Re-entry shock or Reverse Culture Shock

Have you experienced re-entry shock or reverse culture shock upon returning home from Japan? What was it like?

What is Reverse Culture Shock?
When you return to the US, you may experience some degree of ﾂ"reverse culture shockﾂ" or ﾂ"re-entry shockﾂ". Although it may not be as significant as the initial culture shock you experience upon going overseas, it can be more upsetting as it is often unexpected.

Top Ten Immediate Reentry Challenges
(Dr. Bruce La Brack, School of International Studies, University of the Pacific)

•Boredom
•No one wants to hear
•You can't explain
•Reverse homesickness
•Relationships have changed
•People see ﾂ"wrongﾂ" changes
•People misunderstand
•Feelings of alienation
•Inability to apply new knowledge and skills
•Loss/compartmentalization of experience

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The re-entry you may experience is far worse than any clture shock you get from going to Japan, in my experience. When you come back to America and start talking about how things are "over there", people seem to start to question your patriotism and whatnot, too. At any rate, it really rubs them the wrong way. (Perhaps the fact that I live in a very conservative part of the country is a factor?) That doesn't help much.

Been a while.

The things I remember were tending to drive on the wrong side of the road while daydreaming for the first week or two. Even after I had forgotten my Japanese while awake, I had dreams all in Japanese? I tended to talk "babytalk" English for a bit. Also remember nodding my head and bowing for a while. Even after 40 years , the "homesick" for Japan feeling is still in me.

Uncle Frank

Mikawa Ossan said:

(Perhaps the fact that I live in a very conservative part of the country is a factor?)

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Maybe that's it, Mikawa Ossan. I doubt very much you'd get the same kind of response up in Illinois.

I've lived and worked in Japan for 7 years since I was 18 - when I go back to Australia I'll be a coma for 6 months with shock

I've had experiences on both fronts both being a 窶ｹAﾂ坂?伉青ｶ/Kikokusei in Japan and then again returning to the States after living in Japan for a while.

I think it's worst for Japanese having lived abroad and then returning back to Japan. For some school-aged students they actually need to go to a transitional school for 窶ｹAﾂ坂?伉青ｶ, so that they can take classes to re-assimilate with the Japanese school system. For adults returning to Japan after a number of years it might be rough getting accustomed back to Japanese customs and habits and sometimes you get others accusing one of picking up too many "bad foreign habits" and not being more "Japanese".

Returning to the States from Japan, is also rough for some as some get "homesick" for a lot of the Japanese foods, services and items they had/used while living in Japan.

Please excuse my butting in but...isn´t that so in any country where you´ve lived in for many years. I just came back from London and was horrified how all had changed! I was glad to get back to Germany, allthough I had spent all of my childhood and early adolesence in England.
Regards