Going to be writing a few of these, 20 at a time, and will keep adding as I figure out more things. If I refer to "here," I'm talking about Japan.
1. Japanese drive on the left side of the road. The steering wheel of the car is on the right side, but the gas pedal is still on the right side.
2. Even at a small and insignificant crosswalk with absolutely no cars, the majority of Japanese people will stand there and wait until the crosswalk light turns green.
3. There's no daylight savings time or anything here, so in the summer, the sun rises at 4:30.
4. There are no school buses. Students walk or ride their bikes.
5. In a lot of Japan, houses don't know what insulation means.
6. There are toilets here where you have to squat down to use them because they are basically holes in the ground.
7. Japanese people go to the hospital for the SMALLEST things. Case in point: They go when they have colds, and they get medicine.
8. Recycling is a nightmare here. You have to tie up papers and cardboard with a certain string, make sure to rinse and clean the cans and unscrew the tops. Fail to do this all just right and it won't get picked up by the garbage trucks. On top of that? Recycle day is once a month.
9. Business that requires you going to some center (bank, DMV, etc) takes a LOOONG time. You thought the DMV in America was bad... hoo boy. Maybe it's just that way for foreigners.
10. The banks have the worst hours in the world. 9-3, only from Monday to Friday.
11. The "close door" button in elevators actually works here, and everyone uses it.
12. The speed limits force you to crawl. Except for a road here and there in my city, the speed limit is 25 mph. That's twenty-five boys and girls.
13. They have public baths called "onsen" where you bathe naked with everyone else.
14. If you're looking for a vending machine, well, more accurately, it's almost impossible to NOT see one no matter where you look.
15. On the other hand, you could search all day and never find a trash can unless you go to a store.
16. Convenience stores are actually convenient.
17. When people don't understand something they tilt their head to one side.
18. Japanese people will be saints to your face, and demons when your back is turned. As long as you can't see what they're doing, anything is fair game (gossip gossip gossip)
19. Japanese can finish their work in a few hours, but will spend often over 10 hours at the workplace doing who knows what (this is to give off the feeling of "everyone's working together," even if only 1 or 2 people actually have something to do)
20. Deviation from the book is UNHEARD OF. Suggesting to do something different is met with bewilderment and often rejection.
違い【ちがい】 (chigai) difference
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