I’ve been reading various ‘you know you’ve been in Japan for too long when’ lists recently, and thought to myself ‘why does no one ever do the opposite?’. So here it is, cos as they say if you want things done you should do it yourself. And also because I’m in a ‘trying to be funny’ mood.

You know you haven’t been in Japan long enough when…

• You still wonder why the Japanese spell and pronounce curry as ‘kare’ even though their language does have the sounds ka and ri
• You think people wearing face masks are freaks
• You haven’t got the hang of stopping people from overpackaging your goods
• You want to scream bloody murder whilst being shoved and pushed like human cattle in an overcrowded train
• You still can’t tell the difference between local, semi express, rapid and express trains - they all seem to stop at the same stations
• You can’t figure out what recycling colour bag is really for what much less where you’re supposed to leave them and on what day
• Pet Bottles still doesn’t make any sense as a name for plastic bottles
• You’re confused by all the different counting systems (surely ordering beer shouldn’t be that difficult)
• The sight of noodles-inna-bun and strawberry sandwiches makes you want to barf
• You haven’t got a Suica card yet
• You can’t ride your bike, hold an umbrella and talk on the phone at the same time
• You only have one umbrella (and it’s not white or see through)
• You don’t like noodles
• You think bowing to machines is freaky
• You get bruises on your legs everytime you get into a cab
• You don’t like the taste of canned coffee
• You think cheap synthesizer covers of classic 80s and 90s tunes are freaky
• You wonder why the hell is every shop playing Auld Lang Syne when it closes?
• You keep trying to cook in a kitchen the size of a sink
• You read ‘you know you’ve been in Japan for too long when…’ lists and think ‘you what?’

:smile:

Popularity: 1%

written by Laurent \\ tags: Japan, Random

Political campaigning is another thing the Japanese have their own individual style for. Local elections are currently being held in Japan, with the second round next week.

What this means is that for the last week, and until the 22nd I gather, potential canditates are campaigning in their local areas. But unlike European politicians who are content with token visits in their local communities, speeches in their local party branch, shaking hands, holding babies, groping fruits and the likes, Japanese politicians take to the streets - literally.

What happens is that vans, or big cars, with mounted loud speakers patrol the areas blurting out a constant stream of speeches. And this is pretty much non stop from like 9am till 8pm. And when I say loud speakers, we’re talking enough of them on one van to make sure that you hear what they have to say no matter how much double glazing you’re rocking in your flat/office/house etc… To the monotonous and downright grating sound of their names and promises they drive around waving their white gloved hands out of their windows.

That’s another hilarious thing about Japanese politics. Politicians all wear white gloves (and so do their helpers - the ones in the cars at least) to help promote an idea of cleanliness. The irony of which is pretty priceless.

I got to admit this loud speaker campaigning is horribly annoying - though to the average Japanese, who contends with incredible amounts of in your face and overbearing promotional assaults every day in most places, it’s business as usual. They obviously develop an ability to tune out or tune down those kind of intrusive, aural assaults. An average Japanese main street is pretty noisy on a normal day, with a constant stream of promotional blurbs coming at you from all angles not counting the vocal assaults of people in the service industry, so this is probably no different to them.

I’ve yet to become accustomed to it though.

Popularity: 2%

written by Laurent \\ tags: Japan, noise, politics