Has it been one month already?? I can't believe I've been at Kenmei for almost four weeks. Are all my months going to fly by this fast? I hope not, I rather like it here.
First, some more random observations.
I didn't even think about this until earlier this week, but the tap water is good here. While I'm a pretty adventurous eater, I am very picky about my water. I have been spoiled growing up on Champaign-Urbana's Mahomet Aquifer water, and I usually have troubles in other parts of the US. When traveling internationally, the tap water is often unsafe and and we have to drink only from water bottles, which is a pain and I prefer not to drink bottled water, which often tastes stale. So anyway, I realized the tap water here is clean and tastes good, and I am grateful for that.
As cold season is approaching, more masks are coming out. At first, when I saw people with masks, my natural reaction was, "Oh my gosh what disease do you have, stay away from me," but now I barely notice them. People use them at the slightest signs of a cold, which is really considerate. As more people become sick, others wear masks, especially when using public transportation, when they are healthy, too, to prevent themselves from becoming sick. One of the American teachers at Kenmei told me that now she wears a mask during allergy season and her symptoms have dramatically improved. It's really a very smart concept, but unfortunately if you wear one in America people will think you have some dangerous contagious disease. You might try it though, if you get bad allergies. Also, a few of my classmates with colds wear little compresses on their necks and foreheads, and I think it's sort of cute and quaint.
The water bottles here are all Thermos-style, with screw-on caps. I haven't seen any clear plastic ones.
Everyone has these large forearm muscles that I don't have. I think it's from using chopsticks.
I went out shopping with friends a few days ago, and noticed that in a number of stores, the shopkeepers were constantly calling out "irasshaimase!" (come in), and possibly some other things, usually in the same high-pitched nasally tone. Even at the back of a big store, there were these two ladies on ladders in nearby aisles, folding or arranging clothes and not even looking at anyone, but continually yelling in their kind of annoying, robotic way, "irasshaimaseee."
More high school things - Because students stay in the same room all day, always at the same desk, they can leave their things by their desk and store schoolwork in a compartment under the desk, so there are no lockers. Well actually there are little cubical lockers right outside the classroom for storing books, but there aren't the full sized ones.
The desks and chairs are unattached, and the desks have a bar underneath that serves as a built-in foot rest. This means there is no need to rearrange desks so the one in front of you has that basket thing under the chair, if you know what I'm talking about.
And now, how have I been doing?
Still well, but things are less exciting. Also I am still really not a morning person. There are harder mornings, where I have trouble being friendly and cheerful to everyone, but by lunch things almost always improve. Gabbi says the same thing happens to her. My class is still being really nice, and I've been developing closer friendships. Natasya from Indonesia, who came to Kenmei the same day I did, left on Monday, which is really sad. I'm sure it was the first of many "It was so awesome knowing you, I'll miss you and probably never see you again"'s that will happen this year. That's a major downside of exchange I think.
Last week in school, one day everyone was taking tests, so us exchange students were told that we would just be in the English Lounge all day. Instead, some teachers from another school were visiting, and to make a good impression they had us greet them. I had to greet and bow to them at the door, hand them a bag to put their shoes in, point them to the Kenmei slippers, and replenish the shoe supply, with some more bowing thrown in. Natasya collected business cards, and Hannah handed out water bottles each in their own plastic bag, which we had filled earlier. Unfortunately, after many testing days in the past where Gabbi had to sit in the English Lounge on her own all day, with no one even checking on her, she chose to skip this morning, when we actually had to do something.
That's another thing. These little white plastic grocery-like bags are everywhere and used liberally. When the students buy their "pan" at lunch, they put their already individually wrapped goods, even if they only got one, in a bag for the walk to their classroom. It seems strange in a country that otherwise strikes me as efficient and resourceful.
I've been to three traditional Japanese dance lessons, and it does not come easily... Most of my dance is done in this uncomfortable pigeon-toed crouch, which just feels really awkward. It can look good when done right, though.
I finally started running again! It felt good and it's a nice way to get to know my area. I think I plan to keep a base of an hour run, every other day or so. I have been gaining weight, as everyone told me would happen, but I refuse to accept this :P
I met up with three friends from school to go shopping on Monday, because we had the day off! Unfortunately, there was a typhoon, and while my area of Osaka was unaffected, others had heavy storms. This meant some of the trains stopped working, and we had many difficulties meeting up. But it all worked out. At some point I really need to get myself a cellphone, but so far I have been borrowing my host mom's when I go out. I went to look at phones earlier, but all the plans were for two years, which I don't want. Gabbi is using the same company and got a nice plan, though, so I'll try to do that.
