Do's and Dont's

Do's:

1) meishi: bring lots of your business cards (meshi , may-she), one side in english and the other in Japanese. A thousand if you can, give cards to everyone.

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2) Omeishi onegaishimasu, in english, please you could give me your business card?, you could say that, it always works and is a good ice breaker.
well, the exchange of meshis is a serious and important procedure, when giving or receiving your business card to other people, give it with both hands and bow slightly. But remember that when you receive a business card, please read it first, take your time and please keep it with you, do not take it to your pocket.

more info: http://www.japanprint.com/etiquette.html


3)you could bring a gift of your home country, but lets say that it doesnt need to be an expensive one. In my experience i gave them some 500 gr coffee bags, a bottle of tequila, handcrafts. They appreciate handcraft or souvenirs , so you can tell them the story of how that things are made.

4) if you go to someone's house, you could bring some liquor, wine or sake and some nice flowers.

5)dress code: suits, suits and suits. they are very formal. In summer time, there is government action called cool biz, so they dress a littlle bit casual in those days.

6) Say arigato gosaimasu for everything.

7) if you are invited to a karaoke, please go, its very fun and you could earn trust of the japanese people.

8) try to learn usual phrases to say, I am Eduardo (watashi wa Eduardo des), good morning (ohayo gosaimasu), thanks (arigato gosaimaisu), I am from ______, (watashi wa _____ jin des, cheers (kampai), wen you are about to eat say, itadaki mas, is like saying thanks to everyone for the food.

Dont's:

1) if they arranged your hospitality in japan, please do not complain about food or any other thing, they take it personal and they will feel bad about it.

2) Do not add any occidental sauce to food, they will feel offended.

3) do not speak too quickly, there is a lot of people that barely speaks English.