After being in Japan for a while and the novelty of being in the land of Hello Kitty and Pocky has worn off, I find many foreigners enter a “Every little thing about this place irritates the crap outta me” phase (The EL-TAT-PIT-COMP if you will). The nasally “Irashaimase” when entering a store, the constant declaration of “Atsui!” (hot) in summer and “Samui!” (cold) in winter, and of course, this question: “Japan has four seasons, does your country have four seasons too?” Blerg.
Now I’m quite guilty of complaining about these things, but there are a variety of little things I like about Japan as well. So here are 10 (little) things I like about Japanland.
1. No flinching when I hand the cashier a 10,oooyen note (about $100). In the States, breaking a $50 is a hassel, and when you have $100, it might as well be Monopoly money since no one will take it. But in Japan, you can get a bottle of water at any “combini”, put down a 10,000yen bill, and no one will even blink. I just did it today, in fact.
2. Janken: At first it would seems this is just Rock/Paper/Scissors, but soon you discover it doubles as a diplomatic solution to nearly every conflict your students have. No one wants to volunteer to go first in a game? Make them Janken. Kids fighting over an extra pudding dessert? Janken. Shouting match over who won the last card in a game of Slap-Jack? Janken! A kid may grip about losing, but he’ll never insist on a rematch or “best 2 outta 3″, the word of Janken is final!
3. Kotatsu: While it’s best not for me to get started on the heating system (read: lack there of) in Japan, I will say kotatsu is completely awesome and something I wish we had in the States. It’s a low table with a heater in it. Just put a quilt over it in the winter, put your legs under the quilt, and have everything you need within arm’s reach because you won’t leave until April.
4. Awesome greeting cards (that are cheap as well): Japan generally has it all over the US in terms of stationary matters, and even relatively small stores has pens that come in 17 different widths and an aisle devoted to stationary paper. I’ve bought a dozen stationary sets, and I haven’t wrote a freakin’ letter for years! But the thing I love the most are greeting cards. We’re talking cards that are pop-ups, foil embossed, die-cut, and almost always less than $5, heck, most of them are about $3. All $5 bucks will get me in the States is a card with a cheesy poem and a scallop-cut edge. And guess who makes half of these awesome Japanese greetings cards? Hallmark, yes, Hallmark.
5. Souvenir snacks (o-miyage, kashi, etc): We think “souveniers” means tacky little trinkets we give to friends who probably will put it in a box and never look upon it again. Japan has any amount of keychains, but the word for souvenier, “o-miyage”, also stands for little individually wrapped treats. You’ll find them on your desk when teachers come back from trips. Every little town has them in shapes and flavors that are well known in the region. They can be . . . interesting, like say a rice cracker with a slice of octopus baked in (yep, I actually ate it too), but it’s a perfect gift for co-workers.
6. 1oo Yen Shops: While dollar stores back home make me think of chintzy, off brand products, the 100yen shops here in Japan sell things of a surprisingly good quality. It’s also a teachers dream since they have things like rubber stamps and stickers with characters like Hello Kitty and Disney princesses.
7. Dessert Presentation: No, I don’t think Japan has better desserts, especially since the rarity of ovens makes things like pies and cookies hard to come by. Plus when dessert comes, it’s usually about half as big as it was in the picture. But even in some Village Inn/IHOP caliber family restaurant, the presentation is fantastic. Desserts are pristine with everything arranged just like the picture from the cut of the fruit to the perfectly spaced spiral of chocolate syrup. Even the corn flakes seem to be arranged perfectly. Yeah, corn flakes. I didn’t say they tasted better than American desserts, they just look like they do.
