Pros and Cons of Living in Japan (Part 1)

So I have been meaning to write more about my experiences in Japan and have just mainly used my blog to post pictures... but sometimes I think, "hmmm if that is really what I wanted then I should have started a 'blog' or whatnot with some other site". So here's to my first REAL blog post.
**Holds up glass of orange juice and makes the "cheers" gesture towards the computer for all the readers that hopefully will, but probably won't read my blog** ^_^

I want to start off with talking about the Cons of living in Japan first, because well, I always save the best for last. This concept seems to shadow in all aspects of my life and sometimes it is quite annoying. I mean shit, every time I open a pack of skittles I have to suffer through the grape and red ones before I get to the orange and yellow. ^_^ Yes that was a lame example, but you get the idea. So here it goes:

CONS:

1) Well lets start off with money...
So upon arriving in Hiroshima I had the fun time of realizing that almost ALL of my credit/ debit cards DID NOT work.  Well my cards worked in Tokyo.  Soooo why not here, still don't understand that *facepalm*.  Now when I say they don't work, they don't work at all. I can't use it at the store when I am checking out or when I am out to dinner.  Then it really amazed me when I couldn't even use them to pull out money from the ATM.  So I had to resort to using my mom's card, which is a debit card we share. Now the only difference that I notice between the cards is behind the "Visa" logo there is a white square.  All of my friends who didn't have a card with the white square behind the "Visa" logo could not pull money out at all. So just a heads up to people who visit in the future. Either pull out a ton of money in cash while you are in Tokyo before venturing out because you don't want to find yourself stuck without cash elsewhere in Japan. In the long run my school ended up having to give some people substantial amounts of money until they could find a way to transfer money to their newly opened bank accounts in Japan. Japan is a cash society, EVERYTHING and I mean almost EVERY transaction is done is cash (at least for foreigners). So long story short, check your cards for the white background or pull out a ton of cash in Tokyo before you go to other parts of Japan.

2) You will have "Zoo Animal Syndrome"...
Now most of the younger people in Japan are just fascinated by western-looking people and so they often stare at you as you walk down the street, but only for a short moment.  Or they will try to say a few words like, "Hi/ hello", "How are you", "Yes, America, yes!" and especially to me, "You're so tall it surprised me!". However that last line is normally said in Japanese.  I have even had people touch my hair saying, "Oh is that your natural hair", or they have touched my eyelashes saying, "Are those fake eyelashes". Now coming from the younger generation I can tell this is just curiosity and nothing more.  So this most of the time is not a problem, but sometimes when the older people stare it doesn't seem nice at all.  It is more like a what are you doing here and they stare for long periods of time.  I mean one time I had a group of old people that weren't even saying a word to each other, just sit there and stare at me for like two minutes straight when I was waiting for the bus. Seriously I had never felt more awkward in my whole life. I was constantly checking making sure my fly wasn't open or a booger wasn't hanging from my nose. I mean just checking for something that would give them a reason to stare at me that way. Now I know I shouldn't take offense to this type of reaction and I should be quite used to it, but sometimes you just are having one of those days where you want to just flip off people who are obviously being rude to you.

3) The language...
I shouldn't have to say much about this actually. Living in Japan and not having a firm grip on the language is difficult. It makes it hard to express yourself to strangers or even order at a restaurant.  It also is extremely frustrating to make a life for yourself, like trying to make friends and get outside of your circle of foreigners that you live/ go to school with is insanely difficult.

