Anyway, onto the point of this post. I actually intended for it to be a little more on the lighter side. Sorry, I haven't been anywhere cool lately, so you don't really get any fun pictures, but hopefully words themselves will suffice.
Before we begin though, let's get a few things cleared up.
1. Is Japan different than the US?
Yes, people act differently here. In some ways, it's a positive thing. Less talking on phones all the time, more noticing people around them. It's quieter here despite the fact that there are more people in this city than in some states in the US. People are very understanding of language barriers, and definitely will try to work with you. In other ways, it is a negative thing though as well. Foreigners are well, always seen as foreign, even if they've lived here for a long time. They're treated a little differently. At the same time though, let's not say anything rash. Japan is different from the US, but so are a lot of other places. And different doesn't mean anything bad here. Different is just different. In some ways though, Japan is also very similar. There's a bunch of techies here. People love their phones. The Japanese love their clothing, and name brand items. There are good people and bad people just like anywhere else.
2. Is Japan really weird like all those things we see on tv?
No, and let me make this a strong no. There are some things that are exceptionally strange here, like cat cafes or dog cafes, where you pay to sit in a room and have little kittens and puppies run around your feet. People do dress in some crazy clothing, and there are foods and such here which you just go, "What on earth is that?" But, let me be honest and tell you that in Japan those things are seen as strange as well. For some reason, Japan gets this rap as this crazy country when anything leaves its borders, but it's really not like that. In fact, it's very conservative.
3. If you have any other questions, I'll be glad to answer them as best as I am able.
And with that in mind, let's continue.
Japan has some of the coolest baths I've ever seen. I know, you're thinking, "Michelle, be realistic, a bath is a bath." But it's not. Not at all. These baths are like little versions of paradise just plucked up and put in homes. When you get in them, you can possibly here the angels singing, and see the sun coming out, and maybe a small baby forest animal or two. For reasons of "It would be ridiculous to take a picture of a bath," I don't have any. And unfortunately, I can't find any either. If you search "Japanese Bath" on google, you get all these hot spring pictures. Useless. These baths though are definitely the coolest thing since sliced bread. You press a little button on the outside, and the machine says something like. "Please wait. Your bath will be ready soon!" in some cute little voice. While you're taking your shower outside, you then hear a little *ding* "Your bath is ready now." And no joke, you pull back the cover and it's full of hot, steaming water. Best of all, it's set to a permanent 42 degrees Celsius or so (about 105 F). Whenever I have my own place, I'm getting one of these. I don't care how much it costs to ship it. They're amazing, and I love them.
On the subject of bathing, but on a more confused note is the concept of mirrors in showers. So you have your little shower hose, right? And you rinse, and soap up, and rinse, and repeat and all that jazz. You normally sit yourself on a little stool to do all this. It's all very pleasant. But for some reason I still haven't deciphered yet, the Japanese have decided to put a mirror next to every little shower hose, so that you can watch yourself showering. I mean, I'm not going to say that I'm not vain once in a while, but honestly? What purpose does it serve. If you stand up, you only see your chest down. If you sit down, you see yourself sitting down and you just look plain ridiculous. For the time being, I've decided I'm not facing the mirror, or I'll just take out my contacts or off my glasses or something. I can't figure it out. The only reason I can find is that you never have that "Oh, I didn't wash out all the soap from my hair" problem. You can see that you washed everything and that you're squeaky clean. Sweetness.
Let's walk a little down the hall now to the toilet. Yes, it's down the hall. Toilets are dirty and should be in another room from where you get squeaky clean. Personally, I like this practice. Now, keep in mind this is not all toilets, but there are a fair number of them here. You may have heard of the Toto toilet before, and if you have, kudos to you. If not, let me enlighten you. Toto toilets are like toilets as much as the bath is like a bath to us in the US. Therefore, let's take a look, shall we? The Toto toilet is outfitted with all kinds of cool gadgets. Heated seat, change in water pressure, bidet, something like a bidet but not a bidet, automatic raise and lowering seat, music for those long times in the bathroom, and for some reason a flushing sound button. The flushing sound button really confuses me to be honest. It just plays the sound of flushing over and over and over again. Apparently, it's supposed to relax the person and not let them be embarrassed if they have to flush the toilet over and over again, but personally, I find it more unsettling to hear the flushing sound from the stall next to me. Then you *know* something bad is going on. People don't just press it for fun. Unless you're foreign and can't read the kanji. Then you press it because you think it's the actual button to flush the toilet, but no, alas, it's not. I spent 10 minutes trying to shut one off the other day. I'm sure the other people in the bathroom were thinking, "Wow, what is she doing?" And then when this tiny little 100 pound soaking wet foreigner came out of the stall they were like "What *was* she doing?" Yeah. It's me. The foreigner. I can't read all of your stinking kanji. Deal with it. If you're uncomfortable, I'll press the button again. What? You're good. Good. Glad we got that sorted out.
If you head outside and you see some tall buildings, there's another thing that kind of confuses me here. There are some of these which have big red arrows on their windows, and they open up like a door does. No kidding. They have handles and are door sized. So far, I haven't gotten a satisfactory answer to these things yet. Any Japanese I ask I get the response, "They're for emergencies."
"How?" I ask. "The doors open in the middle of the building. If you walk out of them, you'll fall to your death. Look, the little red arrows even point where you'll go. Down. To the ground. To your death."
"They're for emergencies. For fires and such."
"Do you know how they work?"
"No, I've never used one."
So we now have emergency doors that open in the middle of buildings and although they're for emergencies, no one knows how to use them. Maybe this is a little counter-productive? I might have covered that in a weekly employee meeting or two.
My current theory is that
1. They're to let the smoke out or something.
2. Some magical firemen's pole of glitter and sunshine and/or a rope ladder is thrown out of them to let people climb to the ground.
It's a work in progress.
Finally, before I go, let me leave you with one thing that is both oddly different and yet strangely wonderful. And that's melon bread (メロンパン). It doesn't really taste like melon, but it's not normal bread either. It's sweet in a way, and very delicious. I had it for the first time tonight, and I think I could eat it again right now, even though I just ate it like a couple hours ago. I think I'll be developing a fund called the Melon Pan and Bathtub Fund. If you want to donate, I'll gladly accept anything you have to offer. One penny toward my fund is more than I have now, and it will make me very happy.
Later!
Michelle
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