Monday, November 21, 2011

Teeny tiny culture shock

A lot of the time when people talk about cultural differences, they focus on the big things like RELIGION and POLITICS and TRADITIONS and GENDER NORMS.  But many times it's the little differences that trip me up, like
Why would I buy diluted soy sauce when I could pay half as much for normal soy sauce and dilute it myself?
or
Why does it take more than two hours to dry my clothing in a dryer?  Are Japanese dryers really that sad?
or
Why DON'T we have sinks on top of our toilets in the US?  It's such a good idea!
or
Why does a place offering English lessons have a sign saying, "Let's learn with us!"?

Speaking of Engrish...


...what is a tableland?


Weirdly enough, every barber shop I have seen in Nagoya is actually a Bar Ber shop.


I have always wanted my Eye Lushes...um...done...stuff...with.

Also, going to the post office in Japan is so much fun.*  First of all, the post office workers are all really friendly, and second of all, picking postage is AN ART.  You don't just slap postage on your letter every which way, like the postal workers do in the US.  No, you have to carefully assess each stamp--and there are a lot of different stamps!--and consider how they look together and whether they're appropriate for the season (the stamps change to reflect the flowers and foliage of the season).  I went to mail a letter to my brother a couple of weeks ago, and had a very serious consultation with the woman at the post office about what would be the appropriate stamp to use.  I wound up choosing a turtle stamp (yes, I am a huge fan of turtles), which she approved of.

On a final note, barring disaster, I'll be visiting Ichinomiya, home of Noro Yarns, on Wednesday.  You might want to start mentally preparing yourself for a whole lot of knitting nerd speak now.

*Not so secret confession: I write a lot of letters.  If you write me a letter, I will probably write you one back, but it will be really long and rambly and full of spastic doodles.  Seriously, I love letters so much.  It makes my day every time I get one.
Japanese postage is SO EXPENSIVE, though.  80 yen for inside the country and 110 for outside.  My poor wallet...  In other news, some lucky (?) people will be getting letters from me sometime in the next week...

Edit: Oh wait!  I just remembered.


Julia said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_mPa0IGtdo&feature=related

Can you please explain this one for me? Like how they got on a cloud?


It was created for the fifth anniversary of capybara, and tells the story of how Iwai-san (Mr. Congratulations) who is a kami who lives on a cloud (apparently) blessed the capybaras with good luck for five years.

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