Will Miss #371 - vinegar drinking

What's for dessert? Vinegar, of course!

Of course, when I say I'll miss drinking vinegar, I don't mean me personally, but the fact that the Japanese do it. And it's not that "only" they do it, because apparently folk medicine worldwide claims vinegar will cure everything that ails you. It's more the pervasiveness of vinegar for drinking and how it is more fully integrated into the culture

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Won't Miss #371 - methodical scanners

Yeah, I'm talking about this guy (among others). Learn how to use the equipment fellow!

I haven't lived in the U.S. for a long time, so this may be a problem there as well, but it's something I never experienced there. When I go to markets in Japan, at least 30% of the time when I am buying more than one of the same item, the cashier will scan the same item through again and again rather than

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Will Miss #370 - monster goya vines

At this stage of the year, the vines are about 4 stories high, and they're not finished yet.

Goya is a vegetable that is often translated to mean "bitter gourd". It looks like a big cucumber with a bad skin disease and is famous for being a part of Okinawan cuisine. Some Japanese folks swear by it and others detest it. It's one of those polarizing things, but mainly, I notice it in the summer

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Won't Miss #370 - being told what is "Japanese"

I'm going to blow your mind, and very likely piss you off when I say that Japanese people do not know Japanese culture by virtue of being born in Japan. Don't believe me? Next time the Golden Week holidays roll around, ask your friends what each day celebrates and how it is observed. Or, ask them what a mikoshi is/does. Being of a culture is not the same as being educated in it and sometimes

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Will Miss #369 - simpler living

The Japan Times newspaper used to run a series of columns by an American writer named Don Maloney which was compiled into a book called  "Japan: It's Not All Raw Fish." In one of his articles, Maloney talks about the inconvenience of life in Tokyo and how much more cumbersome it is than life in the U.S. A reader wrote to Maloney and talked about how he and his wife cope just fine with the high

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Won't Miss #369 - facial hair prejudice

Okay, this guy definitely isn't helping the image of facial hair, but give him a break. This picture was taken at a summer festival, not at the office. You'd all look less than ready for Wall Street in 93 degree heat and high humidity at a crowded public gathering.

When my husband came to Japan in 1989 seeking a job, his brother, who also lives in Japan, recommended that he shave off his

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Will Miss #366 - "trash cops" (the good)

As I've said before, dealing with garbage in Japan is complex. It's so complicated that many Japanese folks get it wrong, too. There are different rules for different neighborhoods and some subtler rules come into play about washing garbage. You can't, for instance, put out a can of food that has expired. You have to empty the food and wash the can. It's easy for people who have busy lives to

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Won't Miss #366 - trash cops (the bad)

A (rather nice-looking) sign created by and placed in a trash collection area by a self-appointed "trash cop" reminding everyone that today's trash collection is over. This is to let them know not to put out more trash bags until the next collection day.

Some people are vigilant about making sure the trash on the curb of their block is properly done and that doesn't necessarily have to be a

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Will Miss #365 - capsule machines

Things may have changed since I was living back home, but most of the capsule (or bubble) machines that sold little plastic balls with an item inside were designed for kids. Not only that, but the stuff you got in them was pretty crappy and tended to hold ones attention for about 15 minutes then end up mashed into the carpet of your parents' car when you returned home. In Japan, there are

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Won't Miss #365 - wiring money home

As I've mentioned before, Japanese banks have paltry interest rates on savings accounts. In fact, I'm surprised most people don't hide their money in old bento boxes and bury it in the back yard. That probably has more to do with the fact that so few people have actual backyards than it being considered a lesser option than putting it in the bank. Since I'd prefer to lose as little of my money

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Will Miss #364 - emotional control emphasis

Sumo wrestlers are famed for the stoicism. Tournament winners will stand sweating and tired in front of an interviewer staring straight ahead and grunting minimal answers. They rarely smile or show any overt happiness, even when they are elated at their victory. This is an extreme example of emotional control, and few average Japanese folks have such a tight reign on their feelings. That being

