Ice cream from our favorite ice cream shop here. On the left is Black Sesame Ice cream with a pretzel garnish. On the right is Salt Ice Cream and Pink Peppercorn. Sounds crazy, but so good!
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Japan:10 Best Things
Okay, continuing from our last post...
Ten things we LOVE about Japan
1o. Bowing This is a really nice custom. There are times when a handshake would be weird, but a bow is perfect and polite. After a transaction at a store or restaurant, the employee and customer bow to one another. I also find it useful in the car, in place of a wave.
9. Coffee and French Bakeries Everyone knows the Japanese love tea, but what I didn't realize how much they love coffee. There are amazing coffee shops on every corner. A common in menu item is "American Style Weak Coffee". There are a plethora of french bakeries here offering very authentic pastries and bread. French pastry without the french attitude-Heaven!
8. Karaoke Seriously, I'm not kidding. But only Japanese style. I will never do karaoke in the states, but if you ever come to visit us, you're singing. (Dave does a great rendition of Bobby McGee.)
7. Eating Out This is also on our "hate" list. But the great thing about eating out here is there are restaurants everywhere. Of course lots of Japanese food, but pretty much any other ethnic food you'd want. Everyone always says how expensive Japan is, and some things are, but eating out is pretty cheap for the most part. And we haven't had a bad meal yet.
6. Public Transit The train system is quick, reliable and far reaching. It's great not having to rely on the car.
5. Safety Japan is one of the safest industrialized nations in the world. Tokyo is the largest city in the world. The Tokyo murder rate for 2005 was 1.4 per 100k people. By contrast NYC's rate was 7.37, Philly: 23.26 and Baltimore: 41.89. (via cityrating.com)
4. Unexpected Beauty This part of the country is full of urban sprawl, so it's hard to notice some of these little things at first, but around every corner in our neighborhood is a little garden or small well tended park. The plantings have been planned so there is always something blooming. Right now there are hydrangeas here-beautiful!
3. Fashion The clothes are beautiful for both men and women.
2. People The people are wonderful. They are generous, polite and accomodating. Most are fiercely proud of their culture, and in our experience, very excited to share it with us. People often go out of their way to help when we're confused. No one has ever really been rude just indifferent, which is just fine by me. The little kids do stare at us though. The children are so cute, some schools wear matching yellow hats and backpacks-they look adorable walking down the street!
1. Drink Machines No joke. There are more varieties of beverages here than I have ever seen. They're on every corner and some offer hot and cold beverages-even soup. Most have several varieties of iced coffee, so you can grab a caffeine fix in between the gourmet coffee shops. Some machines vend beer, sake and mixed cocktails. It's crazy, and so Japanese.
Ten things we LOVE about Japan
1o. Bowing This is a really nice custom. There are times when a handshake would be weird, but a bow is perfect and polite. After a transaction at a store or restaurant, the employee and customer bow to one another. I also find it useful in the car, in place of a wave.
9. Coffee and French Bakeries Everyone knows the Japanese love tea, but what I didn't realize how much they love coffee. There are amazing coffee shops on every corner. A common in menu item is "American Style Weak Coffee". There are a plethora of french bakeries here offering very authentic pastries and bread. French pastry without the french attitude-Heaven!
8. Karaoke Seriously, I'm not kidding. But only Japanese style. I will never do karaoke in the states, but if you ever come to visit us, you're singing. (Dave does a great rendition of Bobby McGee.)
7. Eating Out This is also on our "hate" list. But the great thing about eating out here is there are restaurants everywhere. Of course lots of Japanese food, but pretty much any other ethnic food you'd want. Everyone always says how expensive Japan is, and some things are, but eating out is pretty cheap for the most part. And we haven't had a bad meal yet.
