I’ve lived in Japan for a year before for work purposes.
This time, I’m going to stay for a couple of years to accompany my wife as she does her Masters.
I thought that it would be fun to list down some random things that I personally find interesting about Japan, since this place is kind of like my 3rd home at this point.
- Things are taken quite seriously here. Serious things are taken even more seriously. I once received an email with a very formal PDF document attached, just to inform me that they are charged my credit card.
- Vending machines sell all kinds of stuff. I love their canned corn soup. I have also seen SIM cards. And some stuff which I probably shouldn’t mention in public ^^;
- Recycling is not only strict, but also different depending on city and prefecture. It is also generally a pain in the ass for the consumer, to the point where you deconstruct an item because buying it. For example, I try not to buy, say, milk cartons with plastic stuff on it.
- It baffles me everytime how beer is the same cost is sake and wine.
- Living in Japan lets you experience some of the coolest and dated technologies at the same time. You might run into cashiers that swallows big notes and dispense change, yet use a stamp for verification instead of signatures.
- DIY and customization options here are abundant, so much so that if you have problems making decisions, you might have choice paralysis while staying here!
- Japanese are tourists in their own country. Travelling to Japan during Golden or Silver week is a bad idea.
- Train stations have an overwhelming amount of information plastered everywhere. Sometimes, it’s hard to tell what’s a useless advertisement and what is actually useful information.
- Machines that talk, talk too much…possibly on purpose to hurry people up with the power of irritation.
- Eggs are so good here, good enough to mix into rice or to be used as sauce for hotpot!
- Conventions have an insane variety of indie (doujin) goods. Other than the usual can badges, stickers, illustrations, mangas and novels, I have also seen hand-sewed items, music (in CD form or Soundcloud URL), games, cookbooks, and more. Even today, I still get surprised.
- I love how random gems of cafes and izakayas can be tucked behind a small door, in a small room, in a residential area.
- KFC chickens somehow tastes terrible, which is surprising because of how well chicken is done in Japan in general.
- ATMs charge extra when drawing money outside of office hours, causing every working adult to draw money on weekday lunch.
- Convenient stores seem to be able to do everything which includes: receiving packages, sending luggage across cities, buying convention/concert tickets and printing.
- Their charging pins are 2 flat lines, which leads to a bunch of interesting designs for their power-related products.
- Every big Japanese company, no matter how money grabbing they are, seem quite protective of their niche.