One-offs, pt. 1

Some random observations not long enough for their own post:

• The available/not available signs on top of Tokyo taxis are (mostly) light-up spheres about the size of softballs. Different companies have different colors, so a big group of them looks pretty.
• For a nation that’s only 1% Christian, there’s a lot of churches in Roppongi. Passed a Lutheran church in Roppongi hills, a UCC church near the embassies, and there’s like a 10 story steeple with a cross on it I can see from my hotel.
• I apparently got a smoking hotel room. If I smoked, I’m allowed to smoke in my room, but if I wanted to smoke outside the hotel, I’ve got to do it in a special closed off area surrounded by a fence and trees.
• The Japanese man across from me at breakfast this morning ate natto (sticky fermented soybeans) on his rice. Before he put it on the rice, however, he VIGOROUSLY stirred in mustard with his chopsticks for about thirty seconds. It looked like he was whipping egg whites into a meringue.
• I passed a woman today walking a golden lab that was wearing flannel plaid pajamas. He looked quite comfy.
• Japanese cans for drinks are thicker at the bottom than the top, so it always feels like there’s one more sip left. It’s very disappointing L
• Cherry blossoms are gorgeous on the tree, but street sweepers and fountain cleaners must hate them; I passed a half-dozen people sweeping them into piles or scooping them out of fountains.
• This country has a serious love affair with all things French. French chocolates. French bakeries. French wine. French clothes. All the shops I passed in Roppongi Hills (and several in Tokyo Midtown) had things in Japanese, then French, then sometimes English.
• The cooking and cleaning staff at my hotel get excited when they see me and say some form of ‘hello’ in English and look really happy when I respond. It makes me smile J
• People drive on the left here, so it makes sense that they also walk on the left. But it’s strange how hard it is to get that through your skull. Whenever my thoughts drift, I end up drifting back to the right.
• The whole ‘walk on the left’ thing apparently doesn’t apply to old people. Old people do whatever they want.
• This apparently also applies to old folks driving. I walked past an elderly cab driver who had gotten pulled over for speeding (I think), and was yelling at the police officer who pulled him over, who was being very polite and bowing every time he said something.
• Starbucks is way expensive and pretty burnt (more than usual) here. Got a plain, tall drip coffee and it came out to $3.20 (twice as much as at GT when I was a student).
• They have ‘raccoon crossing’ signs instead of ‘deer crossing’ ones on the freeway. They look exactly the same as ours, except the raccoon looks a bit like an anime character.
• When radios call out a foreign song they’re going to play, they don’t translate the name to Japanese. This makes perfect sense, but it kept making me jump when I was sitting at a coffee shop and would hear “japanesejapanesejapaneseFIVERANDOMENGLISHWORDSjapanesejapanese.”
• If you're my age and have a career, you're wearing a suit. This is honestly and 100% seriously one of the weirdest things about Tokyo for me. Going from a city full of people my age, not one of which wearing business formal to work, to a place full of people my age, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF WHICH is wearing business formal, is making me feel horribly underdressed.