Our main shopping event was going to this jewelry store and all making bracelets together, which is now all the rage in my class. It was actually a really intense process, and took a couple hours. This super nice and patient shop lady helped us, working through all our indecisiveness. First we had to figure out our bracelet size, and then there was a board with indented circles in the various sizes to arrange the beads in. There were many choices of beads, in different sizes, and they all had meanings, like birthday stone, significant other, best friend, studying, and other things I didn't understand. Finally after our couple hours of changing out colors and patterns and sizes, we paid way too expensive prices and left them for a couple hours to be put on elastic string. The next day at school, we all proudly showed off our new bonds of friendship, and the next day other girls followed suit. Oh also the lady put on a little letter for all of our names, but they didn't have any "B"s, because I guess names don't start with "B" here! So I had to have an "H" instead.
After that I did my first purikura, which is like really advance photo booth that is very popular here. I was amazingly bad at it, because the picture always took longer than I expected, so I was generally caught coming out of a pose. But I'll be prepared next time! The setup was a photo booth, where five photos cost about $4, and an editing station outside to adjust eye size, face size, color, lighting, background, add text, and I'm sure other things. There was a limited amount of time to do this though, so people can't take forever. Then we could have the photos emailed to us as well as printed out, which I thought was a pretty good deal.
We had okonomiyaki afterward, which are kind of savory pancake-like things, with batter and shredded cabbage and then a variety of other toppings, like meat, seafood, egg, vegetables, or cheese. Some of them also have noodles cooked in, which is my favorite. Then sauce and mayonnaise is liberally spread on top, as with many things. It's fun because each table has its own griddle, where the servers make the okonomiyaki, and then we cut into them with our own little spatulas.
Things are about to get exciting, though! Tomorrow and Saturday is our big school festival, which is a hugee deal in Japan. We spent all day today preparing for it. Then on Sunday I finally have my Rotary district meeting, and get to meet my fellow Rotary Inbounds. Yay!
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Kenmei Gakuin
Wow I just realized that I already did talk about Kenmei. But now I'll say more! :)
The totally different class schedule every day is still confusing. But since I don't have to change classrooms, it's ok. The different format is interesting. I think I counted 17 different classes that I have in a week, some meeting several times, some meeting once, so they cover many more subjects, but can't spend as much time on them. I'm confused about math, because I have three different math classes, "Math," "Math II," and "Math B," all covering different subjects, with the same teacher for two of them. Also, it's strange how behind they are in math, even though they have it so often. Apparently my class is the one with people who want to be doctors and stuff, and their chemistry, biology, and physics classes are pretty advanced, but in math we have been finding the length of lines and learning about slope. The whole class, and even the teacher, were like, "WOAHH GENIUS" when I knew the relationship between the slopes of perpendicular lines... Also, home economics is surprisingly intense. They were talking about the chemistry of laundry detergent, with the soap molecules having hydrophilic heads and lipophilic tails and everything. PE continues to be completely different from what I'm used to. This week we worked on somersaults. What.
Almost all of their work is worksheets, or "purinto"s, which they get many of. I think every morning they have an English quiz and a math quiz. Also so far since I've been here, everyday they have had to fill out a sheet of 50 English words, which they write out 10 times. Sometimes I think they have two sheets, which is a thousand words!! I don't think they ever have to type up papers though, or have many long-term projects. Jealous :P Not that I have to do much work here. I do as much as I can, usually able to follow most of math class because the sensei, my homeroom sensei with incredibly long limbs, is nice and tries to write the English for important words. Sometimes I understand chemistry, but other than that it all kind of washes over me as senseless noise. I can't even do English, since I can't translate to or from Japanese. I have a conversational English class once a week with two American teachers, though, and that's fun. They teach things like, "Do you wanna hang out?" and have them try to count how many times Taylor Swift says "ever" in "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together." I can pretty much leave for whatever classes I want to, and I generally leave for Japanese and Geography, because in those I understand nothing, and go to a little room called the "English Lounge." Sometimes I time my breaks with the two other high school exchange students, Gabbi from Australia and Hannah from Florida, who came at the end of last week and will also be here for a year. They're really nice and fun and we've found a surprising number of shared interests.
