I lived in Osaka for 18 months for business back around 2009, I spoke enough Japanese to get paid. Blatant, if not outrageous and hateful, discrimination exists in most countries.It seems that as long as you spend the energy to "conform" and "assimilate" you are treated more respectfully, regardless of country, -- not shocking. Discrimination in Japan can be. "polite". Other times it's straight up rejection, as is mentioned in this video. But I did expect it. It's part of a foreigner's experience in Japan. And please, speak the effing language! I did. But it didn't always matter. I spoke in Japanese, they spoke to me in English, say, at a fancy hotel lobby cafe.
No, I am not a tourist. No, I do not teach English. I am a computer scientist. I found the more Japanese I behaved and thought, the more I was ignored, -- but it was an act. Not surprisingly, when I was spending money in a store, I had no trouble, even if I had to resort to miming. I was able to buy my expensive scarf and have the sales person even put it on me and show me how to tie it. I was able to -- without speaking fluent Japanese at the beginning -- able to by an Apple iTouch as a gift. The sales person had no hesitation approaching me. On the fip side, my English speaking Japanese friends appreciated foreigners' direct style of communication ... no layers of ambiguity. They also appreciated hugs when meeting. More Americans need to get their passports stamped and see the rest of the world, as you and your friends in your videos are doing. Thank you SO much for sharing your life, a life most people around the world would never know could exist. I wish you only the best as you move forward in your life.
You don't need to be entirely fluent as a foreigner or know even most of the kanji, but you need to at least put a baseline effort in communicating with the locals in their language if you want to be treated well. Don't be like my father when he was in Japan during the 80s! Unfortunately, though, I think that a lot of what makes for good second language learners is patience. I love my dad to death, but I think that he often lacks that quality.
Wow, just looked up his cafe and it looks amazing! Both the space and the menu is a piece of art❤
I just bookmarked James' cafe as we are also from Indiana. We hope to see him in April!
This was a cool interview. James was funny talking about the way people address his staff instead of him! lol I hope his business is successful. 😊
Awesome video! And inspiring too. My husband and I live in Tokyo and I've been wanting to open a cafe for years.
Code-switching.. really interesting from both of you... certain things obviously in English but switching to Japanese for some expressions.... I do that all the time between English, French, and Japanese ... often there are expressions in one language that can't be either translated or have equivalence in another language. Love it.
"そうだね it's like a fusion" (for example) within the same sentence... I love this interview!
OMG JAMES!!! I love you buddy
Fascinating, thanks guys.
I was doing a google map search for cafes when I was in the Harajuku/shibuya area and I saw the snacks offered at this cafe in the images. I love the miso dango! I wanted to go back to taste more tea (I got the milk since I was hungry and can’t really have tea). Super fun and calm experience just sitting there enjoying my snacks, writing and looking at the cat :) I wanna go back
must visit this cafe! 🤩
Excellent as always, Joshua.
We need to talk about this business set scheme they have in Japan and whether I can utilise it for my classic car body business..🤔🤔🤔
I would be curious to know how you and James met or became aware of each other, is it a sort of close nit "community" thing, word of mouth café wise, internet awareness, for me it was mainly thru friends that I made new connections. I think that being a model was an asset for James as it provides the confidence to project, be at ease and present the best "face" in the land of face. The intelligence behind the smile doesn't hurt either of you either.
As I mentioned in the interview, we met at a commercial shoot. But we definitely bonded right away because I’m super into cafes and he was a very easy guy to talk to!
@@joshuasjapanchannel Sorry, I must have been distracted at that point.
Those drinks look really good. Living in America, especially Texas, I forget how badly the world was affected by Covid. We tend to live in a bubble. Our politicians made people believe it was a hoax so they refused to close. When they finally did close places, it was only for 2 weeks. It’s like that movie Don’t Look Up. It basically summed up how we handled the pandemic.
Enough of my rant. 😅 This was a great interview. ❤
I feel like people tried to convince people it was a Hoax and others were begging others to not listen and that it was very real.
A lot of people in TX didn't care. They wanted to do whatever they wanted and excused it by saying. "Some people are just going to have to die" because theu wanted to do whatever they felt lime and refused to wear a mask or get a vaccine. This is why I would say like James I feel more comfortable in Japan than the US.
TX is a scary place to live. They use gun violence as a reason to own more guns. A lot of the people in the US during covid were very selfish and refused to help prevent the spread, they would go out knowing they had it. They would bully mask wearers, and tell them masks don't work.
They didn't care who got the virus and they didn't care about the collective, justthemselves.
Japanese people aren't like that, and I appreciate being around people who respect others more and respect the place they live. Japan has beautiful clean subways and the US has pissed streets and nasty dirty subways with people pissing on and destroy everything.
TX and the US is getting worse. Idk that there is anything redeemable about the US anymore. The US has about 2 mass shootings a day in the US and TX doesn't think there is a issue or if their is only more guns fixes it. The US has gotten our of hand.
That was interesting! I wish you'd shown a bit of the cafe though
Thank you 😊 Yeah I actually took footage of the cafe but didn’t know how relevant it was to the interview 🥲
Just found your channel via your sister's vid! I'm Japanese American, want to visit Japan. Raised speaking Nihongo, struggle a bit with English. Kedo Yonsei desu, so my Japanese is terribly old-fashioned. Very curious what it's like to be there as a perceived outsider? Probably similar to being Asian in America even if you were born here?
Have to love the "invisible man" treatment that foreigners get in Japan sometimes. I remember being so disturbed by it in some situations that I'd literally raise my hand and say 「いますよ～」ｗ
最高 😊
I would like to talk to brother regarding business in japan
ジェームズさんは独身ですか? そしたら今週末暇で連絡してください