The mysterious Japan...

I thought I'd dedicate a post to the somewhat interesting things that we are encountering here. I'll update it as new oddities present themselves!

Things that Japanese people absolutely love

• Iced coffee

It's everywhere! It tastes just like cold coffee (not particularly desirable), and yet at least half of a beverage vending machine is filled with the stuff. Thankfully, one specific brand I think is quite tasty (conveniently named "Georgia Coffee") has been quite the teaching tool! My name is very hard to pronounce over here (no surprise) and so the mention of the EXTREMELY popular "Georgia Coffee" has turned blank stares into "ooooh hai hai, like jeeooojeeeea coffee....Jeeooojeeeaaa- san!!" It's been wonderful.

• pencil cases (and stationary articles in general)
  

It has been quite amazing. Little girls have this bizarre infatuation with arranging/reorganizing/opening/closing pencil cases... often in the middle of a lesson... at least three times.

• Cameron Diaz
  

Everywhere...

• cell phones

You are actually a social outcast here if you don't have a cell phone. People use the internet here more on their cell phones than on computers.

What's even more fascinating is that in Tokyo we stumbled upon a department store with an ENTIRE FLOOR DEDICATED TO CELL PHONE VIEWING/PURCHASE. It was pretty sweet.

• Birkenstock sandals
  

I have never seen more knockoffs/imitations of a particular shoe in my life.

• Lilo and Stitch
  
  
  
• women and at least 5 inch heels
  

Seriously, in Tokyo especially, about 3 in 5 women would be walking down the street in the most ridiculously high-heeled footwear you've ever seen... effortlessly. Kudos ladies.

• Pachinko
  

In our small Maizuru city of about 100,000 people, there are AT LEAST 10 HUGE Pachinko parlours.

• small, rat-looking dogs (especially dachshunds)

Mitch-san is a great example.



• pink
  

Pink buildings, pink cars, pink bicycles....pink pink pink!

Weird/intriguing creatures

Erica's friend's kitten and ferret living and playing together like siblings. They were quite adorable.

Neko-san is the deranged neighborhood cat. We only catch glimpses of him occasionally... and when we do our eyes are met by the twisted sneer of a hobo cat... even after we fed him!

There are huge bugs here! This is some arthropod-looking creature on a dock in Tokyo. I've seen the same thing in Canada, but about 5 times smaller. We've also encountered tooooo many spider variations to mention. There are tons here. The most interesting of which thus far has been a striking black and bright yellow one (most definitely poisonous to humans) which had a leg span of about 3 inches....

Jim claims there was also a bee/fly about the size of a walnut flying around our place

This was some sort of falcon like bird that we saw at the beach. It was huge! I bet it was about twice the size of the biggest crow you've ever seen. Perhaps even bigger....

Questionable English/Western interests

Santa Claus as a fashion icon!

The Tokyo tower (in the background) is exactly like the Eiffel Tower... but 3 meters or so taller.

The statue of liberty is also a curious notion...it's probably about 30 feet tall.