So many interesting things about Japan

I could probably talk all day about the funny little things I notice about Japan and Japanese culture. They're so fun to compare when you talk to other expats or visitors.

The corona here comes with it's own little lime juice packet:



When you do something wrong, inappropriate, or they simply don't have an item you asked for at a restaurant or something, they give you what I call the EX. Either a small X where they cross their 2 pointer fingers to form an X - or sometimes you the the big X where they cross their arms to form an X. I find it really amusing.

All service people are super duper nice. It may be a front but the extreme niceness is sometimes so ridiculous. A million thank yous are often rapidly repeated along with a series of bowing. Kenn starts to crack up when it's a bunch of women who simultaneously sing the thank yous in their high pitched cute little voices.

You can be in a crowd of people and it's dead silent. Like at Disney for example, there were massive crowds of people everywhere and it was so quiet. Almost eerie. I just wanted someone to scream or something.

You WILL get asked to step behind the yellow line at the subway station if they see you walk or lean over it.

During the day, usually after lunch, Japanese women will spend time in the bathroom brushing their teeth and completely reapplying all of their makeup.

They're so consientious about litter here that in most neighborhoods you can't smoke while walking, there are designated smoke areas.

On the flip side, the amount of plastic they use must be detrimental to the environment. They wrap every single little thing up. If you go to the grocery store, they will put your eggs in a plastic bag, veggies in a separate one, drinks in another, etc. then put them all in another larger bag.

Each egg in a carton of eggs (which are sold in 6 or 8 by the way) has it's own label with the expiration date on it.

I can go on and on but I'll save it for another time...

Hope everyone had a good Valentine's Day, if you celebrate that sorta thing. In Japan, women are supposed to buy men chocolate. Then they reciprocate on White Day which is next month. We went out for delicious Udon with our guest that's staying with us. The night prior we went for Yakitori again and did some bar hopping. We let the Nigerian bouncers give us their happy hour cards and tried a few places. They were all pretty dead but drinks were just 500 Yen. :)