I am slowly getting used to all the differences between here and America! There are a few things that I've noticed are very different here.
First is shoes. Everyone here needs to have three pairs of shoes! One pair is for wearing outside, the second for wearing in the building (to class, in the hallways), and a third pair to wear in your room. The reason behind this is that Japanese people traditionally spend a lot of time sitting on the floor (often times they have [or used to have] low tables, so they would sit on the floor to eat). Because they spend so much time on the floor, it is important to keep it very clean! Therefore, shoes that are worn outside are never ever worn inside, because they could track dirt in! Most Japanese houses (and our room) have an area to store the shoes right inside the door, and then you will step up into the room.
Another big difference is transportation. In America obviously we use cars to get everywhere. Here bicycles and public transportation are the most frequently used. Everyone at JCMU was issued a bike, and I first I thought "I am never going to use that thing..." It has been a long time since I rode a bike, so I wasn't very confident about it. There is also a shuttle bus we can ride that comes to the hotel next to our school about once an hour. However, we took a group trip to a shopping center, and had to ride our bikes there. After that I realized they were not so bad, and have only rode the bus one time since. Biking is actually a really good work out, besides the fact that they are so convenient.
Japan also has a very good train system, which I have become quite good at navigating during my time here. It seems a bit intimidating at first, but once your figure them out its not too bad. Most places have signs in English too, which is helpful. However, even experienced train riders such as myself can get confused at times! Last weekend Kat and I went to Kusatsu to go shopping. Well, we got there just fine, but on the way back we happened to jump on the wrong train! Fortunately we realized it once we got to the next stop and thought that it didn't sound familiar. We jumped off the train and decided to try and make a U-turn back to where we started. Luckily we happened to run into another foreigner (and Michigan native!) who was living there teaching English. He was surprised to see non-Japanese people at that station since it was in the middle of nowhere! He was kind enough to ride the train with us back to our original station and show us the correct train to get on! Overall I think the train system is very good and convenient. It would be nice if we had better public transportation like this in America.
Also, here are some other genius ideas that they have in Japan that I think America should pick up:
#1 heated floors! We stayed with a host family for a week, and their house had heated floors, it was amazing!
#2 heated toilet seats! Nothing better than sitting down on a nice warm toilet. :)
#3 extremely deep bath tubs. They are so nice and relaxing!
#4 check my future blogs for more great stuff about Japan!
Bonus: A snapshot of lake Biwa (the lake that our school is on!) during the sun set.
