Yummy or Crummy?

Lucretia and I are back from Japan! We were there for three weeks — the longest vacation I’ve had while also being employed full-time. Check out the photos on Flickr.

I had a ton of fun on the trip. It was nice to finally get over how much I felt like a foreigner inside. I simply accepted the fact that I’ve been living in the US longer than in Japan, so it’s natural to feel out of touch. Once I did that, it was really easy to just enjoy all the cool and weird things that Japan offers to tourists!

• Super ice cubes and bendy straws
  I don’t know why, but the ice cubes in the drinks we ordered in Japan melted at an amazingly slow rate. So by the time I was done with my drink the cubes were still maintaining their original shape and size. Might be good if you don’t like your drink to be watered down, but I found it a little annoying because I usually like to keep sipping on the mixture of the melted ice and the drink residue. And the Japanese people love bendy straws! Almost everywhere we went, the drinks came with bendy straws. Awesome!
• Super displays on trains
  If you live in Japan, you spend A LOT of time riding trains and subways. It’s well known that trains in Japan are almost always on time, and the densely woven networks make the trains convenient for everyone. Well, the attention to detail is paid not only in the timetables and the networks, but inside the trains themselves. On some trains, the display by the door tells you: the current and the next station, number of minutes to the next station, which side will open, transfer information, where the stairs, elevators and escalators will be in the next station in relation to the car you’re in, AND it does this in both Japanese and English!
• Super lack of personal space
  When we took trains in Kobe, Kyoto, or Osaka, we could easily find seats during off-peak hours. But we learned that in and around Tokyo, trains are always crowded. Luckily we never really had to get on a REALLY crowded train during the peak of the rush hour, where somebody has to push your butt in with a stick so they can close the door. But at least a few times we felt somewhat uncomfortable with the lack of personal space on a crowded train. My dad, who’s retired now, told me that the train he used to take was so crammed, he literally could not move any part of his body once he got on — for an hour!

I’ll stop here for now — I’m going to try to create a series of posts about Japan. This is going to take a while…

(Creating a new category, Travel)