It’s the little things
The thing about realizing your in Japan is that it’s in the small things.
Being a seasoned traveller you make sure you’re prepared for a lot of stuff.
- Bring your own toilet paper (It may be some time untill you have time to buy some yourself)
- Japanese people are short: If you’re as tall as me bring your own pants and shoes to last you a while
- Bring clean underwear
You know, things like that.
You are aware of the fact that you’re going to be living among people that look at life differently to what you have been doing up ’till now and most of the people around you certainly don’t look at life that way. Karaoke is a way of life here. People will willingly live away from their families for their entire married life . . . without marital difficulties. The company comes before the individual and the state comes before all. All these things I knew before I came here.
Once here you can easily forget you’re in another country because barring these things Japan is really a lot like home. People work to provide for their family. They want to live well, long and raise their kids in a safe environment. Really not so different from you and I.
OK, so there’s a fair few more people here that don’t share my skincolour
All that having been said it’s the little things that really get you.
Like I said: I’d prepared for the height thing, brought pants and shoes to last me a while (lost 1 of each now :S) What I hadn’t taken into account is that when it rains here you need to wear glasses. Due to the height differences these umbrellas are all on eye-level and they will take out an eye if you’re not carefull
The Japanese will wear masks to protect themselves from pollen and to protect others from their germs if they’re sick. On the same note they will Onsen extensively when sick (which doesn’t spread germs better then sneezing?).
The pre-heat their toilet seats (Oh thank you)
It is considered rude to tell people bad news and they will deny the presence of cheese in products untill you describe that it will spark a considerable allergic reaction. After which they will tell you it may have some cheese. They do the same with meat btw, so vegetarians: Beware
It is considered rude to stand as far away from the urinal as I do . . . . Standing as close to it as they do and peeing on top of it is considered even worse.
They make sidewalks for bookreaders. YEEH
They make a special dark alcohol free beer here . . . which they’ll only serve with shochu.
If it’s dark outside it doesn’t mean it’s close to dinnertime. The sun will set here incredibly early and the Japanese ddon’t do “Daylights-saving-time”
If the sun is rising, that probably means you shouldn’t be. Invest in good curtains
The first time I thought I saw a geisha . . . was someone wearing normal traditional clothes. This is still quite common
The second time I thought I saw a geisha . . . it was a transvestite prostitute (well, they call it companion boy/lady here)
You will take a 10 minute break from swimming at the appointed time.
And you can tell the gender of a dog’s owner not by if it’s wearing clothes but by the kind of clothes
Japan is a hoot-and-a-half. If you know to look past the big differences and see the smaller ones
There’s more funny little things, but I’ll post more of these later. I’ve started writing them down now
P.S. Refresh the page will you. Not for my statcounter but there’s a new random image thing installed. Code thanks to the FairMaiden and photoshopping of the pictures thanks to myself.
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“What’s the purpose of life, if you don’t have a dick?”
Donnie Darko
About those masks… people think they wear them so they don’t infect others. I thought so as well.
But this is actually not true. They wear them because this helps to maintain proper humidity in their mouth and nose. This actually helps a lot when you are sick.
Ah forgot to say, I love the picture with cats…
That’s another reason why they do it. But that’s for everyday use. In case of sickness they’ll use it to prevent contaminating others. Though why anyone would want to sneeze in a bit of cloth that will be infront of your mouth the entire remainder of the day is beyond me. Let others suffer like I am suffering.
And then there’s that about half the tokyonese have severe hayfever, so they wear them to prevent pollen from reaching their tender sinusus.
But the contamination thing is as true as all the other reasons for wearing one