4) Advanced technological ways...
I am not quite sure how to label this, but seriously if you don't have a Japanese cellphone or some crazy advanced wifi-thingy you can take with you everywhere then you have no connection to the internet or keeping in touch with people back home.  This may not be a huge problem  for some, but when you are trying to make arrangements with people about when and where you will arrive then this can be super inconvenient.  There is NO FREE WIFI ANYWHEREEEE.  I mean even when I got to Starbucks you had to have created some account before you can access their free wifi! So I have to have wifi to create an account to access your free wifi...... rightttttt. O_O

PROS:

1) Scenery...
Japan is by far one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to in my entire life.  I first arrived in Tokyo and spent two days there and it was amazing.  Yes, I am a foreigner who loves anime, who cares, I do what I want. AND Tokyo was amazing because of that! It had all kinds of arcades and anime/manga shops. It had tons of technology-type stores and what not.  However, I was really amazed with how beautiful Japan was once I got to Hiroshima. Especially after I made my way to Miyajima.  Now if you have never been to Miyajima, you mustttt go. It is by far the most beautiful place I have been to EVER. Now what I like so much about Hiroshima is the combination of older style buildings mixed in with large/modern/western type buildings. You will be walking down the street and see a huge variety of architecture, which is just awesome.


2) Izakaya (Japanese bar) and restaurants...
Now I don't want to limit this to just bars because a lot of the restaurants are really awesome looking. From the outside it looks great, but then you go inside and it gets even better. **Yes I know what you're thinking... "That's what she said".  If you weren't thinking that, well, then I welcome you INTO THE MIND OF BUTTERS ^_^ **...
Okay getting back on track. Izakayas/restaurants look awesome both inside and out.  They are everything and more then you imagined them to be.  Other than the decor I really like how the waiters and waitresses go about their job. They don't come unless they are called. I mean I find it terribly annoying when I am eating and having a conversation and am awkwardly interrupted by someone coming up asking me how my food is or what not.  It is so much better to just push the buzzer and have them come over if you actually need something.
But one of my favorite things that I wish they did here in the U.S. is something called "nomihoudai".  It is where you can drink as much as you want for a set amount of time for a set price.  This is amazing and an awesome way to just hang out and talk about whatever and on occasion meet new people.  The only gripe I have about this is I wish the drinks were a little stronger. It does depend slightly on what you order, but still it is like Japanese people just get drunk WAYYY easier than I do and I consider myself a step or two up from a light weight.

3) Bathrooms...
Bathrooms in Japan are awesome! They are super clean and nice and the toilets are like robots, I swear. There are a million buttons that you can push and they do all kinds of stuff, even a fake toilet flush noise haha.  Not that I have experimented with these buttons because I am quite afraid of what most of them will do to be honest... I mean I was warned by my teacher before I left to not touch any of the buttons or else you will come out looking like you had been hosed down by the toilet robot. Yikes.
The stalls are completely closed in on all sides. No more seeing people's feet and being able to see people's reflection of what they are doing on the floor, because that is just really awkward. O_O

4)Cleanliness...
Japan is SO clean. I mean people don't eat at all on the street and if there is something that ends up on the street, less than two hours later it has been cleaned up.  It is quite a refreshing feeling to see that everything is clean when compared to America most everything is just the opposite.  There is trash everywhere and people just don't seem to take as much pride in their appearance.


Now this is just a few things I had on my mind and thought that I should finally share.  There are some other things that I have yet to say, but I will save that for another blog post.  Hope you enjoyed reading about my thoughts and if you didn't then maybe you learned something you didn't know before. If you just hated everything, well... That sucks for you. ^_^

And with that, I'm out.
--Butters--

Coming of Age Ceremony in Hiroshima, Japan 成人式

This event was probably one of the coolest things I have been to since I have come to Japan. 成人式 (せいじんしき）or phonetically written as seijinshiki is a annual coming-of-age ceremony here in Japan. Those who have turned 20 years old by some specific date attend this ceremony.

I don't really know much about the ceremony haha, but I do know that everyone was dressed in some awesome clothes. Traditional or not just about everyone looked great! Keyword, *almost* everyone... Some people looked beautiful and some people notttt so much. I was surprised to see so many interesting looking people. Some people you could clearly tell were being a little rebellious, which is quite amusing because you don't see that very often here in Hiroshima.  It is the type of people you would find in Nagarekawa cho at 4:00 in the morning. Now that is my type of people! Hahaha :)  Oh and if you don't know what Nagarekawa cho is.... well then I will just leave it to your imagination!

Love, Butterzzz