First Impressions

Here follows my account of my first day in Nagoya city.

I always thought I had a good sense of direction. Apparently that changes when you get swept across the world. Or maybe it's the fact that I'm now 22. Age does funny things to a person. In my travels around Nagoya city, I got misplaced 4 times.

To be fair I was pretty sleep-deprived, all the street signs are in a different language and I later (very much later) realised I was looking at 2 maps simultaneously (they were quite similar and I only noticed when one of my landmark buildings kept disappearing. I thought I was going insane).

I always knew Japan would be different but you never realise how bizzare different is until you experience it first hand. It's the little things that catch my notice.

Taxi doors automatically open (the back door so you don't presume to get in the front with the driver). Only the driver can open the door. So clearly if he doesn't like the look of you he just won't open the door. And I say 'he' because I haven't yet seen a female taxi driver.

They have zebra crossings at all their pedestrian crossings but at most of them they also have ped lights so I have to get used to not crossing a road willy-nilly whenever I see a zebra crossing. Some of the pedestrian crossings sound like laser beams (pteu, pteu!).

About 60% of the population ride bikes. Most of them have front and back baskets. They are bike parking lots littered throughout the city where you pay to rack your bike, but some people just seem to line the bikes along the paths. That seems a little trusting to me. But maybe they have super tiny lock things that I haven't yet noticed. Most woman are very dressed up, full face make-up and HIGH heels. I've only seen two orange people so far which is refreshing. They even ride their bikes in their skirts and heels! I should have brought my office skank shoes. I would have fit right in (except for the wobbling. These women walk better in 3 inch heels than I do in flip flops).

Most people look like they're being led around by their universal remote-sized flip phones. They even text and ride. tut, tut. I know these gadgets probably have in-built microwaves and whatever but they are freaking huge.

I saw individually wrapped lemons for about $7 each (no thine eyes do not deceive thee). But that was at a specialty fruit store. Elsewhere lemons are about $1 each. Yep my constant gorging on cheap fresh fruit seems to be on hiatus for a while. The Japanese don't have enough land to plant fruit trees and stuff so they have to import a LOT of it, thus the exorbitant prices. Mangoes were nearly $20 each. Woo!

And while I'm on the subject of food and prices and because I know you'll ask... I have been eating. I've actually bought all my food from convenience stores. And before you freak out (mum and dad) they sell cheap fresh food there. Like a big pack of sushi I got for $3. Salads around $2. And rice noodles with veg and tofu that you add hot water to and it's just like the vietnamese 'fo'. Yum.

Oooooh, I saw an Omu rice cafe and the pictures looked really good. But I didn't try any because the line for it was around the corner. That's another thing... the cafe/restaurants are so small here, people line up to eat there. There are also restaurants where you prebuy your food from a machine. Odd.

I've also decided that I do not like the spraying function on the toilet. The warm water fountain is creepily accurate and it makes me want to pee more.