WEEK 3

Week 3: Japan Reflection

**I decided (well more realized then decided) that my week to week posts will probably be more of a reflection of both the ship life, but also what I’m experiencing in country. That’s why there are no pictures, sorry to disappoint!! 

I’m sure to some extent reading the endless nonsense that somehow I string together to resemble a thought, is entertaining to some. But I’m assuming that the overwhelming majority probably falls into the later category, with thoughts such as ‘wow this girl really talks a lot’ or ‘why did I click to read this again?’ 

Lucky for you, this is more for me to process than for entertainment, which who knows maybe it will serve a dual purpose! Without further introduction, here is an inside scoop on what I was thinking in Japan!

-Something that surprised me was the number of cultural or social rules they have that EVERYONE follows. For example, not talking on trains (or really in general), standing to the left of escalators if you want to stand and allowing people on the right to pass, carrying your own personal towel for when you wash your hands in the bathroom, sleeping in public is seen as a good thing, traveling by yourself or only with one person, etc. 

-Let me just tell you, the Japanese are not relaxed. They have mastered the art of casually running in public to catch transportation (casually in the sense that they keep their arms down so its an awkward sort of run). It’s common to see business men hauling butt down the street. 

-In the food alone you feel the sense that they are on an island, fish, fish everywhere (luckily I’m a fan). I’m aware that American portions are huge, but holy nuts Japanese portion sizes are smaller than I’ve ever seen!! For this reason, its also hard to shop in Japan as an American. I’m a fairly small person and I was try on XL in some things (isn’t that humbling).

-There are 60,000 people over the age of 100 in Japan right now. This is SO clearly seen, for the first few days, I only saw a total of like 5 children under the age of 10 years old. But there are so many old people, they could honestly take over. They sell more adult diapers than kids diapers (insert gasps here). 

-The current Japanese generation is much less inclined to get married and have children than ever before, leading to a decrease in the population by about 30 million by 2050. Isn’t that crazy? I think it was like 70% of that age population believed it was important for them to get married and have children. 

-Soon there will be only 2 working Japanese for every 1 retired Japanese. One of the people we talked to said that when this happens about 60% of their paychecks will go to this, and they are okay with this because it goes to helping family. If anything they apparently would do this even if it wasn’t by government standards. 

-They have the cleanest streets I’ve EVER SEEN. There is never ever a trashcan in sight. Ever. Almost every time we had to throw something away, we had to go to a 711 (which yes, shocker they’re everywhere). One girl said she dropped something and a man ran over to her and pointed to the trash to go throw it away. You constantly saw people sweeping the streets, even to clean up leaves and such. 

-They have a strong sense of individual comfort, but a community feel. Such as hoods that go over the headrests in busses, changes in the pavement specifically for the visually impaired, and the toilets. WOW the toilets are bizarre, it takes a while to figure out how to flush those suckers (but I mean they are heated and have music, so pick your battles I guess). It was a shock getting back and not having heated seats, sigh. 

-The Japanese have such random things that make life just a little simpler. In some of the buildings they have mouthwash drinking fountains, HOW SMART IS THAT!! In most places too, they have heated mirrors so your mirror doesn’t get foggy after you shower. The most simple inventions, but really make a difference. 

-Along with the inventions things, one thing I couldn’t figure out is their system for try clothes on. We were in a store and the fitting room attendant gave us this like fabric bag that looked like something that you’d throw away when you got something new. Had no idea what it was for, thought you put your shoes in it or something. Well turns out you put it over your head (so you look like you have a pillowcase over your head) while you try things on, it was insane. 

-The Japanese are taught to blend in, everyone wears similar colors for this reason. It really is obvious when people wear bright colors because few Japanese strayed from black, white, or grey. In all honesty this made finding other SAS people a lot easier. 

All-in-all, I was SO sad to leave Japan, and currently have a running list of places I want to go when I visit again. The people were incredibly nice, the food was unbelievable, and the scenery was something so new to me. CANT WAIT TO GO BACK!!! (Although two days of recovery on this ship sounds fantastic right about now, Japan is exhausting guys).