I am working to learn Japanese, though. One day last week I was supposed to have a two period long calligraphy lesson, but I guess the sensei was gone, so instead my homeroom sensei, whose height I still cannot get over, and some other sensei came in and said, "We are going to teach you Japanese." And then began the long and painful Japanese/Kanji lesson, exhausting for everyone involved since their English wasn't great for explaining things, and my Japanese isn't great. At some point the other sensei had to leave and by the end my homeroom sensei had brought in four other senseis to try to help, none of whom spoke good English. I found the whole thing very amusing. Now, every morning my sensei just gives me more kanji worksheets, and doesn't suffer through them with me. One free period one of the American teachers was also in the English Lounge, and she was extremely helpful with explaining everything the others couldn't, so hopefully I will be able to meet with her more.
Kenmei is a private Catholic school, which is interesting because Japan is less than 0.5% Catholic. So far this means that we briefly pray at the beginning of the day, before lunch, and at the end of the day. I think we'll do something special for Christmas, so that will be fun. Also there's a religion class once or twice a week, but that's one of the classes where I understand absolutely nothing.
Another interesting thing is the little sequence we do at the beginning and end of every class. One student leads, calling out きりつ (kiritsu, stand) and at that point if I'm in the English Lounge and I don't know when a class ends I can tell by the sound of hundreds of chairs scraping. Then きおつけ (kiotsuke, attention) and everyone stands straight, れい (rei, bow), and then おねがいします(onegai shimasu, please) at the beginning of a lesson and ありがとうございました (arigatou gozaimashita, thank you) at the end. They might say other things too, but I don't know because most people just mumble this part or shorten it to "'masu."
Lunch - For lunch most people either bring bento from home or buy "パン (pan, bread)". So far I've been doing half and half, as some mornings my host mother gives me a bento, and some mornings she gives me money. Bento are basically lunch boxes, usually in the form of one or two plastic containers. I generally have a container of rice and a container of other stuff, which snap together with a compartment for little plastic chopsticks on top. The containers are completely packed with a variety of different foods, meat and vegetables and egg, usually separated by little dividers or cupcake-paper-like things, with several bites of each thing. Almost everyone's look similar, generally artfully done. It's so much more intense than my school lunches at home, where I'd throw in a sandwich, apple, and a yogurt or something, and it's amazing how everyone has them. Unless, of course, they buy "パン," which is several bins of a large variety of cheap bread-based things that the students all dig through. There are cheesy bread things, sausage bread things, onigiri, which is rice wrapped in seaweed, a few sandwiches, and many different sweet bread things/pastries/baked goods. Actually, I think the majority of the items are sweet, and I was surprised by how many students make their lunch a chocolate-covered pastry and a cream-filled pastry or something. I generally get a sandwich, being the only thing with vegetables, but also lots of mayonnaise. So far all the bread I've encountered is thin white bread, which is kind of boring. I've found that while everything tastes great, I've been missing fresh produce. All vegetables are cooked, except when we get a leaf or two of cabbage as "salad," and only now and then we'll all split an apple or peach as dessert. So yesterday I took a detour on the way home from school to buy an apple. I felt like such a rebel.
Also there are no drinking fountains anywhere, which is killing me. But most people bring small water bottles, which are all like the metal thermos type here; I haven't seen any plastic ones.
Social stuff- here people don't really use Facebook, instead they use LINE. I made an account, and it's been helping my Japanese to chat with friends. The girls are playful and touchy, like randomly hugging and tickling each other, but my host sister says her high school wasn't like that. They love taking selfies, and have pretty advanced camera apps on their phones, clearing skin and widening eyes. I think people generally don't go to each others' houses, but hang out by shopping, watching movies, or karaoke. Relationships are different here. Most people have their "loves," whom they generally admire from a distance. Gabbi said there was a major crisis yesterday when the crush of one of her friends saw the friend looking at him, and that people will run away and hide when they see their crushes coming. It's kind of cute. Apparently the main couple activity is walking home or to the train station together.
