Yes, I know I am obsessed with my blog and blogging in general. According to my latest blog stats, I have a reader or readers from CA (is that you Jeff?), from CT (Modem Media folks perhaps?) and a reader from Arizona (who is that???). Feel free to post comments or drop me a personal note at jennifern at gmail dotcom (my bro said there are web bots that spam people so spelling out my email). You get to stay in touch with my life but I want to stay in touch with yours too :)
I suppose readers would rather hear about more interesting things about life in Tokyo? I have to be honest, in my opinion living in Tokyo is not much different from living NYC. Don't get me wrong - most everyone is Japanese, most everyone speaks Japanese, the people are very polite, the city is much cleaner, subways are more efficient, generally things are orderly and people are (at least outwardly) reserved. People smoke almost everywhere inside (restaurants, bars, clubs, even office buildings have smoke rooms) but smoking outside in some public areas is limited. There are designated smoke spots outdoors - my guess is to eliminate butts. There's a heck of a lot of carbs to be eaten - rice and noodles. But there is also just like NYC, a wide variety of restaurants from Mexican to Italian to Thai to Korean to Indian, you name it. I personally think the restaurant food is better than NYC, at least it's easier to find good food. Produce quality is not as great. What I do like though is smaller portions of everything. They eat normal portions in restaurants not like the fatties we are in America. Even grocery store portions are in neat packages of meat or veggies that are convenient to buy for a single person to cook a meal or two. I suppose not as convenient for families though.
But what I really mean about living in Tokyo being not that much different is that for me at least the "feel" of Tokyo living is the same (you have to keep in mind how laid back of a person I am). It's a big city with all the big city conveniences and big city prices. I'm used to crowds and commuting on public transportation and having no trees and eating out when I want to. The biggest culture shock for me so far is the language. It takes a second for people to realize I'm not understanding them. At work, there are whole conversations I can't take part in. I've already mentioned that I don't have many TV show options. And ordering food or general communicating is about pointing and gesturing. The only Japanese I speak on a daily basis is Thank you and Good Morning. I bet I would experience more culture shock if I moved to Wisconsin.
1 comment:
hey there. i'm not sure how many jeff's you know, but if you mean jeff a. then maybe my work connection is routed through cali? not sure 'cause i read from nyc.
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