Dec. 15, 2008

I have now lived in Japan for little over a week, thus making me a complete expert on the culture. So here are some humorous observations on the wacky (read: wrong) Japanese way of life:

HUMOROUS OBSERVATION #1: everything on TV is a game show. Even the news is a game show. And the shows are often interrupted to show a lot of slow motion “food porn.” At first I thought these were commercials, but then I realized that the hosts were usually just taking a break to do some cooking.

HUMOROUS OBSERVATION #2: there are lots of cartoons. Everything has a mascot. Even the blood bank has a cuddly mascot with drops of blood for ears. There are also lots of mascots of animals telling you to eat other animals.

HUMOROUS OBSERVATION #3: I have mostly been eating food from the corner store, at least 80% of which has been bread filled with bean paste. I don’t really like eating this, but I am finding it very difficult to not buy bread filled with bean paste in Japan. Packages are often cunningly deceptive in this regard.

HUMOROUS OBSERVATION #4: I am tired of all the slutty schoolgirls everywhere. Who designs these uniforms?

HOW AM I DOING YOU ASK?
I live in a small apartment in a suburb of Tokyo. It is about the size of one of my former bedrooms back home. This is annoying, but it is also good if you are lazy, because it only takes two steps to get from bed to the bathroom, kitchen, dining room, sitting parlor, games room, conservatory, etc. I will make a video soon.

My days have been consumed by teacher training, which basically what you’d expect it to be, and not much to talk about. It is finally over, and tomorrow I start actually teaching children. My new life begins. I think I will buy some bean paste bread to celebrate.