More Likes and Dislikes

Like:  Sleeping in public.  People are so conscientious that they give you your privacy even in public.  It’s common to see people sleeping on buses and trains, diners, park benches, McDonald’s, or just about anywhere.  It's perfectly acceptable and I take full advantage.  Why it is frowned on in America, I have no idea.  I dozed off once in a train station in Philadelphia and a cop woke me up and harassed me, asking me if I was on heroin.  I admit I wasn't wearing my most respectable outift (ripped jeans and a hoodie), but why can't a guy get a little shut eye while waiting for a train?

Dislike:  Climate control in buildings and houses.  There is a serious lack of insulation in buildings in Japan.  Houses and buildings do not keep out the weather or keep in the heat or air conditioning. People suffer through uncomfortable temperatures in resignation.  At times it gets so cold that all the kotatsu, electric blankets and heated toilet seats and electric carpets in the world couldn’t make you comfortable.

Like:  Strawberries.  Strawberries in Japan are healthy, ripe and delicious.  Unfortunately their price reflects their delicious-ness.

Dislike:  The dark, solid, angry lines between appropriate and inappropriate behavior.  In the West they seem to be a little softer and ambiguous, allowing for individual tastes and behaviors.

Like:  Foods.  While I dislike many of the recipes in Japan’s cookbook, and most of all the overall lack of variety (it’s all Japanese food!), there are also a variety of foods here in Japan that I wish were available in the U.S. – mainly snacks.  Even in convenient stores there are a plethora of choices when looking for pastries and other sweet breads.  Onigiri, okonomiyaki, chahan, yaki soba, and cheap, fresh and delicious sushi are also some foods that would be missed.

Dislike:  Kanji.  While I have been studying them religiously, and have perhaps memorized one-hundred or so, I still strongly dislike kanji.  Of the many common and simple kanji I have learned, there are sometimes as many as six, or even ten, pronunciations of the same kanji that I, knowing only one or two, won't understand.