One of Ours

It is interesting to observe the differences between Japan and the U.S. For one thing, it's an accepted concept that American companies usually "stick to their knitting" and only make products you'd expect them to make. Dell makes computers, and Ford makes cars, and if Ford started making computers we'd all wonder what they were smoking. But in Japan, it's quite common for companies to enter a wide range of businesses. You know Sony for their home electronics, but in Japan, Sony is also famous for life insurance, online banking and high-end make-up products. Building homes is big business in Japan, and companies like Panasonic and Toyota own companies that build homes under those brands -- there's even a builder called TBS Housing, operated by the Tokyo Broadcasting System, of all people. Mitsubishi is famous for their cars, but they're also busy making trains and home electronics and selling securities, and they are the leading manufacturer of pencils in Japan. All the big beer manufacturers have booming soft drink businesses on the side, so Coca Cola decided to try this process in reverse: they've introduced their first alcohol free beer, called Sky Malt, in the Japanese market.

As a man, living in Japan means being at peace with having women around you when you're in the buff. While some may have the impression that men and women bathe together regularly in Japan, kon'yoku or mixed bathing is actually very rare these days. However, there's an unwritten rule that female staff may enter the men's public bath to clean at any time, despite the natural state of all the men bathing inside. Usually the women are "obasans" (older women in their 50s or so), but every once in a while an attractive younger woman will come in to straighten the buckets or check the bath temperature, causing the occasional dash to hot water by gaijin who shall not be named. Bathing in public baths (sento) and hot springs (onsen) is a fun part of life in Japan, and something my family and I are big fans of. By and large, being in the buff in front of others is something you don't give a second thought to -- it's just part of the culture here.

Memorizing the names of the months in English must be difficult for Japanese, but it's easy going the other way -- the months in Japanese are all just numbers followed by the kanji for month (e.g. ichi-gatsu is January, ni-gatsu is February, etc.). They get their revenge, though: although the days of the month in Japanese are expressed with numbers, just like in English, there are special names for the first ten days of the month, which must be memorized, always a chore for gaijin learning Japanese. The days of the week are interesting, too -- each is associated with a kanji that represents the original European origin. The days of the week are Getsu-yobi (lit. "moon day"), Ka-yobi ("fire day" since the first character for Mars is "fire"), Sui-yobi ("water day," from the Japanese name for the planet Mercury), Moku-yobi ("wood day," from Jupiter), Kin-yobi ("gold day," from Venus), Do-yobi ("earth day," from Saturn), and Nichi-yobi ("sun day," from good old Sol).