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Won't Miss #364 - Benevolent Prejudice

One of my students is a lovely older lady who is friendly, fun to talk to, and frequently gives me gifts. She's a delightful person who makes mundane stories sound interesting and makes an effort to carry on a conversation, unlike some students who sit there like a lump and expect the teacher to interrogate them into improving their English while they grudgingly utter short replies. She's a

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Will Miss #363 - realizing where I am

Most of the time, I go about my business in life like everyone else. This is often a part of the sleepwalking through life that we all do as we perform routine behaviors. When you first come in Japan, the "oh wow" factor tends to dominate as the novelty of all the little differences make you think normal things are awesome because they are 10% different and have Japanese writing all over them.

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Won't Miss #363 - dead stoppers

These two decided the best place to stop and mess with their cell phone messages was dead in the middle of the sidewalk. The angle makes it look bigger than it is. Trust me when I say that when they dead stopped in front of me that it was more than irritating going around them.

On New Year's Eve of 2010, I was heading into a Kinokuniya supermarket located in the basement of a building. I was

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Will Miss #362 - super cheap book scanning service

Our service of choice, and the image I pinched from their web site. They have really served us well.

My husband and I have accumulated a lot of books since coming to Japan, and everyone knows how infamously small Japanese apartments are. My husband has a large collection of books that he cannot replace without going to great expense (special ordered from a limited run publisher that feels

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Random Thoughts: Gilligan's Island

When you live in Japan, people make an assumption about why you are here. More often than not, they fill the gap in their knowledge with their own motivation or ones that they are familiar with based on what others have said or they have read. Some people come here because they love aspects of Japanese culture, especially manga, anime, or pop culture. Others follow a dream of knowing this "exotic

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Won't Miss #362 - "my hobby is sleeping"

While talking with my sister and one of my friends in America, I asked, "do people ever say that their hobby is sleeping back home?" Both of them were taken aback at my even asking such a question as it seemed like a fundamentally incongruous thing for anyone to assert. My inability to distinguish the weird things I sometimes hear in Japan from the weird things people say back home spurred

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Will Miss #361 - Japanese strikers and protesters

In Japan, the unions are exceptionally weak and tend to cooperate fully with most companies. Most of the time, the union reps get together and quietly talk about what the company is willing to do and just do it. They rarely push hard. When they do strike, it is an almost comically mild event in which a small group of people quietly parade down a street in a complete and orderly manner bearing

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Blogger Weirdnesses

Just a head's up about some Blogger issues that are affecting my posting schedules. I queue my posts to go up for at least a week ahead, but since Blogger changed their interface, the scheduling has become unpredictable. The main problem is that sometimes it schedules on West coast of the United States time and sometimes it schedules on Japan time. It will do this randomly so sometimes posts that

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Won't Miss #361 - rudeness (qualified)

Shhh. Listen carefully. Do you hear that rustling that sounds like fabric rubbing over fabric? That's the sound of dozens of Japanophiles', apologists', and assorted foreigners' underpants wadding up at the title of this post. They won't even read it before dashing off indignant e-mail messages about how Japanese people are less rude than most Westerners (and especially most 'merkans). Those

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Will Miss #360 - "happy basuday to you"

I don't have a picture of someone singing at a birthday party, but this is the tart I had for my 47th birthday this year. It was fatty and delicious, and the picture is the best I can do for something which is birthday-related.

Japanese folks celebrate their birthdays generally with a visit to a restaurant for what they call a "party", but is actually a nice get-together with friends. At such

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Won't Miss #360 - bags that need a seat

On all public transport around the world, I'm sure there are people who plant their bags onto an adjoining seat until someone comes along and needs to occupy that space. I don't mind if people do this on a relatively empty train, not that there are many "relatively empty" trains in Tokyo most of the time. However, there are people who flop their bag onto the next seat and as the train fills up

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