Japan Oddities

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This will be my page of Japanese oddities.....

1. The toilets, if not simple ones on the ground (you face the hood and squat) are very complicated! Some have 10 buttons! Including a bedet type spray of warm water if necessary.

2. They hand out free kleenex packages in many places. Finally, I realized why! I have not once received a napkin at a restaurant or any place where I have bought food. Chopsticks and soy sauce yes, but no napkins in sight! Also, many bathrooms don't have anything to dry your hands with so they come in handy there too.

3. Garbage is a tricky thing here. Sometimes you can walk all day without finding a garbage can. However, you will often find bottle recycling bins. Even in parks they sometimes have a row of bags, for paper, plastics, etc. Ivayla told me that separating garbage is very important here. They pick up different types of garbage on different days. Organic matter on 3 days, one day is plastic, and one is paper. Neat huh?

4. There are smoke machines right on the street, so I'm assuming that that anyone can buy them, no age minimum! But apparantly for drinking it's 20. During the parade, someone was walking around with a beer Keg strapped to his back, selling cups of beer on the street! That would be handy in Edmonton!

5. Umbrella culture is huge here. For one thing, they work way better than rain jackets, which I found out the hard way. There are places where you lock your umbrellas with a key upon entry while you shop etc. and other umbrella related contraptions all over.

6. They have bicycle parking lots here! Locking your bike to something is not done here, instead there's usually a ring lock that just locks around the back tire so that it can't move, and you just leave it wherever. But they do have places where there a lines painted on the sidewalk for bicycles! So cool!

7. There are a strangely large number of women here who are pigeon toed. At first I thought it was just a trendy way of walking in Tokyo, but it's for real, they even do it in Kanazawa! Ivayla and I were trying to figure out whether it's from all that kneeling or genetic or what, but it can be seen often and especially when women are wearing heels. Comfortable footwear doesn't seem to be a priority here, I am blown away constantly by what I see people walking in. You would have to pay me to torture myself like that! Heels hanging off, toes squished, no support, foot sliding around.....I breathe a sigh of relief when I see someone in proper footwear. Those are the clever ones!

8. Convenience stores here are awesome. You can get the freshest sushi for really cheap and they even have hot water at the front in case you buy a cup of noodles. The food there is better than some of the restaurants I have tried!

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