Be Prepared for...

There are certain things that you expect to be different when coming to Japan. Somethings you have no idea about so there is simply no way for you to prepare for them. Lets start with the obvious things first.

Language

It is a language like nothing else commonly spoken in America. It sounds nothing like English, Spanish or French. It is no where near a romantic language so its not easy to pick words out to try to figure out a sentence. Reading is harder by far. Example: これは、日本人がどのようなものです. After a while, you may be able to pick up on a few of the written words but without taking a class (which there are many of) it will be hard to make sense of it. The further away from base you go, the less and less English translations around.

Yen

I have had so many people ask me about buying things here and they keep on assuming that things are so much cheaper here....WRONG! Be prepared to spend a heck of a lot more money that you plan to. Sure, a soda is only 150 yen but that equals far more than $1.50. Our dollar sucks right now and you really wont get a lot for your money if you are using yen out in the city. So do not come here thinking you are going to get a great deal on that new Canon lens you have been wanting or that you will pick up some souvenirs on the cheap.

Size

If you are average or tall in America you will most likely be one of the tallest or the tallest person around. I am only 5' 7'' and I tend to tower over the woman and a lot of men. My husband is a giant at 6'2". Also, be prepared to feel fat. If you are over a size six or so you will be bigger than most Japanese woman that you come across.

Some less obvious stuff:

Sexuality is a lot different here. It isn't so taboo as it is back at home. We have been in stores that have all sorts of things like action figures and video games and on one shelf they will have dolls that look like porn star on steroids. They are not hidden in the back for adults, but out in the open. Another time my hubby was in a store looking for a video game and he went to be rung up and the little old lady store clerk was packaging anime porn. So be prepared to come across things like that cause it really surprised me.

American Words

You will see a lot of Japanese people wearing clothes that have English on them. Sometimes it can be a little funny because they just like the look of the writing and have no idea what it says. We saw a grandma looking lady with a playboy shirt on. Sometimes they will have curse words. A bar near base is called something like F*** ya bar. OK maybe they knew what that one was but probably not that its the mother of all curse words in America.

Train Seating

A lot of times on a train Japanese people will choose to sit somewhere other than next to you. THIS IS NOT BECAUSE THEY DON'T LIKE YOU! It is because they know Americans are chatty people and most people don't feel comfortable with their English enough to sit next to a talkative American.

Shhhhhhhh

Japan is quiet. On trains and other public areas people are not loud and making noise or listening to their music so other people can hear. They are very respectful of each other and I will bet you anything, if you do find a noisy commotion going on, it will be an American.

Portion Size

Japan uses more proper portion sizes than what we are used to. A regular size drink that you get is much larger than the normal fast food drink here. If you go to a restaurant, your glass will be the size of small cup. A lot of times there are not refills. It does take some time to get used to, but you will get used to it. We visited Hawaii recently and when we got our drinks we were shocked to see how big they were. Meals will be smaller too. You will get used to it though.

Finally the thing you will notice right off the bat on the plane:

Air conditioning

On the four flights I have been on to and from Japan there is not air conditioning like we are used to. You will not be blasted with cool air and you will probably not need that blanket that they give you. That is the same for most cars, buses and buildings here. Places on base do have pretty decent air and in base housing it defiantly does the job. The best way to describe Japanese air conditioning is to take your car air and put it on the lowest setting and set it to low...that is as good as it gets.

So there are so basics on being prepared for Japan. There are so many others but these are somethings that I think would be helpful for anyone coming here for the first time.

School uniforms in Japan

Just like in my industrialized countries, education is highly valued in Japan. It is quite different from American schools and the one that is most easily recognizable is the school uniforms.

In kindergarten, ddepending on which school they are attending, their uniform will change but the basics stay the same. When outside they have some sort of hat and the rest of the outfit is something always super adorable.

This is the traditional kindergarten backpack. The color varies but this is the typical style.

 A popular cartoon called Shin Chan shows the title character in his uniform.

 For older boys, this uniform is what they all wear. All black with a mandarin collar. It looks very military.

 These girls are wearing the normal uniform. The thing that shocked me about their uniforms is how high some of the girls wear their skirts. Other than that, they look just like normal private American school uniforms.