Also, not related to school, I saw Kabuki last week, traditional Japanese theater. The whole experience was very interesting. It was a big theater, with a very wide stage. We were fairly far back, so we had binoculars, and a number of other people did too, which I haven't seen very much at home. There was the whole spectrum of clothes, from very casual to yukatas. Beyond the ticket gate but outside the theater itself there were several tables selling snacks and kabuki-decorated little towels and many other things. What I found most interesting was that everyone had brought dinner, which they brought out during intermission. People crowded around a few little tables and whatever counters and benches were in the ticket area, with bento or bread things, much like my school lunches. Apparently bringing food, which surprised me, is not actually allowed, but everyone does it anyway. As for the show itself, it was cool for a while but then it got very long and I think I dozed off for the ending... The main characters had heavily painted faces, all white, and everyone wore traditional Japanese clothes. They talked slowly and very dramatically, doing all sorts of weird things with their voices. It's old Japanese, so I think it takes a while to get used to and appreciate, like Shakespeare. After the main show, which I didn't understand, there was some dancing, which wasreally cool. The best part was at the end, when these two guys with big wigs that went onto the floor danced and were whipping the wigs around in circles. It was amusing but also impressive. Also, I think the crew were dressed as ninjas. They were all wrapped up in black, and they moved like ninjas too. They should start doing that in the US, it was pretty cool.
The totally different class schedule every day is still confusing. But since I don't have to change classrooms, it's ok. The different format is interesting. I think I counted 17 different classes that I have in a week, some meeting several times, some meeting once, so they cover many more subjects, but can't spend as much time on them. I'm confused about math, because I have three different math classes, "Math," "Math II," and "Math B," all covering different subjects, with the same teacher for two of them. Also, it's strange how behind they are in math, even though they have it so often. Apparently my class is the one with people who want to be doctors and stuff, and their chemistry, biology, and physics classes are pretty advanced, but in math we have been finding the length of lines and learning about slope. The whole class, and even the teacher, were like, "WOAHH GENIUS" when I knew the relationship between the slopes of perpendicular lines... Also, home economics is surprisingly intense. They were talking about the chemistry of laundry detergent, with the soap molecules having hydrophilic heads and lipophilic tails and everything. PE continues to be completely different from what I'm used to. This week we worked on somersaults. What.
Almost all of their work is worksheets, or "purinto"s, which they get many of. I think every morning they have an English quiz and a math quiz. Also so far since I've been here, everyday they have had to fill out a sheet of 50 English words, which they write out 10 times. Sometimes I think they have two sheets, which is a thousand words!! I don't think they ever have to type up papers though, or have many long-term projects. Jealous :P Not that I have to do much work here. I do as much as I can, usually able to follow most of math class because the sensei, my homeroom sensei with incredibly long limbs, is nice and tries to write the English for important words. Sometimes I understand chemistry, but other than that it all kind of washes over me as senseless noise. I can't even do English, since I can't translate to or from Japanese. I have a conversational English class once a week with two American teachers, though, and that's fun. They teach things like, "Do you wanna hang out?" and have them try to count how many times Taylor Swift says "ever" in "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together." I can pretty much leave for whatever classes I want to, and I generally leave for Japanese and Geography, because in those I understand nothing, and go to a little room called the "English Lounge." Sometimes I time my breaks with the two other high school exchange students, Gabbi from Australia and Hannah from Florida, who came at the end of last week and will also be here for a year. They're really nice and fun and we've found a surprising number of shared interests.
I am working to learn Japanese, though. One day last week I was supposed to have a two period long calligraphy lesson, but I guess the sensei was gone, so instead my homeroom sensei, whose height I still cannot get over, and some other sensei came in and said, "We are going to teach you Japanese." And then began the long and painful Japanese/Kanji lesson, exhausting for everyone involved since their English wasn't great for explaining things, and my Japanese isn't great. At some point the other sensei had to leave and by the end my homeroom sensei had brought in four other senseis to try to help, none of whom spoke good English. I found the whole thing very amusing. Now, every morning my sensei just gives me more kanji worksheets, and doesn't suffer through them with me. One free period one of the American teachers was also in the English Lounge, and she was extremely helpful with explaining everything the others couldn't, so hopefully I will be able to meet with her more.
Kenmei is a private Catholic school, which is interesting because Japan is less than 0.5% Catholic. So far this means that we briefly pray at the beginning of the day, before lunch, and at the end of the day. I think we'll do something special for Christmas, so that will be fun. Also there's a religion class once or twice a week, but that's one of the classes where I understand absolutely nothing.
Another interesting thing is the little sequence we do at the beginning and end of every class. One student leads, calling out きりつ (kiritsu, stand) and at that point if I'm in the English Lounge and I don't know when a class ends I can tell by the sound of hundreds of chairs scraping. Then きおつけ (kiotsuke, attention) and everyone stands straight, れい (rei, bow), and then おねがいします(onegai shimasu, please) at the beginning of a lesson and ありがとうございました (arigatou gozaimashita, thank you) at the end. They might say other things too, but I don't know because most people just mumble this part or shorten it to "'masu."
