Well I’ve been in Japan for almost 1 week. It’s not nearly what I expected. I expected to be able to fit into Japanese shoes because I wear a size 7 at home. On the contrary… I hardly fit into a size Large shoe here. I expected my cell phone the be awesome, however it has broken twice. This is particularly troublesome because they don’t speak any English at the Softbank store. This means I have to walk 35 minutes with a native speaker that translates for me. I’ve got one more visit there before I get a new one that (hopefully) works. I also just got a bike, which will hopefully put an end to long walks. The bike is probably the sweetest ride ive ever had. Legit mom-bike. But everyone rides them here.
There’s also no fluoride in the toothpaste here. I’m not exactly sure how you clean your teeth with toothpaste that has no fluoride… but apparently they do. I also bought my shampoo in a bag. I found all of this out at the grocery store. You wanna experience Japanese culture? Go to the grocery store. Seriously, along with the 50 or so miniature cars parked outside, there are twice as many bikes. Yes, everyone here bikes everywhere. I think only 2 of the Japanese people I have met have a drivers license. But once I stepped foot inside the grocery store (which is about a 3rd of the size of a normal super market in the US), there were tons of people picking out mysterious sea creatures. I’m sure it wouldn’t be a mystery if I could read … anything… here. I can’t wait to start class on Tuesday so I’m not so completely illiterate while walking around the streets, just mostly illiterate.
Produce here is ridiculously expensive. 1 apple is roughly 187 yen, which works out to about $2 per apple. Melons come in boxes and verge on $20. I have never appreciated all of the United States’ natural resources more than after leaving Top World Supermarket. However, everyone seems to be particularly nice. I have no idea what most of the food is here because I cannot read anything, so I figured it would be best to ask. In the small bakery area I saw what looked like a pizza with eggs, onion and some kind of meat on it. It was only $1.05, so I asked a woman “Sore wa oishii des ka?” which means “Is this delicious?,” and she said yes, among some other things, and then proceeded to box it up and hand it to me.
I’ve heard that in more populous cities, particularly in the Toyko area, people are much less patient with gaijin (foreigners). But here, in the Kansai region, everyone seems really laid back. This is the area where all of the comedians come from in Japan. Hirakata City is a “small, southern” town. However, I don’t consider it small by any means. There are roughly 400,000 people in the city which has a particularly small perimeter… 6500 people per square kilometer. That’s quite a few people stuffed into a pretty small area.
I had something called okonomiyaki the other day. It’s quite hard to explain, but is essentially the Japanese’s version of a pizza. Don’t be fooled though, okonomiyaki is a unique Kansai cuisine that includes lettuce, mayonnaise, a little meat, more mayonnaise, dried fish shavings, eggs, cheese and even more mayonnaise. These ingredients are all piled onto a large stove top and flipped a few times until it eventually looks like a rather thick and large lettuce pancake. And then you eat it. I must admit, I wasnt that crazy about it… but everyone else loved it. I did however enjoy the yakisoba omelette concoction I ate last night. It was basically a bunch of noodles, squid and pork all in a delectable sauce that was surrounded by an egg. So a noodle omelette?
I realize I’ve pretty much talked about food this entire post. But what better way is there to enjoy Japan than eating the food? Sushi via conveyor belt is my next stop.
Also the Japanese equivalent of a dollar store is about a million times better than what we have in the US. It’s a little absurd.
I feel like this is a pretty sizable first post in for being in Japan. Tomorrow I’m going to Kyoto, so I’ll be sure to take pictures of that!