Bro Hug

We had a culture bump at the University of Houston gym. We saw an American person meet his friend. They grabbed their opposite hand and pulled each other close and hit each other’s opposite shoulder. We didn’t know what they were doing. We felt confused, surprised and wondered if it was a game. We thought it was strange, so we asked them “What are you doing?” They said, it is like a greeting. It’s more for close friends you will use it and it shows respect to each other and you like each other. When we knew that, we thought it is so cool. In Japan, if we meet friends, we raise our hand and call our friend’s name and do a “high-five”.

When the Americans we talked to heard how the Japanese greet, they said greet this way if they don’t have a good relationship. Check out our video

- by Kohei Nakama, Riki Maemoto, Tsubasa Arakak, Hiroya Chinen