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I hope you're all doing well. My time in Japan is almost halfway done, and I've been having a great time so far. Last weekend I went to Hakone with my host mom, where we visited the hot springs, ate 'black eggs' (eggs hard-boiled in the hot springs), went to a couple museums, and hiked along a historic road, through the woods. (It was nice to get outside for a while – the more time I spend in large cities, the more it reaffirms my belief that people really aren't meant to live in them). Then, on Wednesday, I went to a 'junior original concert,' featuring music composed and performed by mostly middle-school-aged students, which was extremely impressive.
Then, on Friday, my host mom got the cable working again, and I haven't left the house since.
(Well, I've mostly been studying. We had five tests last week, so I didn't have much time during the week to prep for our midterm next Tuesday).
A few observations about Japanese society:
The cars drive on the wrong side of the road. This isn't a big issue as a pedestrian, so long as you're in the habit of looking both ways, but it's extremely disconcerting as a car passenger. Have you ever had that nightmare where you're sitting in the driver's seat of a car, and suddenly you look down and realize there's no steering wheel or brakes, and that there's a semi bearing down on you in the incoming traffic lane? Neither have I, but that's what it's like every time I get in a Japanese car. The fact that the roads are about the width of an American sidewalk doesn't help. (Cars, conveniently, are the width of a bicycle).
Parking structures are designed to save space, by eliminating the road portion – instead a wheel on the floor rotates the vehicle around, and a grabbing arm lifts the vehicle, and stows it somewhere in the building. Presumably. Maybe that's where people dispose of old cars, and pick up new ones. It looks kind of like an upside-down Pez dispenser.
Vending machines all sell both cold and hot beverages, which means you can get a can of hot chocolate at a few seconds' notice on any street corner. Brilliant.
Restrooms here feature toilets with way too many buttons, heated seats, and faucets built into the toilet tops (to wash your hands with the water going to fill the bowl). And yet, there are no paper towel dispensers or hand dryers anywhere in the entire country. In a country as health-conscious as this one (in every subway car, you'll see dozens of people wearing sanitary masks to keep from catching and spreading disease), it seems weird to see streams of people leaving the bathroom, all flicking water off their hands in every direction.
There are also no trashcans in the country, and every food product comes even more over-packaged than in the U.S., and yet the city remains inexplicably clean. This is because Japanese people's bodies can metabolize plastic.
At ramen shops, you order your food by buying scrips at a vending machine. The food is delicious. Someday, someone is going to create a Japanese-style ramen chain in the United States, and make millions.
Japanese primetime broadcast television seems to consist almost entirely of watching other people's reactions to clips of cute animals, inspiration stories, building demolition, etc. And also a game show in which contestants had to eat Krispy Kreme donuts before their time ran out, at which time electrical shocks were administered. Much hilarity ensued. There's also a primetime children's show that breaks down incredibly complex issues, like the events in Gaza, using puppets and models.
Best ad I've seen so far: a black man, looking not even remotely like Obama, in front of an American flag, saying (in English) "CHANGE your wardrobe."
Recently we celebrated a holiday, in which people dressed as demons broke into our classroom, and we all threw beans at them, shouting "Demons, out! Happiness in!" Very fun.
In the Sony showroom, they were showing off a dancing mp3 player, plus a new camera that doesn't flash until it detects a smile (which it can do even if you only raise the corners of your lips slightly). Creepy.
By my estimates, at rush hour, the trains each hold around 2,000 people.
A train passes every two and half minutes.
There are at least a dozen train lines in the city.
My host mom is very nice. I'm the fifth student she's had stay with her, so she's used to neither of us being able to understand a word the other person is saying, and she's very patient. It's hard to forget, though, that she's judging all of America by how I act (just like I do with her – did you know, by the way, that all Japanese people sing in choirs, and make excellent curry?). She's already made some comments about how 'Americans don't like hot things,' (since I wait until my food and tea don't burn my tongue before consuming them), and 'Americans drink a lot of water' (did you know, by the way, that all Japanese people only drink tea?).
The lyrics to 'Take Me Back to Old Virginny' (http://www.lyricsondemand.
My classes continue to be very challenging, but fun. One of the Americans in my class has effectively dropped out: he was gone for four days in the third week because he was 'sick,' but then gone for another day the next week because he slept through class, and late for a test because he missed his train, then gone for a cultural class because he'd drunk a full bottle of orange soda that morning (If Gmail had an 'extremely quizzical looking face' emoticon, I'd be using it right now.) then gone for three out of four days this week (we had a holiday) without any explanation. I don't get it. All of the other Americans are, by necessity, extremely devoted students. At our last English-language Japanese support class, our teacher gave us 29 pages of worksheets and review sheets, to prepare for the midterms.
I hope that American's spiral into chaos continues to treat all of you well.
Best wishes,
Nathan
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