My Life in

Links About Japan
Naomi's Photogallery: Japan

Life as you know it probably does not exist in Japan. Nobody I know here is what I would call "normal" but since I did not know them outside of Japan, I hesitate to make assumptions about cause and effect. But some of the following might explain it.

Japan is not all about kimonos and bowing and drinking tea. Welcome to the real Japan.

Some things you did not know about Japan:
(And I'm NOT making this up)

Because some people have trouble differentiating between L and R, never get into a conversation about elections. Favorite pizza toppings include corn, potatoes, seaweed, mayonnaise and squid. Pizza Hut's newest item is "Curry Seafood Pizza," which also has broccoli on it. See the Japanese Pizza Page. Taxi drivers (in Tokyo, at least) don't know where anything is. You have to tell them to go to a famous landmark and steer them from there. It's best to have a map if you don't know where the place is either. Addresses are useless. Most streets don't have names. When you call to order your mayonnaise with seaweed pizza, they punch your telephone number into a computer to get your address (if you have ordered from them before) including directions. My house: "You're on the third floor, above the Asahi Shoe Shop, the door on the right. Is that correct?" No one ever knows the name of a shop or restaurant. They usually tell you its location instead: "Across from the post office," or "The third door from the flower shop." Restaurants and shops will fax you a map if you call in advance. Trains are always on time. On the extremely rare occasion that you are late for work due to a delay, you must bring your supervisor a note from the train station manager explaining why. The Japanese word for brown is cha-iro (tea-colored) but Japanese tea is green. Newspapers take one day off a month for a "press holiday" and don't put out any newspapers. Unfortunately, they all choose the same day, so there are no newspapers at all that day! A survey showed that Japanese spend on average 15 minutes reading the newspaper a day. The most popular section is the TV listings. There are seasonal beers here. Recent names include: "Cherry Blossoms are Blooming," "Spring Has Arrived!," "Gift from the Earth and Water," and "Free Time Beer." [I am NOT making this up!] People live in houses with no insulation, some with no bath, but almost everyone has a cellular telephone. Pocket beepers (the rage until cell phones...) come in shapes like fish and stars. Young Japanese women don't know how to wear kimonos, so they take classes about it. TV commercials use fluffy pink bunnies (and other similar cute animals) to sell everything from photocopy machines to toilet bowl cleaner to life insurance. People don't buy magazines here, they just stand in the bookshop reading them until they get bored and leave. Grown men still read comic books. Including ones with names like "Young Boy" and "Jump!" McDonald's just introduced a breakfast item call "FrankBurger." You figure it out. Cats say "nyan," dogs say "wan," and pigs say "bu." Japanese salarymen in some companies spend a good deal of their day reading the newspaper or sleeping on their desks. It's okay to come into work with a hangover if you've been out drinking with your colleagues. No one expects you to do any work after a big night out. Have a nap instead. Dark alleyways and parks have signs that say "Watch out for perverts." Serious crime is so rare in Japan that every single murder makes headline news on TV and in the newspapers. All-you-can-eat restaurants are called "viking" because people can't say the word "smorgasbord." They use the word "puchi" (from French petit) to mean small. A new item is called "Big Puchi" Pudding. Figure that one out. McDonald's is so crowded that the staff use walkie-talkies to guide customers to free tables. Hand motions are similar to those used by airport ground crew signalling planes where to park. Love Hotels

Cherry Blossoms Poster

Read about some other people's crazy experiences here:

• Rafael's Rants -- One Brazilian's view of life in Japan
• James Liu's Tokyo Off Time
• Michael Chachich -- Make sure to check out his letters home!
• Wendy Dinsmore -- Another great page about life here...
• Life In Japan Mailing List Home Page -- What some of the people living here get up to in their spare time
• David Notkin's and Cathy Tuttle's "Japan Stories"
• Japan Still Life -- Fiction by DC Palter, based on experiences in Japan
• More Links to my friends' home pages

Links About Japan
Naomi's Photogallery: Japan
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