The Japanese school system is number 4 in the world for educational scores, while America is 11. Students attend school Monday through Saturday here. Most children enter preschool anywhere from 1-5 and most kids graduate around 17-18.

Christmas and a street food in Japan

defiantly here, even in Japan, a country that consists mostly of Shinto and Buddhism. They decorated blue street really nicely. This is located just down from the base and is a popular place to hang out and grab a bite to eat among the people of the base.

Here is the huge Christmas tree they had near the Yokosuka-chuo train station.

This picture doesn't show it too well, but all the trees are lit up.

 A festival that is going on currently. I doubt its for Christmas but I thought I would add it in since it was going on at the same time. All the people on the right are in a huge line for a street cart around the corner!

 Rows and rows of street carts

 Chocolate dipped bananas. They have lots of different toppings to put on them.

 This lady was a crack up because when someone wasn't fishing for bouncy balls she was smoking it up.

 Yakitori! Meat on a stick. At this stand they had a lot of chicken livers and some other unrecognizable things.

 Tons of suckers shaped into different popular characters.

 Savory Pancakes. There is a batter that is cook and then lettuce and a meat and an egg are placed on top. You can add sauce to taste.

 These little balls are filled with taco...that's octopus in Japanese... and rolled in a special cook top to form the ball. Very popular here.

 The pan of the good stuff

 Another fishing stand.

 Japanese hot dogs. They are on a stick and with out bread. They also are made of good/real meat and have natural casings.

This was awesome, and something I haven't seen here before. These street performers were playing and singing Christmas standards. It defiantly brought a twinkle to my eye. 

 

The curry duck at the train station

Happy Holidays!

Burn a hole in your pocket

There are many places on and around base to buy the things that you need. There is of course the Navy Exchange, that is located near the center of the base, that is divided up according to what you are buying. The main store (shown in the video below) contains all the clothing for teens to adults, make-up, household supplies, some snack food, electronics, books and jewelry.



The commissary is located next to the NEX, and just like on every other base in the world, is most crowded on payday so beware. You can find most products from the states that you might be looking for, but they may not have the brand that you are fond of. For example, there are only Thomas brand bagels at the commissary and they only carry California Sunshine brand milk. It doesn't help much if you love coupons but you can defiantly find all the items you will need to make your favorite American meals.

One thing to prepare for though is the price increase. Milk here averages over $4.00 a gallon and fruits and vegetables are through the roof. You can easily spend around $10.00 on an average sized honeydew. On the flip side though, meat is I think on the average to low side and the quality is way up there. A helpful thing about being overseas is that fleet and family services does have pre-cut coupons that you can sort through to use. The commissary excepts coupons from the states that are up to six months expired, so if you are determined to get those bagels cheaper, you can always sort through the coupon baggies and find a deal.

The furniture NEX has some great pieces of furniture for fair prices. Every now and then they have sells and clearance items. You can sometimes find a steal of a love seat for only $100 bucks! They do deliver to where ever you are living for different prices depending on the distance.

The home goods store is where you can find all of the pots, pans, sheets, pillows and other house items that you may need. They also have a pretty nice selection of Japanese Giftware that you can send back home to friends and family or decorate your home with.

Down the street from the base is Daiei Mall. This place is huge and you can find tons a neat stuff there. Since it is not on base, they only take yen there and most people working there do not speak English so be prepared to use a lot of hand signals and your translation guide if needed.

When shopping out in town for clothing, remember that they do not carry larger sizes. Japanese people are much smaller on average so most stores will not have sizes for woman above an American size 10 at the very most and men above a 38. Those sizes will even be hard to find.

All in all, you can pretty much find what you are looking for here, you just need to be prepared to make a few compromises and pay a little more sometimes, and if not, there is always online shopping!

MMMMMMc Donalds

Japan loves McDonald's...because its hella good here. The menu is completely different and everything, I mean EVERYTHING, tastes better. Nothing tastes like pasted together cardboard deep-fried in grease. We refused to eat McDonald's back home in the states but decided to give it a go here. We were pleasantly surprised and were happy to find that the menu was Japanese inspired and loosely based on the American standard.

