Scrawlings

In the same way that we did for China, we kept a list of things that were interesting, entertaining and pretty cool in Japan…

1. Fake food -  I’ve already talked about this. As strange as it was, it came in very handy since there was such a lack of understood English, let alone English print on the menus. Pictures were taken on our digital camera of the meal we wanted and we simply showed our server, worked every time

2. Musical advertizing trucks – I already mentioned these too, trucks that drive around blasting the music of the band they’ve got plastered all over them. Not sure if they were actually transporting anything or not…

3. Cleanliness – We expected as much, but man are they obsessed. This poor man and his job of sweeping the endless falling leaves off this wide gravel road all day, every day…

4. Holy hospitable – I have never been to a country where a free public park bathroom was so clean, had toilet paper AND had three extra rolls of toilet paper on the corner shelf! What a treat!!!

5. The Japanese are so fashionable! – Especially in Tokyo. I have never seen so many stores that I wanted to shop at.

6. The masks – Probably one in five people is wearing one, seriously. It’s so, so common. What I didn’t get was the young girls who were wearing the mask (presumably because they had a cold) but were then wearing their scandalously short skirts or shorts in the nine degrees Celsius weather, seriously girls.

7. Gotta love their efficiency – How fabulous was it to have a line formed for the bus… well not that fabulous for us since we were close to the end but seriously, it’s been too long since we’ve been in a culture where getting from one place to another can be so stress free! (And that’s not all… The way people standing on the escalators stay to the left to let walking people pass on the right, the way they have arrows on the ground at the subway and train stations to direct the flow of people, everything felt so comfortable again, like we were in Canada, sigh)

8. Bowing – No image available for this one, but the stereotype is true. From a significant head nod to a full on bow, we experienced a lot of it from those that served us.

9. Funny mirrors – I’m not sure if this is that strange or not. The taxis all had them, surely there are other countries where this exists.

10. Funky toilets – I’ve already mentioned the amazingness of the “wash-lets” in Japan. Another interesting thing was that often times the sinks in the washroom were on the back of the toilet. The tap automatically turns on when you flush! Something else that I didn’t have the pleasure of discovering, but that Beth told me about is that there are some bathrooms (she talked of one in the subway station) that have a special button in the stall for a “flush” sound. It is apparently the same length as the longest possible fart.  How clever are the Japanese…

11. Walking grooves for the blind – We noticed this in China as well and again, I can’t remember if say, Toronto would have these or not, someone tell me. Either way, after living in such a unfriendly city to pedestrians let alone those in a wheelchair (Abu Dhabi is awful for it’s lack of ramps), this was refreshing.

12. Its a cultural faux pas to eat while walking in public – You don’t realize how much you may do this until you’re “not allowed” to…

13. Different money etiquette – When paying for a bill you always take it up to the cashier on your way out of the restaurant and tipping is considered rude.

14. Less English than expected – yep, we didn’t anticipate so many charades, it was fun though

Since our novelty milks of Abu Dhabi got on so well, we thought we’d share some of our snacking adventures in China…

Chocolate Milk Tea: taste like crappy vanilla hot chocolate including flavourless jellies. Not awesome but it kinda hit the spot on this chilly day.

Fried potato sticks: Tastes like triple fried old crunchy french fries, not bad if you’re hungry

Snack street treats: delicious dumplings, mediocre chicken drumstick, crunchy well seasoned scorpion, delicious deep fried banana (tastes like heaven), deep fried ice cream (the bread on the bottom was the best part) and candied fruit, among other things.

Everyone says good good eat: Tastes like typical spiced noodle sticks. Meh.

Red bean creme: Tastes like a marshmallow with a dollop of  beany/cherry flavoured stuff inside. Enjoyed these so much that I bought them again, however I ended up eating too many in one sitting and felt sick

???: Tastes like popcorn covered in cheap white chocolate, very strange I know.

What looked kind of like shortbread: Tasted like crap, we threw the rest of the package off the great wall (not the packaging! )

Other than the deep fried banana balls, my favourite snacks were the breaded products from nearby convenience stores (not pictured here). These pastries and sweet breads made for a delightful breakfast every time, good thing we were doing so much walking!