Won't Miss #132 - Gym expense and hassle

One of my friends lives in an expensive area of California. In fact, his rent is on par with Tokyo rents, but his health club membership is a mere $50 a month and he can go any time. My husband has a "cheap" membership in Tokyo which is $85 a month, but he can only go on weekdays between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm. If there's a national holiday on a weekday, he can't go unless he pays more. Most private

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Will Miss #131 - festival turtles

Every summer when festivals are in full swing, there are several games or vendors who have large tubs full of tiny turtles for kids to buy or win in games. While I know you can buy little turtles in pet shops nearly everywhere around the world, there is something unique about seeing large masses of them swimming around while casually strolling around a festival. They're so cute that it almost,

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Won't Miss #131 - working long, not smart or hard

We all hear again and again that the Japanese are hard workers, but the reality isn't quite what you'd expect based on the reputation. Anyone who works in a Japanese office for any length of time and learns to really understand what is going on discovers that the Japanese work long, but not necessarily smart (or hard). The emphasis is on looking busy and hanging around the office, not getting

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Will Miss # 130 - supermarket trash bin contents

The vast majority of cultural differences aren't reflected in the broad and obvious, but rather in the small and less noticeable. One of the things which is a fascinating reflection of cultural differences and priorities are the trash bins in markets. In the picture above, taken at Peacock supermarket, you can see two Special K cereal boxes. Out of context, they may appear to be expired food, but

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Won't Miss #130 - shouting from emergency vehicles

Emergency vehicles in Japan, such as ambulances, fire trucks, and police cars, are equipped with the same loud sirens and flashing lights that those back home have. For some reason, these very obvious notifications to those on the road are insufficient to get cars to pull out of the way. Every emergency vehicle that passes through also seems to feel it is necessary for someone in it to shout on a

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Will Miss #129 - Dars chocolates

If you're a regular reader of my Japanese snack blog, you may already know that Dars is my favorite Japanese consumer level chocolate. Dars is a super smooth, creamy, fatty chocolate made by Morinaga. They come is quite a few varieties (dark, white, milk, hazelnut, almond, affogato) and I haven't found a bum one in the lot. For a mere 100 yen, you can indulge in a box of high quality candy that

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Won't Miss #129 - Japanese hair salon issues

Let me start off by saying that the overall quality and experience you get in a Japanese hair salon is probably one of the best you can have in the world. Men in particular are treated to much more care than they'd ever get in a barber shop back home. That being said, for foreigners, especially women, unless they can find the right stylist, there can be problems. One of the problems is that

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Will Miss #128 - Japanized Western holiday decorations

I love pretty much all holiday decorations. I'm one of those rare breeds of people who doesn't get upset about seeing the Christmas decorations show up early because I just like to see them around for as long as possible. Seeing holiday decorations for Western holidays in Japan with some alterations to incorporate Japanese cultural elements is always pretty nifty. It's like someone has taken the

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Won't Miss #128 - no stars at night

This is absolutely a Tokyo experience, and is certainly not confined to cities in Japan, but it is something which has only happened to me while living here and has been a part of my Japan experience. All of the light pollution in Tokyo makes it impossible to see the stars at night. That means I haven't seen stars in the sky for nearly 20 years.I won't miss having the stars blotted out by the

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Will Miss #127 - rikshaws

If I'm to believe Seinfeld, some enterprising folks in New York City also have started up a system where they use rikshaw (in Japan, called "jinriksha", "jin" meaning person) to ferry tourists about the city. I can't say if there is any validity to that, but I can say that you can take them in Tokyo as a way to see parts of the city at the speed of human trotting. The men who pull the rikshaw

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Won't Miss #127 - complex trash handling rules

(Click this image to load a larger one that is of a legible size.)The trash handling rules in Japan are notorious among members of the foreign community for their fussiness and complexity. While it may seem that this is just a language or cultural problem, the rules are often baffling to Japanese people as well. Part of the reason for this is the myth that the Japanese recycle everything possible

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Will Miss #126 - "good" swastikas

In the U.S. (and many other western countries), seeing a swastika fills you with a sense of dread that someone has seen fit to use this ugly symbol of Nazism. The truth is that the swastika has been a positive symbol for thousands of years, but until I came to Japan, I never saw it used in its spiritual context. When I see the symbol here, it is always with a positive connotation. When I return

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Won't Miss #126 Clothes that don't fit right

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking this is about size and tiny Japanese women's clothes and hulking foreign women who can't squeeze their fat bodies into them. That's actually not what this is about. Even if you are a petite foreign person who can fit into Japanese sizes (which is far from a sure bet), there are other issues. One of my students works in the fashion industry and told me

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Will Miss #125 - happy marketing messages

It's very common to see messages written in English with words like "happy", "joyful", and "pleasant". There's a condom machine near our house which has the message, "for your happy family life." I'm not sure how these come across to Japanese people, but they always strike me as innocent and meant to encourage people to have a good experience in their mundane endeavors.I'll miss seeing these

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Won't Miss #125 - having my English "corrected"

