Lists

Reminding everyone that again, pictures I'll be posting on facebook, since it's a LOT easier for me.

Today is going to be lists. Of observations. Or whatever I think of. It's kind of how my thoughts have been running lately.

Things I've noticed:
          * music/jingles. EVERYTHING has music. Like the washing machine. It makes a little song when you turn it off. A little song when you turn it ON.
I ride past this factory everyday and the machines play an instrumental version of the Mickey Mouse Theme. It's very cute sounding, but I can only imagine that it's very annoying now to the workers.
          * cute things. Cute = a reason to jack up prices. But really, everything is adorable. Whether it be a design, or the minisize-version. It's just CUTE. Good luck finding much that is manly in the way America sees it.
          * nothing is free. NOTHING. If we want to go out? You have to pay to eat, pay to PARK YOUR BIKE (but granted, there are a LOT of bikes. I wish I had a scooter, because those look amazingly fun to drive). Pay to ride the train. It's not a LOT, but it definitely stacks up. I've probably spent at least $70 on just transportation.
          * everyone dresses better. I feel like a bum. Seriously. Even the guys are dressing better. I actually bought my first Japanese clothes the other day, and it makes me feel a LITTLE better. I think it'll also be better once the weather gets cooler, because then I can actually layer like everyone else is and not be sweating like mad.
          * bikes- are amazing. If you don't have any other mode of transportation, and walking takes too long? Bikes are incredible. Beloit also wasn't very big, and I lived ON campus, while I'm probably biking 40-45 minutes every day (both ways total) to school. More walking/biking on the weekends for exploring or getting to wherever we/I want to go.
Biking on the roads is slightly terrifying however. Because they are much narrower (but so are the cars), it feels like you are right in the middle of the road. It's scarier at night, so I try to bike home before it gets dark. Which is about 6pm. Which means right after my 4 o'clock class. (Runs until 5:20) if I don't want to bike in the dark. My bike *does* have a light in the front that is powered by my wheels, BUT, it isn't a lot. Still scary.
          * bridges. I really like the bridge on the way to Makino-eki (Makino train station). Love it love it. It makes me think of Shadow of the Colossus, with all of the stone and greenery everywhere. Stone steps for the river, stone steps for people to walk down to the river, stone formations, etc. It's a very lush area.
          * holidays. Japan has a LOT of holidays. And I don't think it matters if you're "private" or "public". EVERYONE gets these days off. (Well okay, if you work a crappy 7/11 job or something, maybe not, but everyone else.) We've already had THREE holidays. We haven't had a full week of school yet! In fact, we have tomorrow (a Tuesday?!) off. But that's it. We have school today, Monday, but not Tuesday. *shrugs*
          * typhoons. We had a system go through Osaka this weekend. It meant for us, a lot of rain and thunder. We only got the edge of it. But if I were further south and west, I believe, it would have been a lot worse. Still kind of exciting to know that I'm experiencing a TYPHOON even though it's just a bad storm. The fact that it's a typhoon is cool. Now I just wait for the earthquakes... erp. (Though I hear that they are hardly ever that bad.)

Foods that the Japanese appear to like.... a lot.
          * eggs - including raw. AGH. I've avoided any lunch dishes with raw eggs thus far.
          * ham/pork. In any form. EXCEPT, it seems, bacon. They'll say something has "bacon" in it but it isn't really. It's a little sausage-y looking thing. Definitely not bacon.
          * melon. DELICIOUS. Melon soda, especially. (No, I'm not saying melon pop because they literally spell it as melon soda in katakana.) Or melon pan (bread). Sooooo good.

Other food observations:
          * pan. It means bread, but, it belongs in a different category of bread, I think, because it's just so different for me here. The pan I have for breakfast is most certainly white bread (which is dominant. I saw maybe one kind of wheat-ish loaf bread in the store) but it is THICK. Like, two inches thick. But it is SO GOOD if you toast it and put butter and jam on. Yum yum.
          * fruit. Is much much much juicier here. And thus, extremely good.
          * peeling/cutting off crusts. They do this to almost all fruits. Like grapes. Peeling the skin off. It's... weird. My host mother gave me some apples (I couldn't tell that's what they were!) with the skin CUT OFF. What am I, 5? But no, when I told her I always eat apples with the skin on, she responding with "honma?" [really? in Kansai-ben]. So now she doesn't peel it. Which I'm glad of. But she still peels the Asian pears. But those are so good, I don't care.
Also, if you buy some pre-made sandwiches from a pan-ya [bakery], the CRUSTS will be cut off. Completely, or only one side left. Uh. What? That I actually dislike a lot, so I've avoided buying them. (Not that I need to buy much food on my own because I'm doing homestay.)

Phew! Those are the biggest ones I can think of- more later!!