It's been ages since I wrote a post! As many of you know I took a trip to the States. I was there the whole month of February! I visited family, learned about living in the States, discovered some fascinating things about myself, had lots of new experiences, and noticed many differences between Japan and the USA.
I thought it'd be fun to share a few of the things I noticed. I realized right away that I would quickly get used to thing and stop noticing the differences, so I made it a point to try to consciously note things as I saw them.
Here are a few differences between Japan and the US that I noticed during my visit.
Probably the most noticeable was the fact that almost everyone spoke English! All of a sudden I could communicate with ease and I found that I loved it! Thankfully the transition back to Japan hasn't been as hard as I thought it might be. We have lots of people at home to speak English to and my Japanese is very functional so even in the Tokyo airport I found myself talking fairly naturally in Japanese. But I loved being able to make little comments, talking to people in the stores, and knowing how to phrase a sentence or question so that it was softer or more direct according to the situation.
Another thing I noticed right away was the friendliness. People were generally very friendly in the States. I had several random conversations while shopping and I often chatted with the cashier. As soon as I walked into a store, employees would ask, "How are you?" I've found Japanese to be very polite, but I found Americans to be friendly.
The trucks were very different! The American trucks were huge in comparison and had distinct fronts.
The stores were generally so much bigger than Japanese stores! I found it somewhat overwhelming at first. For every item there seemed to be ten different options. Different brand names, different quantities, different qualities, and different sizes. Paper towels alone seemed to take up an entire aisle! There were about twelve different brands of eggs! And a whole row with cases of bottled water. I found myself just picking something, because if I tried to compare prices vs. quantity vs. quality and so on it became far too difficult. I simple had to pick one pack of eggs, any carton of milk, a roll of paper towels and just try it. I had to try to limit my decisions otherwise my brain felt like exploding. 'Just pick one and see' was kind of my motto for this trip. =)
The variety of ice cream at the grocery store was incredible! There was an entire isle of standing freezers full of containers of ice cream! There was chocolate, chocolate with caramel, chocolate with Oreo, chocolate with chocolate pieces and vanilla swirls; there was mint chip, raspberry something, vanilla with all kinds of swirls, chunks, pieces, and toppings! In the Japanese grocery stores there might be two options: vanilla or vanilla with chocolate swirls. Occasionally we find just plain chocolate ice cream. To get the variety we have to get to an ice cream shop like Baskin Robbins. But still there were more ice cream types at the grocery store in America than the 31 flavors at Baskin Robbins in Japan! Wow!
Colorful. That was another thing that stood out to me! Things in the States just tended to be colorful! I walked into a clothing store and right away I noticed all the color! There were bright pink, bright green, brilliant blue, orange, and yellow things hanging here and there all through the store!
When I walked into a grocery store for the first time my first thought was 'big'. It was huge and spacious and colorful. There was an entire corner set aside for fruits and vegetables. At first I was thinking 'Wow! I feel like I could get lost in here!'. But of course I didn't. =)
Another thing that I noticed as soon as I walked into the grocery store was the fact that the apples seemed to glow! (they must shine them) There was something else that was different and it took me a while to figure out what it was. Then I realized that the fruits were all out in the open. There weren't packaged. There were hardly any plastic bags in the whole fruits and vegetables section. In Japan most of the time the fruits and veggies are packaged into groups. I can buy a package of five bananas or ten bananas. In America I could buy just one banana or one apple. It was an interesting observation.
Those were a few things that I noticed while I was in the States. There were lots more! It was really interesting to note the differences and share with friends and family. My trip was fabulous!