When I have a conversation in English with a Japanese person, I pronounce Japanese words that are frequently pronounced differently in English in the Japanese way. For instance, I properly pronounce things like "karaoke" and "Nikon" which are said as "carry-okey" and "Nigh-con" in English. However, I say English names and words in the way they are properly spoken in English, not in some Japanized

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Will Miss #124 - Anpanman

I should be clear that I'm not referring to Anpanman goods or collectibles. I have no interest in the multitude of items marketed with his round, happy face on them. The thing I like about Anpanman is the story that goes along with the character. The idea of a superhero who weakens when he gets dirty or wet really tickles my fancy. It seems like a sneaky way of getting kids, who the character is

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Won't Miss #124 - assumed to fit the stereotype

Because I'm an American, most Japanese people believe they automatically know certain things about me:I eat beef and love hamburgers and potatoes.I have a gun.I grew up in a big house.I am not shy. I grew up around a lot of crime.The truth is that only one of those things is true of me ("4"), and I won't miss people deciding that they know me without getting to know me based on a stereotype.

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Will Miss #123 - free persimmons

Several times each winter, a student will show up at my door with a shopping bag. The bag is often full of persimmons which are being offered to me from their overflowing supply. People in Tokyo receive persimmons by the crate-load from relatives and friends all over Japan and they pass them on to me. The odd thing is that they are sent this fruit despite the fact that they grow all over the

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Won't Miss #123 - tacky tourist junk

I realize that there is tacky tourist crap everywhere in the world. The main difference to me is that I rarely see it in Japan unless I go to an area especially designed for foreign visitors who are here for a brief vacation. Going to these places feels like entering another Japan, one that is designed for easy digestion by people who expect certain things from it. These tacky tourist items are a

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Will Miss #122 - strange Pepsi flavors

Pepsi in Japan comes out with seasonal variations which are wild and weird. One of the earliest was cucumber, followed by yogurt in the form of Pepsi White then shiso and azuki. These are rarely actually good, but there is a certain appeal in the adventure and experimentation of these bizarre concoctions.I'll miss casually sampling these strange Pepsi flavors.

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Won't Miss #122 - people who don't look where they're going

This is an issue which I believe is Tokyo only, but I can't be sure. A lot (and I mean a lot) of people in Tokyo seem to go out of their way not to look at the path in front of them. It's the worst in big train stations like those in Shinjuku and Shibuya. The reason they do this is that not looking where you're going means everyone else has to do the work of avoiding you. The stress of having to

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Will Miss #121 - construction apologies/restitution

On multiple occasions, I've been given gifts for construction or maintenance work done in or near my apartment. When the landlord replaced my kitchen flooring, an action that I requested and directly benefited me, he gave us a bottle of wine to apologize for the inconvenience. When painters painted around our building, they came by beforehand to apologize and gave us hand towels as gifts. I've

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Won't Miss #121 - worrying about exchange rates

The flip-side to gaining advantage from exchange rates is that you have to always concern yourself with when to send money back. You gamble every time you decide to trek off to the bank and exchange currency that this is as low as it might go for the foreseeable future. Sometimes you find that you hit a sweet spot, and at others you find that if you had just waited a day or so longer, you'd have

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Will Miss #120 - benefitting from exchange rates

My husband and I earned less money last year than the year before that, yet we were able to send more money home to place in our long-term savings than in more profitable years. If you work in Japan, but plan to return home, favorable exchange rates can really boost your ability to save whether you make more money or not. At 87 yen to the dollar, a million yen means $11,435 dollars to send back.

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Won't Miss #120 - paper doors

My doors on a rainy day.Doors in most places are covered with paper. I'm not even talking about shoji, the well-known doors that look like window frameworks with paper. Regular doors are hollow wood or flimsy aluminum or wood frameworks with paper on them. The paper looks nice when it is very new, but you can't clean it and it gets wrinkled when it is humid. If you move to a different place and

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Will Miss #119 - diversity of friends

One of the best things for me about working in Japan is that I have not only met and gotten to know a lot of Japanese people, but also people from all over the world. I've worked with people from nearly every English-speaking country around the globe, and this has taught me that, though we may speak the same language and look similar, our cultures are certainly not the same. I've also gotten to

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Won't Miss #119 - lack of insulation

Insulation tape meant to help with the drafts coming from the corners of windows and doors.Japanese houses and apartments in Tokyo are notorious for their lack of insulation. That means that they are leaking air in both directions every season. This means you have to waste energy trying to keep the place warm or cool. You can choose to constantly run your appliances to control temperature or be

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Will Miss #118 - kabocha

Japanese pumpkin, kaboucha, is sweeter than other types of squash and has an almost potato-like texture when cooked. It's so good that you can simply bake, boil, or microwave it and eat it without any accouterments. Mind you, it's also very tasty with a little butter or soy sauce and mirin.

While I may be able to buy kaboucha in the U.S. in some Asian shops, I'll miss being able to buy it so

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Won't Miss #118 - "can you use chopsticks?"

When Japanese people don't know I've been here for a long time, they tend to ask, "can you use chopsticks?" I'm pretty sure that they don't know how condescending this question comes across as, but their lack of awareness doesn't make this question any less irritating. It is essentially like me asking a Japanese person if they can use a knife and fork properly. While it can be marginally tricky

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