I have just returned from a two week holiday in Japan, visiting some friends and touring around seeing some sights and cities.
Here are a few observations:
– Scrunchies are back and all the girls are loving them. Not only used as puffy hair pieces, but also wrist decoration.
– There is no shame in showing a sockette when wearing shoes, it’s always on display and in full colour with patterns and glitter as opposed to nude.
– Some younger host or companion guys sport more outrageously styled hair than most of the girls. Its always long, with stacks of layers – not quite a mullet, but short enough so the top can teased or pieced out and sprayed into a big do.
– Fruit is really expensive ($6 for a massive apple) but the quality is far superior to anything in Australia, each piece is perfect.
– Everybody gets their shove on during peak hour on public transport, but never rude or aggressive, people just literally squish onto the full trains. We found peak hour to be around 10.30, when everyone is trying to get home before the train stop.
– At Osaka Aquarium they hand clean all the pebbles at the bottom of the main tank. Some poor guy has to don scuba gear and lie with the sharks on the floor and feed all the pebbles, hand full at a time through a machine that sucks the crap out.
– When eating sweet grapes, one does not eat the skin, but use the skin to squirt the flesh out into your mouth, then throw away skin.
- There are REAL professional bartenders. People who know how to mix and present a drink, not just uni students pulling beers.
– All people working at a clothes shop have to say ‘Irrasshaimase’ (welcome) - even the super cool Bape guys who kind of grunt it under there breath with a nod, rather than the customary high pitched shout out.
– People are willing to queue a long time for good sushi. We did 1.5 hours or so for Sushi Dai at Tsukiji. And yes, it was totally worth it.
– All publics spaces and transport is so much cleaner than anywhere else I’ve been, all trains have immaculate velour coverings that look new, but probably aren’t.
– Most food cooking and finishing is done in-front of the customer at a counter, which is great as you can see everything happening, but you also engage in conversation with the people who are serving you. Sadly we were lacking the language skills but this seemed to be a very important part.
– In summer its really hot, throughout our two weeks it hovered around 30 with massive humidity. I like the heat, but the Japanese seem to not sweat near as much as us Gaijin.
– Most shoes come in small, medium and large! Large not even close to fitting, where there are numbered sizing 38 is the biggest for women, alas one size too small for me!
– They have fake beer. It’s packaged like beer, but is beer flavoured beverage with minimal alcohol – confusing!
