Pictures!

I'm trying to put up a bunch of pictures at once, so we'll see how this goes...

Becoming invisible

One thing I've noticed while here in Japan is that gaijin or foreigners are almost completely invisible while we are walking around. Almost every Japanese person acts like we just don't exist as we go by, its almost like we are ghosts just drifting through a sea of humanity. Its hard to explain but you really do feel like they almost don't see you as you go about your daily business, no one makes eye contact, physical contact is shunned at all times and people hawking food or random other things always ignore us. The last part could be because they have guessed that we don't want to buy some octopus balls, but someday I want one of them to offer me some fried octopus head just so I know that they do care.

But regardless of whether they act like we exist or not the one thing the Japanese do have down to an art is customer service. When my friend and I went to open a bank account yesterday we went to a real Japanese bank, not the usual gaijin friendly one that the rest of the English speakers use. So no one in the bank spoke English and even with my intermediate Japanese very little communication was happening. But fear not because the bank president himself and a personal assistant for the two of us soon appeared and helped us set up an account. Then as we were leaving it seemed almost every employee was bowing and thanking us, really makes you feel like some visiting dignitary or something. I have to admit when I leave at the end of my year I am definitely going to miss the service here, because no matter if it is a tiny mom and pop restaurant or a huge department store you are always treated like a VIP.

I have to work early tomorrow so this will have to do for now, but I have plenty of pics to put up so I'll try to put some of the crazier ones up tomorrow. Like the picture of people fishing for koi in the bottom of an arcade. No joke. Oh and...if you happen to be tall, blonde and and caffeine deprived a certain boy in Japan misses you :)

Mickey?

Myself and a giant robot

Another day

Well I'm about to start getting ready for my second full day of work and so far I have to say that Japan is more incredible than I ever could've thought. Like just the other day I had to go with my friend to the hospital because he had a bad case of strep throat and after wandering around for a good hour and a half we finally gave in and took a cab to the one hospital that was open on Sundays. When we got to the emergency room he was admitted to see a doctor and two nurses within five minutes, tested for various diseases and then sent home with about 7 different drugs in a matter of 30 minutes. Not only was the service fast, but the entire visit only cost him 150 American, doctor visits, tests and all. This was just another facet of Japanese life that continues to impress me, just their amazing efficiency at everything they do. No space or energy is wasted on anything, whether it be the packed seating in a restaurant or the convenience stores which are 5 stories tall. That is another thing I've discovered about Japan, they build up instead of out. You go into a toy store and it'll have 6 stories of various things. This applies to everything too, so dvd stores, electronic stores, comic stores, grocery stores, pretty much anything you can think of has multiple stories. I suppose this makes sense with their space limitations, but I didn't think I would find it to this degree. But time to shower up so I can go teach some group lessons today...oh and I still kinda miss a certain blonde lady.

Osaka Party

Me and one of my roommates near Denden Town...basically a neon wonderland.

Facts about Japan

1. There are no public benches or places to sit anywhere. Like none whatsoever.
2. The girls here all wear tiny skirts, yet somehow don't die of hypothermia. I on the other hand have been wearing hat, gloves, scarf and usually several layers.
3. Fashion among the younger Japanese is very effiminate clothing for everyone, guy or girl.
4. Hairsytles have to be totally extreme one way or another, either very conservative or hardcore emo/punk/crazy person.
5. Even the people living here in the city don't know how to get around as we were trying to find a hospital today and even after me showing them maps and explaining what we want I would just get, Sorry...I don't know where that is. And mind you the maps were in Japanese, yet still nothing.
6. No one speaks English here...like no one.
7. I eat family size containers from the grocery store everyday yet I'm still always hungry.

Osaka Time

Well I think I've finally figured out how to post my blogs, but now I have the problem of how to put up pictures...boo to that. Nevertheless we'll march on and eventually I'll decipher a way to post pictures because this place is like nothing I've ever seen. The first night I got in we walked around Dotombori, which is the world famous food district here in Osaka. It was like walking into a neon sign disaster area with huge crab and octopus statues on the side of the buildings trying to scare you into coming in. It was packed with Japanese businessmen coming home from work and Japanese youth (I say youth because we cannot figure out how old these people are by looking at them, some could be 14 while others could be 35) dressed up in crazy gothic and hardcore scenester and emo wear. Just walking around was an assault on the senses as there are sirens constantly flashing, booming soundtracks coming out of restaurants, and flashing neon lights on almost every available foot of space. Needless to say we wandered around in a daze for a good 4 hours just trying to take everything in. When we finally staggered into a restaurant we were almost dead from exhaustion and hunger and it turned out to be a Chinese restaurant of all things, but we were too tired to care. In fact right now I'm still pretty tired from jetlag and all so I'm gonna have to leave it at that. All I can say is that Osaka is incredible and more than I could ever imagine. That and I still miss lp and am counting down the days until she visits :)

Trying to figure out how to blog because none of the buttons show up, just ??????. Let the adventures begin.

I suppose this is my first official post to my blog about living abroad in Japan even though I'm still in the states. I'm really more curious to see if I can actually post this or not so I suppose we'll see. I leave for Osaka in two days and all I've been doing today is packing, packing, and more packing. My dad got me some of those vacuum sealed bags and I have to admit they are doing the job as I haven't even filled up one suitcase yet and most of my clothes are already packed. The nice thing about moving so far away is that I'm really only bringing my clothes along, so there isn't the usual hassle of having to pack and move a bunch of random stuff. My only real concern is running out of deodorant over there as apparently they don't use it or don't use what we are used to. I've always thought of the Japanese as clean little robotic workers, so I can't really understand the lack of deordorant, but who knows. Anyway its back to packing or slacking, so you'll have to wait for more updates. Oh and... I miss lp...sad face :(