Japan-tastic!

Thursday, February 01, 2007

We had our first snowfall today! It was pretty- very light and fluffy. It didn’t ‘stick’ at all, which is good cuz I’d have to ride my bike through it otherwise. I gotta say, even though we’ve had a very mild winter here, I still think a typical winter in Nara would be better than Chicago. Last winter was terrible here (I hear) and everyone was warning us that it felt so much colder than the actual temp. and even if they lived in Canada they still thought it was cold here. Now, if you had a big house to heat, I think this would be true, because there’s no central heat and the wall units turn off during the night automatically, leaving it really bad in the morning. However, unless they get freak snowstorms with a foot of snow and bitterly cold winds that whip through every layer of clothing, then it is nowhere as bad as Chicago! Maybe it’s the lack of the Chicago wind that makes the winter here seem better. Who knows? I’m just going to enjoy my first winter that I wasn’t permanently cold for 4 months on end and every plant in sight didn’t shrivel up and die!
Anyway, I have a new list of ‘observations’ in Japan. I hope to get my Kyoto pics downloaded this weekend so I will have more to post soon!
Until then, here’s the latest round of ‘random Japan-ness’ (hope I'm not repeating myself...):

-Kerosene heaters abound. There’s no central heating (usually, unless you’re up on the Northern most island of Hokkaido), and instead of the space heaters we’re used to, most places use kerosene. I found this astonishing. There’s the huge image of Japan as a beacon for the newest technology, but they still use kerosene to heat the buildings! The fumes usually aren’t that bad, though, and they don’t leave the heaters on longer than they have to. I do have to admit the kerosene heaters do the job amazingly well and they are pretty‘ high tech’ for kerosene heaters. Plus, since there’s a live flame doing the job, it’s like having a campfire right in the middle of the room. (Although, I’d still rather have central heat!) They didn’t bring the heaters in until almost January, though, so for a while there was only “solar heating” on sunny days through the windows! And although my classroom has a heater, I think most classes don’t. The kids all bring blankets to school, though, so they manage to keep warm even though the girls have to wear skirts without leggings all year round.

-Teens ride bikes while text messaging friends on their cell phone, instead of driving a car and talking on the cell phone like American teens. This is because (1) teens can’t drive until they’re in college and (2) texting or ‘keitai email’ is waaay more prevalent and popular than talking over the phone and it’s actually passé to email on a computer here. If you mention ‘email’ to anyone, they will assume you mean over the keitai, not computer.

-You don’t see as many hardcover books and the average book is compacted into ‘pocket-size’ compared to American paperbacks. You’re also always given the option of getting a paper jacket for your book when you buy it.

-envelopes open from the short side, not the long.

-When people start explaining something, its best to let them get all the way through before making any kind of comment because the point always comes at the *end*. This might not sound that different from the US, but trust me, it is! Next time you have a conversation, listen to how often you interrupt with an answer or exclamation while the person’s talking and maybe you’ll start to understand. People do not finish each other’s sentences in Japan the way we do. So many times at work I want to seem accommodating, so when they bring up a problem, I’m always jumping in with something like, “oh, there’s a meeting that day? We can reschedule, no problem!”, then they continue on and end up telling me they’ve already reschedule their day and its actually fine, but they just wanted to let me know, etc. etc.

-There are two kinds of soup here: miso and corn soup. You can find corn soup hot from the vending machines!


There are other hot teas and coffee drinks available, but, like the majority of convenient Japanese food, they are packed with artificial flavors and preservatives. (Natural food options are difficult to find in general here.) The best bet (hot or cold) from the vending machine is water or ocha (Japanese tea), which isn’t sweetened at all. I like it this way, but those of you who are used to Lipton ice tea (as Steve was) will feel unsweetened ocha is missing something.

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