Lunch - For lunch most people either bring bento from home or buy "パン (pan, bread)". So far I've been doing half and half, as some mornings my host mother gives me a bento, and some mornings she gives me money. Bento are basically lunch boxes, usually in the form of one or two plastic containers. I generally have a container of rice and a container of other stuff, which snap together with a compartment for little plastic chopsticks on top. The containers are completely packed with a variety of different foods, meat and vegetables and egg, usually separated by little dividers or cupcake-paper-like things, with several bites of each thing. Almost everyone's look similar, generally artfully done. It's so much more intense than my school lunches at home, where I'd throw in a sandwich, apple, and a yogurt or something, and it's amazing how everyone has them. Unless, of course, they buy "パン," which is several bins of a large variety of cheap bread-based things that the students all dig through. There are cheesy bread things, sausage bread things, onigiri, which is rice wrapped in seaweed, a few sandwiches, and many different sweet bread things/pastries/baked goods. Actually, I think the majority of the items are sweet, and I was surprised by how many students make their lunch a chocolate-covered pastry and a cream-filled pastry or something. I generally get a sandwich, being the only thing with vegetables, but also lots of mayonnaise. So far all the bread I've encountered is thin white bread, which is kind of boring. I've found that while everything tastes great, I've been missing fresh produce. All vegetables are cooked, except when we get a leaf or two of cabbage as "salad," and only now and then we'll all split an apple or peach as dessert. So yesterday I took a detour on the way home from school to buy an apple. I felt like such a rebel.
Also there are no drinking fountains anywhere, which is killing me. But most people bring small water bottles, which are all like the metal thermos type here; I haven't seen any plastic ones.
Social stuff- here people don't really use Facebook, instead they use LINE. I made an account, and it's been helping my Japanese to chat with friends. The girls are playful and touchy, like randomly hugging and tickling each other, but my host sister says her high school wasn't like that. They love taking selfies, and have pretty advanced camera apps on their phones, clearing skin and widening eyes. I think people generally don't go to each others' houses, but hang out by shopping, watching movies, or karaoke. Relationships are different here. Most people have their "loves," whom they generally admire from a distance. Gabbi said there was a major crisis yesterday when the crush of one of her friends saw the friend looking at him, and that people will run away and hide when they see their crushes coming. It's kind of cute. Apparently the main couple activity is walking home or to the train station together.
Also, not related to school, I saw Kabuki last week, traditional Japanese theater. The whole experience was very interesting. It was a big theater, with a very wide stage. We were fairly far back, so we had binoculars, and a number of other people did too, which I haven't seen very much at home. There was the whole spectrum of clothes, from very casual to yukatas. Beyond the ticket gate but outside the theater itself there were several tables selling snacks and kabuki-decorated little towels and many other things. What I found most interesting was that everyone had brought dinner, which they brought out during intermission. People crowded around a few little tables and whatever counters and benches were in the ticket area, with bento or bread things, much like my school lunches. Apparently bringing food, which surprised me, is not actually allowed, but everyone does it anyway. As for the show itself, it was cool for a while but then it got very long and I think I dozed off for the ending... The main characters had heavily painted faces, all white, and everyone wore traditional Japanese clothes. They talked slowly and very dramatically, doing all sorts of weird things with their voices. It's old Japanese, so I think it takes a while to get used to and appreciate, like Shakespeare. After the main show, which I didn't understand, there was some dancing, which wasreally cool. The best part was at the end, when these two guys with big wigs that went onto the floor danced and were whipping the wigs around in circles. It was amusing but also impressive. Also, I think the crew were dressed as ninjas. They were all wrapped up in black, and they moved like ninjas too. They should start doing that in the US, it was pretty cool.
Still doing well, and enjoying school! But really, school on Saturdays is inhumane.
Saturday, September 7, 2013
Observations
I'm sorry, I've been meaning to write for a while. This may become a common theme... First I have some random observations about Japan, and then I'll talk more in depth about school.
Little towels - everywhere. Everyone just has these little hand-towel sized towels that they bring around, for sweat or drying their hands (there is usually nothing for drying hands in the bathrooms) or any other purpose (like as a pillow or head cover for sleeping in class). My family, at least, also uses these as bath towels. At first I was surprised because they're smaller than I'm used to, but actually they work just fine. It hasn't really hit cold season, but I think people also will carry little washcloth-sized towels in place of tissues.