6. Public Transit The train system is quick, reliable and far reaching. It's great not having to rely on the car.
5. Safety Japan is one of the safest industrialized nations in the world. Tokyo is the largest city in the world. The Tokyo murder rate for 2005 was 1.4 per 100k people. By contrast NYC's rate was 7.37, Philly: 23.26 and Baltimore: 41.89. (via cityrating.com)
4. Unexpected Beauty This part of the country is full of urban sprawl, so it's hard to notice some of these little things at first, but around every corner in our neighborhood is a little garden or small well tended park. The plantings have been planned so there is always something blooming. Right now there are hydrangeas here-beautiful!
3. Fashion The clothes are beautiful for both men and women.
2. People The people are wonderful. They are generous, polite and accomodating. Most are fiercely proud of their culture, and in our experience, very excited to share it with us. People often go out of their way to help when we're confused. No one has ever really been rude just indifferent, which is just fine by me. The little kids do stare at us though. The children are so cute, some schools wear matching yellow hats and backpacks-they look adorable walking down the street!
1. Drink Machines No joke. There are more varieties of beverages here than I have ever seen. They're on every corner and some offer hot and cold beverages-even soup. Most have several varieties of iced coffee, so you can grab a caffeine fix in between the gourmet coffee shops. Some machines vend beer, sake and mixed cocktails. It's crazy, and so Japanese.
Japan's 10 Worst
Wow, it's been a long time since we last posted. We didn't even get a chance to properly commemerate our 6 month-iversary of coming to Japan! I thought I'd mark the occasion here by posting a little about our impression of this crazy country now that we're six months into this adventure"
What we Hate about Japan:
10. Taking off your shoes I know it's more hygenic to take your shoes off in the home, but it seems much less so at a restaurant. To make it worse, you never know which restaurants or venues you will have to remove your shoes, so sometimes I forget and wear sandals or whatever and then get caught. I've begun carrying arond a pair of creepy little ped-like socks so that I can slip them on if I need to. (There are entire stores dedicated to these) For me, when I dress up I have to remember that my outfit will look completely different once I take off my heels, and my pant hems are dragging on the floor. Dave has weird ninja split toe socks which everyone wears. I think they're creepy too.
9. Snakes and Pests Hasn't been bad in the house, but we've seen some creepy things outside.
8. Humidity It is very, very humid here, even when it's not hot it affects you. The Japanese seem completely unaffected. They don't sweat and wear long sleeves and jackets while we're in shorts and mopping our brows.
7. Eating Out At more casual restaurants, the waiters come to your table right away and expect you to already know your entire order. We've often been rushed into a "point and pray" at the menu before we really had a chance to open it, let alone try and decipher anything. I think this is because these more casual restaurants often specialize in a certain kind of food, and of course there are the plastic food models in the window.
6. Base I am so grateful that we have the base nearby. I think I would go a little crazy if I didn't have access to small doses of America now and then. However, the base here is very crowded, and we usually leave with headaches.
5.Cash A lot of places here do not accept credit or debit cards. American cards will only work in limited ATMS, so going out requires some planning.
4. Trash Trash here is sorted into 6 different categories. A different category is picked up every day Mon-Thur with the others picked up less regularly. Trash can only be put out between 6am-8am. And we thought Washington was bad.
3. Driving Our driving instructor wasn't lying. The motorcycles and scooters are crazy, weaving in and out of traffic. The lanes are narrow, but cars will just stop in the middle of the lane, put on their blinkers and go into a store.
2. House Ventilation/Insulation We love our house, but it was bone chillingly cold in the winter and now it is impossible to manage any kind of cross breeze. The washer and dryer are in the bathroom too. Yuck.
1. Being Gaijin We're learning a little Japanese, but ALL Japanese people know English. It's embarassing and kind of disheartening sometimes. Often when we think we've learned some tidbit about Japanese language or etiquette, it seems we use it in the wrong way, or observe someone else doing something totally different. This culture can be baffling. The Japanese, like the rest of the world have certain stereotypes about Americans which can be hard to combat. Yes, we will eat fish. No, not all of us are outgoing. No, we're not all overweight probably because, No, most of us do not eat cheeseburgers every day.
photos above are of Dave's creepy socks, steamy humid window and complicated trash rules
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