Differences 3

Differences 3.0  Yes, there are more of them!  So many more...

Parking - Japanese people back into their parking spots.  It does not matter if you are parking at home, the store, the park, you back in.  I can definitely see where there are some advantages to this - in some situations.  For example, many driveways are on busy streets.  Backing in allows for easy exit and prevents having to back into traffic.  Here is the one that I don't get.  Why would you back in at the grocery store?  In doing so you are making your trunk difficult to get into for storing groceries.  

Which car do you think is ours?

Shopping - Have I mentioned to you that grocery stores here keep retail hours?  Most grocery stores open for the day somewhere between 9 and 10 AM.  They close about 9 PM.  Of course there are some with extended hours, but they are not near my home and require driving further.  It is really kind of frustrating actually.  I remember when I used to be up, out, done shopping, and home by 9 AM.  People here shop everyday or every other day.  A normal loaf of bread comes with just 6 slices in it, the largest milk you can buy is a quart, and a carton of eggs contains 10.  One the one hand it is nice because your food is always fresh, but on the other hand - who has time to go to the store everyday - especially considering the fact they they are open limited hours.

Aesthetics - Many sidewalks here in my area are wide enough to drive a car down.  Unless you are in an old neighborhood, where there may be no sidewalks at all.  On any given day, rain or shine, there will be an army of (mostly) elderly people maintaining the sidewalks.  This entails the usual - pulling grass from cracks, sweeping away any loose dirt, trimming hedges.  These sidewalks get more attention than any yard of mine ever has!  Cleanliness and appearance are very important here.  The other day I was walking to work from the train and I just totally fell in love with the sidewalks on this one street.  Rather than the hedges or simple stone work that is common here or the lines of trees and thin strips of grass common in America, this city had opened to line their streets with ponds and fish.  Pretty awesome - but more awesome that people are always out sweeping and cleaning, cleaning and sweeping.

Minor differences -
-package delivery - nothing is left at your door.  If the person comes while you are out, they try again later, the same day.
- doggie bags - don't exist.  People just don't take food home from restaurants.
- sneezing - say nothing to the sneezer.  I cannot tell you how many times I've made a Japanese person giggle by saying "Bless you".
- shoes off - it's true - no shoes in homes and in many places of business as well.  Most people have slippers for their guests/customers to wear.  What's amazing to me is that with the number of slippers sold here, I cannot find a comfortable pair...
-cornholing- oh yes, cornholing.  If you are not familiar, lucky you.  School children - mostly boys but not only boys - find it amusing to make a gun with their hand and try to shove it up your booty.  So funny...Now, I spend most of my time with smaller kids - aged 3 to 6.  One would think I would be safe, but no.  There is less cornhole action going on, but nothing is off limits.  Let's just put it this way - there are days that I come home from work and feel like I should have a stack of phone numbers on folded napkins based on the amount of action I got that day.  Here's the crazy part - it's totally fine to have a little guy, all of 4 or 5, steal second base.  As I am trying to protect my assets, the HRT (homeroom teacher) just breathes a sigh of relief that it's not her for a change.