My new sumo friend. I think he is worried about his upcoming fight. That or he is cross that i am not joining the queue he is trying to create here. Japan is mental.
It is so different to normal life it is hard to know what to make of it. Everything is so odd it feels like you are living in a theme park. First of all since we cannot speak Japanese and cannot read Japanese we cannot understand most of what is going on around us. The Japanese seem to like queueing for everything and it is not uncommon to come across a queue on the pavement, waiting patiently for something, but we know not what. There are so many ques it seems logical to go and stand in it also, as Forest Gump said, `it probably cant hurt no-one`. There are so many things we don't understand, like why do almost all toilets have heated seats, and little buttons that say, `flushing sound` and `strong deodoriser` but then there is no soap at the sinks?
The Japanese also all seem to have an individual sense of style and identity and people look unique and cool. Wearing anything seems to be the rule, and no-one stands out or actually, everyone stands out. They don't even seem to have to match with their friendship group, you will frequently see a girl in a Kimono, looking all traditional and ever so pretty, walking along with her normally dressed friend or boyfriend.
We have tried to get on with all the traditional Japanese things, drinking green tea, singing Karaoke, spending a day at the sumo wrestling, renting empty rooms with straw matting floors and a knee high table (took us a while to work out that the bed rolls were hidden in a cupboard for us to get out later). We have also tried out the public baths, which has been tricky since i don't like public nudity (well, my own nudity in public places (its a survival technique)) and try as i desperately may, no baths let you wear anything. However the latest hotel we are at has its own baths in the basement and its not very busy, so rushing in, trying to relax and rushing out again, allowed me this experience completely alone.
My only two complaints with Japan are- why are the Japanese so damn respectful and quiet all the time, but then try and run you over with their bike on the pavement. Apparently it is not rude or shameful to your family to maim a stranger or cause serious bodily injury if you are in transit on your bike.
The second complaint is purely my own, but its tough (sob) to be a western girl in Japan. All the Japanese girls are not only pretty, but slim, and in a way that we cant get, even through a chopsticks water diet ( all the water you want all day so long as you use chopsticks to drink it). So i feel like a clumsy elephant all the time, and with my persistent (endearing) addiction to tripping over imaginary items on the pavement all the time, i cant help but stand out in all the wrong ways. However it is refreshing to be somewhere for once, where they don't think `west is best` and they wouldn't sell their kidneys to be you, in fact they would probably sell them not to.
(Prime example of this, i just went downstairs to check my washing in the machine, opened the top to see what was going on, in a cool way, as someone was watching. This stopped the machine and probably caused her frustration as she was waiting for said machine. Luckily after a few, painfully long minutes where i whistled and acted unbothered, it started working again. Then for the next cool move i opened the tumble dryer located conveniently, at head height, above the washer, hitting my eyebrow hard with the door in an effort to force the magnetic clasp. How do you recover from this? say `ow` and act like nothing happened.
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