Five New Things I've Noticed About Japan
Even though this is my third time being in Japan for a long period of time I still always find new observations and new things about the people and it’s culture. Here are five things I’ve noticed recently that I didn’t notice before.
Elderly people very rarely take my offer to have my seat on the subway. I usually try and offer my seat to an older person when I’m on the subway, especially if it is crowded and they usually turn me down even though I offer them multiple times.
Physical things like magazines, CD’s and film photography are not dead here. People still buy magazines, cd’s and film for film cameras here and I LOVE IT!! I miss buying CD’s and playing them on a cd player or stereo, I adore film photography and appreciate the fact people still love it here.
People tend to walk very slow. Maybe this is because I lived in New York for a long time but when I’m walking somewhere I notice I’m passing people a lot.
When you stand out in a crowd people here aren’t afraid to talk about you. I often stand next to people on the train or on the sidewalk and see them pointing and talking about me. Because I speak a little Japanese I often understand and it’s usually good.
The final thing I’ve noticed is at restaurants, you’re usually given a very small water glass and the waiter or waitress doesn’t focus on filling it for you so you need to be proactive to ask for more. You can say “Sumimasen! Mizu onegashimasu!”
