As much as I may complain about some aspects of Japan, I love this country.  There are some aspects that I may never get used to, and may never like, but there are some that I really love and could definitely get used to.  Some smaller examples are the trains.  The trains here are fucking fantastic.  They’re clean, comfortable (when you’re not standing up), and they will always be on time, with some exceptions, like weather and stuff.  But seriously, if the weather isn’t interfering, and the schedule says the train leaves at 4:27, the train will leave at 4:27.

Another thing I love about this country are ofuro and sentou.  I love the way bathing works in Japan; you go into the room and wash yourself off, shampoo, soap, etc, then you get into a nearly scalding hot bath, which feels so good.  The fact that you have a tiny room just for bathing, and you don’t have to worry about spilling water anywhere, and you can sit down when you wash yourself; I love all of that.  Also, ofuro aren’t great for summer and when it’s horribly hot outside, but when it gets cold, they’re a godsend.  Plus, Japanese people bathe at night, and I do that anyway, so it works for me.  In case I haven’t mentioned this before, sentou are public baths, and they work the same way.  You go in, wash yourself, then relax in the bath, except the bath is huge.  If it’s a well placed, outdoor sentou, then maybe you’ll get a wonderful view of a city, or of nature.  Either way, it’s really fucking cool.  I mean, sure there are other naked dudes (or women) surrounding you, but frankly I don’t care.  It’s a nice change to be in an environment where no one cares if they’re seeing your junk.  I mean, there is a certain amount of concealment involved, but really, no one cares.

Now we get to things I don’t think I will ever get tired of.  These are the things that I really love about this country.  First, and potentially most important: the food.  I recognize that part of this is the fact that I am blessed with a host family that knows how to cook really well, but the food that I eat outside of the house is also fucking fantastic.  This country loves food, and it has the quality to show for it.  I guarantee that probably a third of the shows that show up in primetime television are about food, or will have a portion that is devoted to trying new kinds of food, and informing people about food they find.  Most restaurants here will have very good food, maybe not exceptional, but it’ll still be pretty good.  But for every restaurant with good food, there is a restaurant with excellent food.  It’s pretty easy to find a restaurant with excellent food, and some of it may be expensive, but damn is it good.  And this is why I love this country, because there will always be good food, and there will always be a lot of it.  And I haven’t even mentioned that you can get good food at convenience stores, train stations, pretty much everywhere.

Another thing I absolutely love about this country; it’s gorgeous.  The countryside is beautiful because it’s so green.  There’s tons of trees everywhere and wherever there isn’t a building, there’s a rice field or a forest of one kind or another.  Plus the country is, like, 90% mountains, which makes it much more interesting and pretty to look at.  Oh, and the fall foliage here is amazing.  There are trees which look like they’re on fire, and mountains coated in shades of orange is really cool.  In addition to that, some of the housing is really pretty.  There are a lot of ugly buildings, like the gigantic apartment buildings and such, but there are a lot of really nice looking houses.  Old fashioned houses are really pretty because, well, I just really love that aesthetic.  They have these really awesome roof tiles which look really shiny and have this cool little flourish on them and they just look really cool.

So yeah, those are some of the things that I realize I take for granted and really like about this country.  Things I don’t like?  The population density, and the fact that you will usually be surrounded by tons of people.  Some gender issues.  The dress code.  You don’t really notice it, but there is a certain sense of what is and isn’t acceptable to wear in public.  Anyway, there are definitely some really great things about Japan.

In other news, deoderant here is weird.  Almost every kind of deoderant for men is in wipe form.  I had to check two different pharmacies to find a roll-on deoderant (neither had gel or bar-type deoderant).  Ok, so, they have different deoderant than in the states.  I can deal with that.  I bought one that I thought looked good (they were all unscented, so whatever) in addition to some wipes that were scented, in case I wanted to smell at all one day, I don’t know.  The next day I get up and put on the roll-on deoderant first thing, before putting on a shirt and stuff.  It burned.  Through breakfast I was concerned because of the burning sensation in my armpits.  Now, I’m not allergic to anything, except maybe dustmites or something, and I know you can develop allergies later in life, but I checked my armpits after breakfast and I didn’t have signs of an allergic reaction: no rash, no nothing.  So, ladies, gentlemen or however you identify, I have discovered burning deoderant.  Maybe it’s unique to my body, maybe it won’t burn other people, I don’t know, but I do know that I have a great present to bring back home.  I hope someone asks to borrow some deoderant some day.

You know what else are weird?  Feet.  I was just looking at my okaasan’s feet and I realized that I almost never see people’s feet here.  Just seemed a little weird to me.  Ok, I’m losing steam with this post here so I’ll wrap things up.

Aside from these observations I’ve made, things are going…normally.  Part of me feels like I could be doing more to take advantage of Japan, but then again, I feel ok with what I’m doing now.  I’ve been busy with classes and stuff, and I try and get out when I can.  Plus I have a new project that I thought up the other week: check out cool sentou.  There aren’t any near my house, but I’ve decided to try and visit sentou around Kyoto and see if there are any real nice ones.  I really like sentou, so I think it would be fun to visit different ones.  Also, I still need to go to some music clubs.  Plus, fall break starts tomorrow after class, and I’m going to Tokyo!  Maybe I already mentioned this; I forgot.  Oh well.  That’s about it.

~Shimon