Some interesting things

So I have spent a lot of time online looking up different things related to living in Japan ever since I found out that I was definitely going.  Mostly youtube "vlogs" (I really hate that word.  When will people stop combining words because they think it sounds cool.  I will refer to these as video blogs from now on.) and the occasional regular blog.  As a side not with this, it does seem to be approximately 397,293x easier to find a video blog on youtube than it is to find blogs anywhere else.  This is a little bit depressing for the small corner of myself that thinks people other than myself will be reading what I write here.

But I digress, back to the point.  I want to say a little bit about interesting things I have learned about living in Japan, which I believe are good to know prior to leaving.  First:  bring deodorant.  Why?  Because, apparently, they don't really use deodorant in Japan.  I assume there is some biological reason dealing with sweat glands in people of asian descent vs. african or european descent, but I really have no idea.  What it means is, however, we smelly Americans will need to bring our own deodorant if we wish to prevent ourselves from stinking up the joint.

Second:  peanut butter.  Apparently, peanut butter is not something commonly sold in Japan.  Now for me, this isn't a huge deal, as I'm not a huge lover of peanut butter.  But it does raise up the idea of something you THOUGHT was relatively common, but really isn't.  I'll most likely be packing a thing of peanut butter since it lasts relatively long and doesn't need to be refrigerated.

Third: Winter Clothes!  This may sound obvious, and vary depending on what area of Japan you are going to, since Japan is a vertical country.  By that I mean is it spans vertically on the map rather than horizonally, meaning the northern half will have very different weather patterns than the southern half.  However, a common thread in construction throughout most of the country (or at least the main island of Honshu).  And that is, since most of Japan is on the more humid side, they have brutally humid and hot summers.  Because of this, it seems that Japanese construction generally leans towards more drafty buildings, to help cool them off in the summer.  Central heat and air are fairly uncommon, therefore, you cannot assume that you can just hang out inside when it gets very cold outside and be fine.  I know I'm bringing a big ass robe for myself, and some awesome old man loafers.

Finally:  CASH MONEY!!  Japan is a very very very cash society.  Apparently, only the very high end restaurants will even take credit.  It is apparently very common to walk around with what we would think of as a lage sum of money regularly.  I'm guessing between 100 and 200$ worth.  Department stores, restaurants, food markets, etc are all cash, so figure out what you would normally spend in a week, and that is probably about how much you would just take out in cash at the start of every week.  Also, as far as petty crime goes, Japan has a very low crime rate.  Apparently, because of how this society works, things like pick pockets and thieves are pretty uncommon when compared to most of ther first world countries.


T-minus 16 days.