The Land of the Rising Sun has it's pluses and minuses, as you would guess, and living in a country that is as modern, if not more so, than the other western countries I've visited makes for a relatively easy adjustment. I think that explains why there are so many ex-pats here who've stuck fast. Married or whatever they have found a life for themselves that, at the very least, is painless enough that they have elected to stay on.
I say "painless" because some of them don't seem particularly fussed about culture or language. They are just 'living' somewhere that they found work and friends and that has sufficed. Others are immersed in language studies or cultural pursuits and observations. "Did you know... Have you seen..?" kind of folk. Interested in their world.
Some foreigners are, to be sure, just here in transition to make a quick buck, gloss up their resume and move on to other oceans.
Many find Japan obtuse and confusing. The written language doesn't make assimilation easy and the actual grammar structure of the language makes even learning to speak it a hurdle. There are features to the language which do make it easier than some, but reverse thinking due to reverse grammar is, for some without doubt, very backward.
Of course crossing that hurdle and communicating with people in a second language is a thrill, at least for me, and the reward of that alone can make living in another country a boon to one's consciousness and experience. To unveil the way another race thinks, even though humans share so many traits/emotions in common, if not all, opens your eyes to the habitual thought patterns that you were once living with day to day.
So aside from the apparent similarity of a modern westernised nation, Japan is of course it's own world. Just as Earth is filled with so many cultures all with their own peculiar brand of living, eating, working and mating.
The little things that can irritate are the usual minor inconveniences. The obvious one is racism. For although polite the Japanese are the majority here and any other race is a minority. A minority that some live with by looking the other way, some stare and others make joking asides to their countrymen as if the foreigner can't be expected to understand or pick-up that they are being ridiculed.
Some are eager conversationalists some are taciturn pessimists who worry for their belongings whenever you are in their presence.
The natural fears of many an "average punter" when it comes to the foreign hordes.
Often minuses are just being told that something can't be done, regardless of the apparent ease you think it could be done with, because it simply isn't in the rule book. "We don't do that here." End of story.
The small pluses that come to mind are like; getting on the bus at the back door and taking a ticket at the beginning of your ride. For people who know where they are going this system means that you are on the bus in the least amount of time, while at the front of the bus people use the automated change maker to break their notes and pay their fare, dependent on how far they have traveled.
If you don't know where you are going and need to talk to the driver you can. He is not busy making change for the queue of people boarding the bus. A display board tells the passengers how to calculate their fare so they have it ready when they disembark.
Although these kind of practices abound in Japan they also bring home the realization that they wouldn't work outside of this country. Too many of the Japanese ideas only work with a populace that is well behaved and essentially honest. The honour system being relied on in many of these instances to get the appropriate payment or behaviour.
This is why a small thing like the bus ticket system is a charm. It reminds me as I trip around of the people I live with. That they have a good set of basic habits which make living together easier. Honest and respectful of another's space.
As for my daily routine, I have managed to accrue a small clientele of private students as well as a couple of schools which hire me casually, once or twice a week depending on emergencies.
Some of my privates come to my house for lessons and for some vice versa. Often feeding me when I do show up at their house around lunch time for a class. So I think I may start a "cooking in Japan" web page seeing as half my classes involve some sort of culinary discussion or preparation.
No, contrary to my plan I am not losing weight eating Japanese food. If anything ...
My house is evolving nicely. When I first moved in it was a pit. Now it is a clean pit. Much of the previous tenants belongings, read 'garbage', have been evacuated. Difficult here because of the restrictions on what can be left out and when.
As well I have rearranged and modified much of the house's interior. Being an old house (come shed) it's no problem for me to take to it with a saw, hammer an nail.
That and the advent of summer has me smiling in relative luxury except for the plumbing situation.
My bathroom consists of a bathtub which must be filled to cover the water pipes of the kerosene heater, which sits outside the house, and then wait fifteen minutes, twenty or more in winter, while it heats the water.
Hopefully I will soon be installing a hot shower and later on finding a bathtub that lets me sit without having my knees under my chin. Kinda cramps a guys life and accessories so to speak.
The kumitori, toilet, is still a concrete tank of some 180 liter under the house. I do not relish the coming summer and the thought of sharing the vicinity with this tank. It is not a superior example of plumbing workmanship.
I have installed a toilet seat over the hole so that my guests, previously horrified they might fall to their unsightly ends, can be seated whilst thinking.
I have also sourced a supply of sawdust so that I can combine my waste matter with it and compost it all, kitchen food waste included, in my back yard. A space I am lucky to have considering the average housing situation of many Japanese.
I don't get a lot of sun in my yard but to have the space to use as I see fit is a luxury I am not wasting.
Unfortunately my laptop died during my last trip to Oz but I managed to find an old desktop computer to keep me jacked in to the Net.
I might manage to get some photos online
Love from Nihon
[end of transmission]
