Living 6000 miles away from home for the last 4 months has not been easy, especially without my Japan buddy/best friend by my side like usual. I've missed the big things, like my family, and the silly small things like lemon curd. It took almost a full day of travelling to get there, but as the plane passed over the flat landscape and rows upon rows of ugly houses, I felt a surge of affection for my Marmite-scented, tea-sodden country of origin.
Of course living in Japan isn't all doom and gloom so I wanted to write this post to remind me of the good and bad bits I've encountered so far on my study abroad adventure.
THE GOOD
- It is almost impossible to get bad food in Japan. Cheap chain restaurants, Mos Burger, microwaveable junk you can find in the konbini - however far down the price ladder you go, it will probably still be head and shoulders above some of the hall food available in Cambridge. I won't name and shame any colleges but let's just say I've had some vegetables in hall that tasted like they'd been ethically sourced from the bottom of a bin.
- Public transport is reliable and much less expensive than the UK. The rent for my dorm room is also pretty reasonable.
- 24-hour convenience stores are excellent for those of us who like to stay up well past midnight doing nothing in particular and then have a shameful 3am crisps binge. Shops in general also tend to stay open later.
- Many fun things to do that you can't find in the UK such as karaoke, purikura, cat cafes.
- This is a bit of a subjective good point but there are SO MANY adorable fashions. I almost cried last time I visited Shibuya 109.
- People are nice, helpful and grateful if you speak Japanese. Also it's sometimes quite nice when strangers want to come and chat or take a picture with you. A bit like being a celebrity.
THE BAD
- Not eating meat for any reason makes you a weirdo. Despite everyone's obsession with weight loss there is a lack of vegetarian/vegan options and substitutes for animal products are difficult to find. Gelatin and chicken extract in fucking everything.
- The staring. As a bog-standard white girl with fairly ordinary dress sense, generally no one in the UK gives me a second glance, but in Japan it's difficult to forget you're an anomaly. Children and young salarymen on the train are particularly bad offenders.
- The sense of being an outsider is difficult to deal with at times. Would be much less difficult if people on the street didn't think it was so funny to shout random English phrases at anyone who doesn't look Japanese.
- Weird hatred of card payments. Even the huge international franchise that is McDonald's does not take cards. Why is this??? Given my track record with losing important items I really don't like carrying large amounts of cash around when I have to pay my rent. Also, only 7-Eleven and Japan Post ATMs allow foreign cards to withdraw money.
THE UGLY
- Perverts. Here is a list of my experiences so far:
1. Weird guy whacking off/touching my butt in the queue at Disneyland.
2. Weird guy pulling my dress up and taking a photo at a spa.
3. Weird guys assuming if you're foreign that means you're "easy" and creeping all over you. - Some people have kind of outdated attitudes to women's and LGBT issues. This could probably be a whole post on its own but let's just say I'd taken how liberal the UK is for granted until I came to Japan. Having spent a lot of time in Brighton, a city known for its progressiveness, I couldn't quite believe it when a guy I was chatting to over Line said "I don't have any gay or lesbian friends so I thought it was just in movies". And as a feminazi it gets on my nerve a bit if I go out with a guy and he keeps pulling me out of the way of oncoming pedestrians by my arm. Japanese guys: would you do this to your male friends? I highly doubt it. Please do not do it to me. I am not a blind person and am perfectly capable of moving out of the way without your input.
