the one glass...whereas myself, I could drink roughly 12. It baffles me! Then again, they have amazing vending machines full of all sorts of delicious normal-sized beverages, but for some strange reason they believe that NOBODY should be that thirsty while eating. That being said, my sister should definitely visit Japan because she'd be in heaven; that lady can go an entire meal without drinking...sis, perhaps you're half Japanese and we never realized? ;) Anyway, I was emailing a friend about McDonald's (btw at McD's here you get a US kid's size cup for your regular value meal...and don't go thinking you'll get a free refill cause you won't) and this inspired me and got me to thinking just how odd it is that Japanese restaurants have this strange everyone-is-a-5-year-old size glass trend. In fact, the only place that I have eaten here that I was satisfied water-wise has been Coco's Curry...and not because the glass itself is so big (think kid's juice glass) but because they graciously give each table their own pitcher of water! Thank goodness for spicy foods, otherwise I'd thirsticate. Yeah, I said it.
The second petty thing that irks me about Japan is *some* of their drivers...before I get into the bad stuff, let me list a few good things that I have learned here that I think will make me a more courteous driver when I return to the US: the use of the emergency flashers to "thank" other drivers. We've all been there, you let someone in front of you and the JERK doesn't even glance your way or give you a half-hearted wave to say thanks
and you're like "you know what, eff you, man cause that was 8 seconds of my life I just gave you to get in front of me and for what? You didn't even half-wave at me!" and whatnot. But here, they just quickly flash their emergency flashers at you to say thanks...and it's genius and pretty much cannot be missed (unlike a wave). And it's fun to be a gaijin visitor here and to be in the "club" so to speak and do my own thanking of other Japanese
drivers. Anyway, now to the bad stuff...the drivers here pretty much stop anywhere they want, even partially (or occasionally completely) blocking a lane of traffic and feel like this is OK as long as they have their flashers on. Ummm, OK, I realize sometimes it is a royal pain in the butt to find parking in this country (at least the free kind) but this is kinda out of
control. When you have 3 lanes of highway-speed traffic, don't freakin make everyone in the far left lane have to merge over because you need to use the phone (and it's illegal to talk on the phone and drive here, so they just stop wherever and make their calls). This past weekend I did the driving as per usual and I can remember at least twice where I had to semi-Fast &
Furious drive around random a-holes who decided outta nowhere to just park in the lane in front of me. Not cool. And I would include the overall traffic in my list of irks, but it's a city of 35 million people...they ain't all staying home.
The third gripe would have to be the lackluster air-conditioning in businesses. Yes, I realize this is a luxury, but it's one that most of us fortunate Americans have grown accustomed to and when you take it away from us (or give us a slight breeze when it's 90 something degrees out) then we are gonna gripe. At least this hot-blooded American is. Now, I have been like 2 or 3 places where the AC was just about exactly right, but for the
most part, alllllll the establishments pretty much have the temperature set to "Egg Frying" and that seems to be acceptable to most Japanese people. It is strange, in a country where they are so extremely customer-service oriented that this would occur in businesses. For example, we were at a mall this weekend near Yokohama (hugely popular area right on the Tokyo Bay) and
while the main area of the mall was really nice and cool, the FOOD COURT was like a million degrees...seriously, everywhere you looked there were people eating steaming hot bowls of ramen while fanning themselves. It was crazy. It might have been slightly exaggerated because I was already really hot and tired but I found myself kinda sick to my stomach trying to eat warm food in
such a hot room, but I struggled through. Also another American trait I possess...struggling through nearly impossible odds to get my lunch eaten. ;)
Despite these petty things, there are so, so many good things about this country...the people are so very friendly, almost all the road signs are in English as well as Japanese, they have English menus pretty much everywhere, and they are very welcoming towards us. We have come to feel like this truly is our home for these years that we are lucky enough to be here. Despite all this, it was a really great weekend with the kids, exploring Yokohama and swimming at the Rainbow Pool...all dehydration, annoying traffic, and lack of air conditioning aside. Hope yours was great too!!
Much love as always,
J+L+C+M+A+Pepe+Kitty :)
PS. Please enjoy some random pics from our past weekend :)
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| J & kids in Yokohama :) |
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| I think they have a cream for that... |
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| Ash posing w/Herro Kitty glasses :) |
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| I've often pondered on where exactly the Dimension of Infinity is. Found it! |
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| Right next to the Cup O Noodle museum...amazing view of Cosmo World Amusement Park :) |
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| Entrance to the Cup Noodle Museum |
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| In the "Design It Yourself" area...adorable Japanese boy obviously enjoying his art |
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| The kiddos coloring their cups |
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| Morgan showing off her art :) |
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| You got to pick your broth flavor and 4 add-ins...almost 6,000 possible combos! |
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| J & M enjoying the choices :) |
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| Friendly Japanese fellow snapped a pic for us :) Us in the Noodle History Cube |
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| Cup Noodles, anyone? |
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| This was so fun!! |
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| In the Cup Noodle Art area |
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| What did you do??!! |
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| Ashley had SO much fun on this ride...all by herself (no, seriously, she was the only kid on the ride). Best 300 Yen spent all day! |
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| Loving the "windblown" 'do |
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| Finally riding the ferris wheel after walking around it all day! |
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| So glad we got to see it all lit up! |
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| Beautiful!! |
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| It's only good for a month so we had to eat it right away (ok, we waited til lunchtime on Monday)...this is Connor's seafood mix: seafood broth, crab, shrimps, green onions & corn |
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| L's was curry broth (sooo good! never had it before), little adorable chickens that really had no flavor, corn, green beans & cheese (it was really good even though it sounds random lol) |
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| You know you want one. |
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