- Sometimes 2 liter bottles of water completely surround wooden powerline poles. I learned from my host family this is to deter stray cats from using it as a scratching post.
- The Japanese really REALLY like mayonnaise.
- Umbrellas are everywhere; even at my house there are about 20 umbrellas in the closet. People seem to buy them every time it rains, and then forget about them and just leave them somewhere. When it is raining, stores will provide plastic slips to put over your umbrella so that you won't drip water all over the place.
- At car intersections without stoplights there are mirrors placed so you can see whether or not someone is coming from the other directions.
- In Japan, your bike can get towed at your own expense if you park it in the wrong place.
- Even if the speed limit says 20, everyone drives between 40-50 mph. I have been scared more than once going 50 around a 90 degree turn with maybe an inch between me and the other car (this is with my host famiy driving)
- Wherever there is room there is a garden or a miniature rice paddy growing. I ride my bike past two small rice fields everyday.
- There are 100 Yen stores in Japan, the equivalent of the dollar store.
- As a foreigner you attract attention (what we call the gaijin/foreigner stare). When there is a whole group of you, schoolgirls shout from windows and secretly snap pictures of you in supermarkets.
- Children like to say "hi" and "bye" when they see you are a foreigner.
- To have a bank account in Japan first you have to have a Hanko: a rubber stamp of your name.
- Japanese television isn't the best... a lot of shows revolve around cooking/eating/talking about food OR physical pain and humiliation OR glorifying Japan. There is anime on sometimes, usually after school gets out.
- I saw a Japanese beer commercial in which a Japanese woman unzips this giant bottle of beer and blonde haired blue eyed children come dancing out of it and go dance with the woman through rainbows and stuff. Talk about advertising to the youth.
- There are tobacco and beer vending machines. Anyone can use them, but they say that everyone honors the rules so much no one underage uses them.
- When you are shopping, salespeople are constantly yelling. They yell welcome, goodbye and other things I don't understand. For some reason they have to do this in as high and annoying voice as possible.
- As I have mentioned before, there is a sink about the toilet tank that you wash your hands in, and the water is recycled into the toilet.
- The bathwater is also reused to do laundry.
- The bath/shower room is completely seperate from any toilet. The toilet has its own room.
- Japanese-style toilets are hard to use! Here is a website that explains it all : http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~AD8y-hys/movie.htm
- There are a huge variet of Kitkat bars in Japan, I have tried strawberry and white chocolate so far.
- Pocari Sweat is the name of a popular sports drink.
- English is constantly butchered. I see signs/clothes/instructions all the time that are spelled wrong or have bad grammar.
Thats all I can remember for now : ) I will add more as I think of more.