Aisatsu- There are lots of little set phrases used in daily life. For example, when coming and going. When you leave somewhere, you announce, いってきます(itte kimasu, I go and return), and everyone else responds, いってらっしゃい (itte rasshai, go and come). Then when you get back, you call out, ただいま(tadaima, I just came back), and whoever is home replies, おかえりなさい or おかえり(okaerinasai or okaeri, welcome home). Before eating, you say, sometimes with hands in a praying position, いただきます (itadakimasu, I will humbly receive), and after eating, ごちそうさまでした(gochisousamadeshita, it was a feast). Then there's all the various greetings for different times of the day, and in school whenever I pass a teacher, I bow and say おはようございます(ohayou gozaimasu, good morning) in the morning, and こんにちは (konnichiwa, good day) in the afternoon.
They don't eat the skins of their grapes. Sometimes, if the skin is loose, they suck the insides out.
Orthodontistry is not big here. It's made me realize how many American smiles are artificial.
In school, there is a big focus on neatness. Everyone always has their rulers out for any lines or charts or boxes they may need to make in their notes. They also have plastic sheets that they put under the page of their notebook that they are writing on, so there won't be writing bumps on the other side. My philosophy is that as long as I can understand my notes, they're just fine...
The TV shows are so bright and colorful, and the hosts often wear interesting costumes. They seem so normal here though, but I realized at home they would be very strange.
Manga and anime are big here, obviously, but I didn't realize how big anime/manga porn is. On the streets of downtown Osaka, there are large posters of scantily-clad/naked anime girls.
They constantly are taking their shoes on and off, or changing pairs for entering and exiting buildings or specific parts of buildings. Having not been doing this my whole life, I am much slower. I don't quite understand the indoor school shoes, because while you carefully change from the walking-to-school shoes to indoor ones without stepping on the "outside" floor, you can then wear the indoor shoes anywhere on school property, which includes outside areas.
I feel like I had a few more observations, but I left my notebook that had them in school. I may update this in a couple days. Also this post is getting too long, which makes my iPad glitch, so I'm actually going to write a separate one about school.
Little towels - everywhere. Everyone just has these little hand-towel sized towels that they bring around, for sweat or drying their hands (there is usually nothing for drying hands in the bathrooms) or any other purpose (like as a pillow or head cover for sleeping in class). My family, at least, also uses these as bath towels. At first I was surprised because they're smaller than I'm used to, but actually they work just fine. It hasn't really hit cold season, but I think people also will carry little washcloth-sized towels in place of tissues.
Aisatsu- There are lots of little set phrases used in daily life. For example, when coming and going. When you leave somewhere, you announce, いってきます(itte kimasu, I go and return), and everyone else responds, いってらっしゃい (itte rasshai, go and come). Then when you get back, you call out, ただいま(tadaima, I just came back), and whoever is home replies, おかえりなさい or おかえり(okaerinasai or okaeri, welcome home). Before eating, you say, sometimes with hands in a praying position, いただきます (itadakimasu, I will humbly receive), and after eating, ごちそうさまでした(gochisousamadeshita, it was a feast). Then there's all the various greetings for different times of the day, and in school whenever I pass a teacher, I bow and say おはようございます(ohayou gozaimasu, good morning) in the morning, and こんにちは (konnichiwa, good day) in the afternoon.
They don't eat the skins of their grapes. Sometimes, if the skin is loose, they suck the insides out.
Orthodontistry is not big here. It's made me realize how many American smiles are artificial.
In school, there is a big focus on neatness. Everyone always has their rulers out for any lines or charts or boxes they may need to make in their notes. They also have plastic sheets that they put under the page of their notebook that they are writing on, so there won't be writing bumps on the other side. My philosophy is that as long as I can understand my notes, they're just fine...
The TV shows are so bright and colorful, and the hosts often wear interesting costumes. They seem so normal here though, but I realized at home they would be very strange.
Manga and anime are big here, obviously, but I didn't realize how big anime/manga porn is. On the streets of downtown Osaka, there are large posters of scantily-clad/naked anime girls.
They constantly are taking their shoes on and off, or changing pairs for entering and exiting buildings or specific parts of buildings. Having not been doing this my whole life, I am much slower. I don't quite understand the indoor school shoes, because while you carefully change from the walking-to-school shoes to indoor ones without stepping on the "outside" floor, you can then wear the indoor shoes anywhere on school property, which includes outside areas.
I feel like I had a few more observations, but I left my notebook that had them in school. I may update this in a couple days. Also this post is getting too long, which makes my iPad glitch, so I'm actually going to write a separate one about school.
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