Life in Japan : The adventure begins

Warmest thank you to everyone who actually reads my blog! I try to make it as entertaining as possible (believe me I try hard!), so as to present an interesting perspective on this foreign country called Japan that I now temporary live in.

Life has been good. Or, rather I've been getting used to the Japanese way of life here. Morning subway rides don't freak me out anymore, as I've the learned the trick of being "passively aggressive" amongst intense grave-looking salary-men (and women). It almost feels like being at war every morning as everyone in the station is very calculative and looks at each other suspiciously in the eye - wondering whether...you're catching the 7:59 express or...the 8:01 local train. This is seriously too much drama for just taking the darn train.

As I try to recollect my life since my last entry, I've experienced many random occurrences which I will loosely categorize as my "adventures" Let the adventures begin! :) (Notice the plural!)

So two weeks ago Monday, it was sports day. (uh-huh, you heard me right! The whole country gets the whole day off just cause)...nice! I went with New Hope Tokyo to this picnic at Sakuragaoka Park in the outskirts of Tokyo (I think. Cause it took me three subway transfers + and a bus ride...really lost track of where I was by then!) Funny thing was on my way back from the picnic, I was waiting at the bus stop for the return bus. When I walked up towards the bus stop, an old lady (say in her seventies) was already standing there. Just as I was making myself comfortable, another old lady (say in her eighties) came up to the stop. (Yes, it's definitely an aging society here!) She asked me (in Japanese) whether the bus has arrived, and then before I could even say anything, the other lady that was already at the stop jumped in and said that because it was the holidays, the bus schedule changed. And then a lot of very Japanese old-lady back-and-forth went on as I stood there blankly. Then, the lady in her eighties couldn't stand the wait, and hailed down a taxi. And also invited the two of us to join the ride to the station! So out of the blue, I found myself sitting in a cab with two gray-haired ladies, smiling pretentiously all the way to the station. It was quite an experience. :)

I've noticed a few things quite particular about the people here. They seem to like to gift-wrap everything like 5,000 times. Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration. :P But yes, everything is wrapped in a wrapper inside another wrapper and overall it's covered in paper and taped 5 different ways. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Take my dinner below as an example. This is already a mild example.


So yes, my salad was already in a STURDY plastic container, with the dressing separately held in a packaged bag so seriously one needs not to be concerned with the remote possibility of a leakage. But, the attention to detail got a little out of hand, so my salad had an ice pack TAPED to it, and then the whole thing was wrapped in a plastic bag and then TAPED again. And then everything is placed in a bag, and usually that's taped too. Oy, so much work!

And, another phenomenon here is an obsession with cell phone texting. I've always been a blackberry user, so all this texting is actually really hard for me. But cell phone texting here is an art - and I'm serious. Don't ask me why a duck, sun, and a waving hand (literally a moving hand!) show up in the same message. So confused. hahaha - but it's actually kind of cute if you read it. Now, I do it myself too!!! Totally a "fob"! :)

Oh yes, can I just share one more thing? It's total Hello Kitty land here! I bought Bausch & Lomb contact solution the other day...and guess what it came with? A Hello Kitty pouch! how cute! (Admittedly I bought the solution BECAUSE of the pouch, but figured that's the only way I'll be able to accumulate Hello Kitty random goods). But could not help but think, SERIOUSLY, you don't need to lure me to get contact solution with Hello Kitty pouches! But whatever.


I think I'm going to save some random thoughts for another time. Just as a "sneak" preview, I'm planning to head to Keio v. Waseda baseball game next week (woohoo!) so stay tuned!