Here is the outside of the 3 story McDonald's in Zushi outside of the train station.

Ronald McDonald trying to tempt the Japanese children

 The boy toys are racing cars and the girls toys are characters selling and preparing food...awesome.

Heres their line and menu. The staff has on different uniforms than in the states and these people were a heck of a lot friendlier than back at home. OH and they have to actually count out your change for you here instead of having it dolled out for them like in the US....AKA they can count!

 Out tasty meal. We got a little bit of everything to try out.

 The Diavolo Chicken Sandwich. It kinda tasted like a spicy and sweet orange chicken from back at home. It was really good because the quality was a lot higher than we expected.

 This was a tasty find. When I ordered it, I just pointed to the picture that look familiar and thought I was getting a normal burger but I got this little delight instead. Its a teriyaki burger that instead of using hamburger its patty is a sausage, just like you would get in your morning meal.

 It had an amazing glaze on it, a lot of mayo (which I wiped off) and it tasted a lot better than it looked.

 Shaka Shaka Chicken was something new. You had your choice of seasonings which you poured in the pouch and shaka, shaka your chicken to coat it.

 The easy to follow instructions...

 The delicious outcome

This was great...the Bacon Potato Pie.

 The crust was just like the Apple pie you get in the US. The filling was heavenly.

 The regular size drink they offer here is the size smaller than the US small cup.

 These are the sandwich specials that they on different days. Today's sandwich was the Diavolo. I really want to try the others. They totally need these back at home.

My husband found this and I thought it was funny/weird/out there. Apparently Japan is getting fatter and McDonald's, just like at home, is the cause.

I can Origami

A time honored tradition from Japan is definatly the art of folding paper called Origami. There are so many things that you can create with just a little sheet of 15cmx15cm paper. It is so much fun and easier than I thought it would be.

I bought this little booklet of paper from the Daei mall that is located right outside of base for just 155yen (about $1.75) and it contains 36 double sided color paper.

 I found a great channel on Youtube that shows you step by step how to create these little works of art and you can follow the link here if you would like to also give origami a try.

Here is a butterfly

 Here is my swan in ugly duckling colors :)

 Here is a classic, the crane.

 And finally, the rose. This one took the longest and needed the most attention to detail.

If you would like to know the history of origmi, this is a great website. I hope you all get to try some paper folding out!

Chopsticks, 9, 4, and the Beckoning Cat

Japan, just like America, has many traditions of superstition that has been passed down throughout the generations. Many Japanese believe not heading these superstitions will bring bad luck or at least show extremely poor manners.

The number 4 when pronounced in Japanese is pronounced the same as the word for death (shi) and is not used whenever possible. 9 is another number that is avoided because it sounds like the word for pain or suffering.  The 4th and 9th floor do not often exist in hotels and hospitals. The room number 43 is extremely avoided in maternity wards because it literally means "still birth" when said out loud. Gifts are never given in fours. The receiver might interpret that you wish death upon them if you give them a set of four plates.

Poor chopstick manners are an easy way to bring bad luck to yourself. Many people who are not used to the culture here will commit these offenses without even knowing it, although you may notice when people start looking at you strangely. Here are a few:

Sticking your chopsticks into the rice is a bad one because people here do this at graves when offering rice to there departed.



Passing your food from chopstick to chopstick is also considered bad luck because of the connotations with death. People in Japan are cremated and the bones of the deceased are passed from chopstick to chopstick so that no one has to touch the bones.

Another interesting one is when a funeral car passes, hide your thumb. The reason is the thumb in Japanese literally translates to the “parent finger”. When you hide your thumb, it is a way of protecting your parents from death.

Sleeping towards the north is bad luck because that is the way bodies are laid out.

If you buy a new pair of shoes, make sure to wear them for the first time in the morning. Any other time for their first outing will bring bad luck.

The beckoning cat is a good luck charm that you will see in every store or restaurant. The meaning behind the cat is if the left paw that is raised is meant to attract costumers and if the right paw is raised it will bring in money.

Keep these in mind so that you can have a lucky time here in Japan.