Yuri to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito

A Shoujo ai centred Weblog

Day 25 – Miscellany – because some things don’t have topics.

Posted on | March 26, 2008 | 3 Comments |

Yeah, it’s a miscellaneous day today. Sorry about that.

I think the first thing I noticed that was different about Japan when I arrived this time (as opposed to last time when I came in the height of summer) is the huge number of people wearing facemasks in the street. You can buy these in the shops and they pretty much resemble the ones that we use in surgery in hospital back in England apart from having elasticated ear hangy things rather than tied straps.

I was told by one of my colleagues that this (as I suspected) is mainly to prevent the spread of germs from a person that has a cold to people near them, though actually there is not a great effect and most of the mask-wearing happens because it’s part of Japanese culture rather than real belief that it actually prevents the spread of viruses.

It’s common over the entire world except England now, but I just can’t get used to people smoking indoors after living with the British smoking ban for the past 7 months or so. It’s actually a big problem, since lots of Japanese people have a tobacco problem and cigarettes are unprohibitively cheap here (250jpy for 20) so it definitely doesn’t help. If tobacco was banned, then Japan would probably have zero heart disease. That is, until the increasingly overweight teenagers gorge themselves on the increasingly popular McDonalds.

McDonalds is different as well here. If you’ve been to any Asian country’s McDonalds, you’ll know what I mean, but the menu is fairly unrecognisable. Apart from the usual big sellers such as the McChicken cardboard-wich and the Big-Mac, menus are generally shaped to fit the population. You’ll find the Teriyaki Mcburger, the Egg and Teriyaki McMuffin and the newest addition – the Prawn burger…which is actually rather OISHII.

If you don’t want to go to a McDonalds (or one of the other hideous American stores spreading like a greasy disease like Mister Donut), then you’re probably better off stopping at a Famires (family restaurant). Those of you of a British persuasion will recognise this style of restaurant to being a lot like a Little Chef – except not being in the middle of nowhere. I’m not sure about America. The one thing that I don’t understand about Japanese restaurants (especially the gyuudon Sukiya down the road from the hospital) is that a lot of them open til very late and some open 24 hours. Just in case you happen to come home at 4:30am and really feel like beef bowl. I’m not sure it’s worth the staff pay, personally. However, when I do come back at 4:30am I’m sure both me and the one remaining waitress will appreciate each other.

Another thing you’ll notice in Japan is the extremely large number of arcades. Which is awesome. However, it is also expensive, so I have stopped trying to transfer my Guitar Hero skills to Guitar freaks (mainly because I can’t).  Guitar freaks is actually hard O_o. However, most of arcades is usually taken up with crane games and Purikura (No, not Pretty Cure.) – the Japanese obsession with taking sticker pictures of each other. (Though I have come to believe that it’s mostly girls.)

I’ve decided that I really love sentou. These are public baths that you go to, put your shoes in a locker and pay your 400jpy to get into the separated changing rooms where men walk around completely nude pre or post bath. Then you strip off, walk into a dizzying steaming room of showers and tubs and wash and bathe yourself until you’re about to pass out. Then go into an adjoining room and throw yourself into a cold tub and feel your pulse in your fingertips. And try not to look at the 80 year old dangly bits.

Although not necessarily very ofay with all of the world’s environmental issues, the Japanese government is very big on recycling. In fact, the card which came with my apartment lists 10 different types of waste which must be separated and collected on different days. This unfortunately usually translates into a complete lack of bins around when you’re doing your day’s wandering around what ever town of your choosing. As you eat lunch and snacks, you will pass many bins for recycling cans, bottles, cardboard and plastics while accumulating a small bags worth of leftover food, unrecyclable plastic and several pairs of disposable chopsticks. I am convinced that due to the lack of bins and any noticable littering (outside of Akiba), most Japanese people carry around a small bag of rubbish with an eagle eye for spotting those elusive 燃えるゴミ bins that just don’t seem to turn up when you need them. I suggest you do the same!

One last thing I want to talk about is the Japanese road system. Despite the accelerating conversion of the average Japanese man to the motorcar, the Japanese road system remains very well maintained but hideously designed. There are but two problems. First, is the love of intersections (instead of the very British roundabout) obviously imported from America. However, the problem with intersections in Japan is that cars are not allowed to turn left (the easy turn) on a red light like in America. The result of this is for left turning drivers in cities to turn left and immediately get stopped by a column of road crossing pedestrians. Then when they finally get to go, only two cars get let through. I think someone really neede to think that through better.

The second problem is the almost complete lack of pavements outside of cities and the teenytiny narrowness of most roads. Most Japanese roads in small towns make British country roads look like the Queen’s driveway. This makes things very dangerous for both pedestrians and cyclists and is the reason why elementary school kids wear those hilariously coloured yellow safety helmets. However, virtually no cyclists in Japan wear helmets. You go figure.

That’s all the miscellany I can think of for today. Come to Japan for more laughs ^_^

Yuribou

Category: Comment

Comments

3 Responses to “Day 25 – Miscellany – because some things don’t have topics.”

  1. Caitlin
    March 26th, 2008 @ 2:06 pm

    I need a mask too. In my area, it’s the seasonal allergy and people believe that the mask reduces the pollen that enters. I’m going to try this because I had horrible allergies last year when I never have them in the US.

  2. Asuka
    March 30th, 2008 @ 3:47 am

    I’d like to know why wearing face-masks don’t do much to stop the spread of germs. We don’t wear it here in Canada, but I suspect that having a piece of cloth covering your mouth when you sneeze is much better than sneezing into your hands. o_o

  3. NLP
    August 6th, 2008 @ 5:47 pm

    I think you have to mask up anywhere in china now , They put a artical in the paper today saying the polution in china is realy bad.

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