First impressions of Nippon!

Here's some of our first impressions of the land of the rising sun....

1. Vending machines

if you've got a spare 100 yen ($1.30AUD), you can buy any drink of your imagination. From jelly shots to 'vitamin' water. In winter, you can enjoy warm drinks such as my personal favourite, Royal Milk Tea! It will also always give you the good kind of change, not 10 x 10 yen coins. However I do hate the 1 yen coins here...absolutely useless.

On my way to work, I pass about 100 vending machines and 20 convenience shops. And after all these, I have yet to see even one overweight person! I realise that as a tourist I'm amazed by the machines at first, everybody is, but the novelty wears off after you find out you can buy a big bottle from the super market for the same price. Then it's us who are laughing at the tourists who are taking pictures of the vending machines.

2. Orderliness and politeness

Look at these people lining up for the train! Beijing, China, can learn a thing of two here! Unlike in Melbourne, people like the trains here, including us. The trains are always clean, all stations are manned, we have never seen a machine out of order, and we haven't seen a single piece of graffiti. No one speaks loudly on the train either so it's peaceful cruising all the way. 5 minutes is probably the most time we had to wait for a train.

In the morning it is PACKED. A lot more packed than a 1 hour delayed Melbourne train! During peak hours they don't even show the train times on the display, because the trains just come one after the other. Everyone is used to getting squashed, so getting bumped or pushed is perfectly normal. The technique the locals use to enter the trains is similar to the basketball 'post' move. They just keep backing straight into the pack, and roll when they see a free seat!

Amazingly, the Metro company handle it very well by ensuring that the train still runs on time! During these packed periods there are staff running around like crazy. At busy stations there is a staff member per train door! Service! The staff form the commuters into ranks (yes just like in Lord of the Rings) and send them in the train one by one. The science of public transport! We haven't seen any of the staff having to physically pack the trains yet, but we definitely don't want to experience that!

So hats off to Tokyo transport. It really does make our transport system back home look ridiculously hopeless.

There's a complex bin policy going on here! Apparently there's 4 types of rubbish: bottles, combustibles, incombustibles and cartons... so lazy, we just want to chuck everything in one bag apart from the bottles! shhh, don't tell...

3. Gaijins (foreigners)

In a sea of Japanese ppl, unlike melbourne, Caucasians stand out a mile away. It's like playing 'where's Wally?' With our dark hair and dark eyes, we can easily camouflage with the crowd. They often assume I'm Japanese, but I have to interrupt by saying "wakarimasen" (I don't understand)! But this is often followed by more Japanese b/c they think I can speak it because I've managed to utter one sentence in Japanese! hehe

Richard on the other hand gets around with the limited Japanese he remembers from high school. I (*tags Richard*) can usually pick up only a few words in a complicated sentence. And then from that I hope to infer what was actually said! It's been working so far, but I'm still giving one or two word answers so I must try to brush up more on my Japanese.

4. Space

Space is premium here and rent is exxy! It makes our Carnegie unit seem like a Mac-mansion!

We have moved out from our roach infested, couple cursed first Japanese apartment to a clean and wonderful apartment in what is known as a "concrete mansion". lol, I love how the Japanese classify everything. We have 1 bedroom/separate kitchen/bathroom setup (a very standard Japanese apartment).

View from the top floor of the apartment building

We live in an awesome area close to the train station, grocery store and even the police headquarters (ahhhh, nothing makes you feel safer than living next to the coppers!) Rich dared me to 'borrow' one of the cop bicycles, but I don't think that's going to go down well!

5. Sales!

The service in shops is impeccable, you are guaranteed to get this greeting as soon as you step foot in the door: "Welcome! Please take your time to browse"

At the register, they are always extremely careful not to make any mistakes by counting your payment in front of you, placing it to the side (to avoid people claiming they gave $20 not $10, we all know we've been in that situation before), then giving you your carefully counted change, and then sincerely thanking you. It IS good service, but I find it is too robotic at times. I'm still used to getting a more personalised service, even if it is attitude.

We checked out the sales at Harajuku and it was absolute mayhem - teenage girls everywhere, sales staff with megaphones shouting, pop music blaring. The lines to pay for items stretched 30 metres and even up the stairs at times. Was this normal? It was when we realised everything was at least 70% off we joined in on the festivities and spent the entire day surfing the crowds and feeding our credit cards. Running out of money!

6. Manga cafe!

I've only heard of these things from people as little havens in the big city. If you've never heard of them before, think of your regular internet cafe, however on top of that, there are private booths with small single/double flat lounges, equipped with TV, your own PC, and PS2. There are free drinks, hot food, massage chairs, lots of comics and magazines, and shower facilities. You can pay by the hour, which is about $5 an hour, or you can pay for overnight stays. It is definitely a possible cheap option for accommodation. Sounds like a pretty cool place to relax yeah?

We stumbled across one in Shinjuku and decided to try it out for an hour. Gerald dumped all her stuff in the booth and ran off to the massage chairs, and pretty much never came back. I sit in the booth and realised that I couldn't really do much, all the comics and magazines were in Japanese, the TV channels were in Japanese, and I didn't really want to play any online games. So I surfed the net for a while and then joined Gerald for a massage. It is definitely cool if you needed a siesta in the arvo to catch a few Z's for $5. But as soon as I realised there was a porn channel on the TV I started questioning the cleanliness of the everything in the cafe. Hmmmmm.

7. Food!

Wow I love the food here, I don't think I could live in a country where I could only eat to live. They all live to eat here! Many people associate Japanese food with raw fish, but there is so much more to Japanese food than sliced salmon/tuna!

When you first come to Tokyo you might actually think that it has been taken over by fast food, and who wouldn't? There's plenty of Maccas, KFC, Burger King, and even localised versions of them called Lotteria, Mos Burger, and Freshness Burger. Although they always seem to have the best locations in the built up areas, don't get sucked into thinking that this is all there is. The best Japanese restaurants are usually hidden away in the upper floors of the buildings or tucked away down an alley. Many of them have pictured menu's and plastic dish replicas that show you exactly what you are getting. Otherwise you will just have to try your luck!

I've fallen in love with ramen over here, and for those don't know what it is, it's a Japanese egg noodle dish that originated in China. The signature version has pork broth served with sliced pork. The local one just downstairs from our apartment makes it really nice, the pork is so tender, I always consider popping in for a bowl as I pass it on my way home!

Our pick of the cuisine so far is actually a French infused vegetarian restaurant on the 8th floor of the Isetan Department Store in Shinjuku. Lots of flavours and I felt a lot more energetic after the meal. Maybe an effect of no meat? I definitely plan to go back there whenever I need a bit of a kick!

8. Last of all...the odd spot

This has fascinated me now for a couple of weeks. Japanese men pluck their eyebrows; it's very bizarre. They've managed to get that perfect arch shape and neat brows, maybe I should get some tips from them! Everyone seems to keep themselves in pretty good shape in this country!

I love Japan, it's a fascinating country with many complex contradictions and this city provides endless hours of entertainment.