Jord in Japan

Food portions of some foods in supermarkets are seriously small. This was the biggest block of cheese I could find. The price? $5, the same price as a half kilo block in Australia. Most of the cheese available is the ultra processed cheese:

At least I found my favourite french jam.

Imported from France, yet half the size of the jars in Australia, same price.

Bread is crazy. This is the largest sliced loaf you’ll ever see. You can buy either 8 slices of normally sliced bread, or 6 slices of thick slice. Its also so heavily processed – I’ve had a loaf sit for 2 weeks without even turning the least bit stale.

Yet, I can buy 2 litres of Sake, or 1 litre of Kahlua for $20?? Or a bottle of 40% vodka for $4??

I’ve heard about a magical place somewhere along the train line called Costco which sells normal sized blocks of cheese… Maybe one day I will find this place.

It seems this is a popular thing to do during cherry blossom season (which lasts only 1-2 weeks per year).

Although cherry blossom season is well and truly over now, I managed to
go along to a night cherry blossom viewing and snap a few videos along
with the thousands of others. It sounds boring, but it’s quite amazing -- not only the way the trees are lit up from underneath which looks beautiful, but also the crowd! Apart from being pushed along by the crowd, the pathways and bridges all become one-way, with a policeman wielding a loudspeaker at every corner ensuring nobody goes the wrong way. Once you’ve started the walk, you can’t leave.

Anyway, here is the video.

Music
Viba -- In the Orchard Lies a Secret
http://asianvariations.com/bonsai.html

This topic is already covered extensively on the internet by foreigners living in Japan, so I won’t go into detail (simply google ‘Kanamara Matsuri’ or ‘Penis Festival Japan’). Basically the story goes that prositutes would pray at this shrine for protection from STDs. See the wikipedia entry, or just check out the photos and video below, I think they explain themselves

The crowd at the festival. I've yet to see as high a concentration of foreigners anywhere else in Japan.

Look closely...

Well this is a week late (had trouble getting it onto the internet, thus the terrible quality)…

Its just a short video of my first 2 hours in Japan ever, sitting on a bus going through Tokyo.

NB: If you’re getting these posts by email, you’ll need to click on the title to go to the actual site to see photos and video.

I’ve arrived! In my head it all still seems like an elaborate trick. Or that I’m just in some other place in Australia. I haven’t seen much yet, I’ve only really explored the main street of my city, Chofu, but here is a list of things I wasn’t expecting:

1. You aren’t treated that differently.
   Despite so many people saying that they immediately had people coming up to them asking if they needed any help, I haven’t experienced this at all. So far everyone has treated me like everyone else, which is nice. I haven’t even had any strange suspicious glances others have warned me about. Maybe I don’t look confused enough? Or maybe I just haven’t been here long enough.
2. Its not that easy to use English.
   Really, all shop assistants speak Japanese by default, only a few know much English. Which is good, I need to be forced into the habit of speaking Japanese.
3. People on the street handing stuff out sometimes hand out useful things!
   Its not always flyers, they’re not always trying to sell you something (at least, not directly). Today I was given a handy pack of tissues courtesy of the SoftBank phone company
4. The crossing lights have progress indicators!
   Seriously, you can actually see how much longer you have to wait, or how long before the light goes red again. So if its green, you can decide whether or not you need to run to get across the road! Such a simple but smart idea.
5. How cheaply you can get a meal.
   The concept of buying an entire meal with one coin is new to me. I went to uni refectory for lunch yesterday, got a whole bowl of ramen noodles with egg, veges, plus drink for about 450 yen ($6). An equivalent meal in Australia would be around $12. A Mcdonalds breakfast this morning cost me the same, for hottokeeki, hashupoteito, and orenji juusu. And yes, there are vending machines everywhere.

Things I was expecting

1. Its cold. Really really cold.
   But, everywhere inside is heated.
2. People smoke a lot.
   Walking into McDonalds and smelling cigarette smoke was a surprise. Generally though there are smoking and non-smoking areas everywhere.
3. Everyone is helpful, and very polite.
   Though it is hard to know how polite to be in return (eg if you are too polite in shops, you will get strange glances and blank faces)

My Dormitory

So my dormitory is small, but actually not as small as expected. I’m on the bottom floor, the very first door when walking into the dormitory entrance. I’ve been warned that the bottom floor has a cockroach problem, but I don’t have any food yet so its not problem.. yet.

The picture above shows the dormitory from the front area. On the left is the bathroom, and the right is the kitchen. There is a wardrobe on the right past the kitchen.

The view from my window, a cherry blossom tree

The kitchen. A stove, sink, fridge, cupboard. No oven

This is the bathroom. Notice there is no toilet.

But then.. it appears!

Big flush, small flush