Likes and Dislikes

Top Five Pet Peeves in Japan

1. You have to get 3 inches from the automatic doors for them to open. For some reason the automatic doors don't open until you have your face smashed against them. Annoying when you have a nice pace going.

2. Dive bombing bicyclists. I hate to use the word Kamikaze... but KAMIKAZE. They are aggressive bikers who don't care if you are in their way when you are walking up a hill and they are climbing down.

3. Nobody speaks Spanish. This one really kills me. Nobody speaks English and even fewer people speak Spanish. I always try to talk to people in Spanish... because that is what comes out of my mouth. Nobody knows what I am saying.

4. There are no trash cans anywhere. Try and find one, I dare you. For a country that is all about the recycling (see my third or fourth blog entry), they sure do not give many opportunities for you to recycle outside of your home. I don't understand where people put their trash. There are a gazillion products and everything has its own wrapper, so where do they put it?

5. People nod saying yes when they have no idea what you are talking about. You think your ten minutes of pointing, nodding, and dictionary searching have resulted in a mutual understanding of what is going on... but no... they have no clue what you are saying, they are just being polite by smiling and nodding and saying "hai!" (yes).


Top Five Great Things

1. People genuinely love children. Everybody from the taxi drivers to the high school students (see above) think kids are cute. They play with them, they wink at them, etc. Almost all restaurants are child-friendly and have kids bowls and spoons ready for action. Nobody freaks out of a kid is having a tantrum or doing something they aren't supposed to.

2. It is so clean and efficient! After New Orleans, it has been such a nice change to be in a clean city. There are people with long silver tongs that pick up the tiniest piece of garbage on the ground and everyone cleans up after themselves.

3. Beautiful art and fun things to buy. I like the kids stuff the best, but there is incredible art, caligraphy, ceramics, etc. everywhere.

4. It is a totally different culture, yet we feel completely at ease here. It is clear that we do not have any grasp on what the culture is really like here. We don't speak the language and we don't understand the dynamics of being foreigners here. Having said that, everyone is so kind and warm. They seem to have a genuine curiosity about who we are and where we are from and an acceptance that we don't know all the rules and couldn't possibly learn them.

5. The food is fresh and delicious. As I mentioned yesterday, the food here rocks. Everything is so fresh tasting. There is great coffee, great pastries, the sushi is perfect. There are whole pickle stores and restaurants. The noodles are incredible. Thank god we don't have a car and have to walk 4 miles a day up hills!