Around mid September, I got to visit Tokyo, Japan! It was the best vacation ever. The supernice boyfriend and I have both always wanted to go there! Not just together, but before we even met. It's just always been a magical place in each of our heads, and fortunately we were both right.
This restaurant had tiny Keroppi cups!
This is me sipping a boxed drink called 'Chelsea'. Underneath 'Chelsea' it said 'Yogurt Scotch Drink'. So that sounded good enough for me.
The best part of vending machines all over the place. You can get anything from a packaged banana to your favorite beverage: royal milk tea. (PS people wear socks with sandals in Japan, too. Yet their aim is probably cleanliness instead of idiocy.)
Here are the things I now know about Japan:
1.) No one is a creeper. If they are, they keep it within their level heads. They don't stare at you with rapist eyes like the creepers in America.
2.) Everyone included in the population, young and old, businessman and grandmother, has at least one charm hanging from their phone. Since I already had some asian bling on my phone, I felt up to par. But I brought home plenty more charms so I wouldn't run out.
3.) Everyone has cool shoes. Everyone.
4.) About 4 in 5 girls wear stirrup leggings. Not the skinny stirrup, but a thicker one that goes down to the middle top of your foot. They wear them with heels or flats, but mostly heels because everyone wears heels no matter how far they have to walk underground to get to the next subway.
5.) The subways are pay for distance, not pay a flat fee to get into the station. It's not simple, like NY. It's gloriously complicated and wonderful. Because if you buy a Suica card, which is more or less like a metro card, you just stick it in your wallet somewhere, and then hit your wallet on the sensor as you walk into the station. It's extremely high tech and secret agenty. Though I felt a little bit like Mr. Weasley going to the subway every morning because in Order of the Phoenix he just taps the sensor with his hand cause he doesn't know how to use the London Underground. All you have to do is swap the hand for a wallet and throw a red wig on me. Then I'm Mr. Weasley. I got so far off subject.
6.) You're not supposed to tip in restaurants. It's rude.
7.) No one is allowed to smoke in public. No smoking tiles litter the pavement and walls everywhere you look; and, incidentally, there is no actual litter anywhere. It's odd, too, because you wonder where people put their trash, as trash bins seem to be scarce.
8.) Their toilets have a keypad to the side, like a game console controller. You can adjust water pressure for bidet, water temperature, and seat warming. You can push assorted buttons to make "flushing sounds" so no one can hear you pee. You can even release a "powerful deodorizer". All the trouble for public restrooms is odd, yet gratifying. I love the fuss involved in being discreet, because it's the norm there.
9.) Many food joints have a vending machine out front where you insert yen, push a button, and collect the ticket it spits at you. Then you give the ticket to the workers and they bring your food out. Yet the food they present is not greasy and full of a heart attack waiting to happen. It's genius, really.
10.) Politeness. If you go to Japan and don't heart the phrase 'sumimasen' 50 times every time you walk down the street, I will be surprised. That's the phrase for "excuse me, sorry." People say it even if you didn't feel them bump you. Because their bump is like 1/8 the bump of an obese American. They're like a pack of smooth little foxes.
11.) Green tea is free in a number of restaurants. It's like water.
I rather liked it there!
