We all look alike...

Alright, you know you're guilty of it too.... You think all ethnically different people look alike...sometimes, but never this bad.

Japanese people always stare at foreigners. Well, let me correct that statement, they stare at my friends....the men do stare at me, the women laugh and point at me and sometimes even poke. It's really amusing!

I was talking to Lena on gmail-chat earlier, and before I left--since we just new phones--I promised to take a picture of something funny to send to her. Sure enough, I was amused for the entire 10 minute walk, but I picked just one thing: a giant sign with a pizza and an inscription reading, "TAKE OUT OK!" Maybe that's not that funny to you, but the pizza had leaves of some sort (not spinach) and a smear of jelly-looking sauce, and to boot, the inscription gives me deja vu to kids classes where we have to say a really clear and exclamatory, "ok!" with a thumb-to-index finger gesture to everything to make sure the kids understand (heehee adults sometimes do this to show they understand). A thousand Japanese stopped and stared at me along the way, it's a symbiotic relationship.

Anyhow, now the funny story. Paul is studying for the MCAT which he will take in August. In addition, he's the membership holder on our Costco card. We split a membership with a couple from Maryland in March, and have been happily using our half every month. We don't know about them. It's one of those friendships that you think you'll keep. You know the ones: you meet someone at an orientation, you think--maybe even suconsciously--that hey, I better start making friends, I'm the new kid. Hey, they're new kids, too, we can be friends even though we have nothing in common except that we both know what Costco is, we have no idea of the relative distance between our homes. Anyway, we stopped calling them, and them us, so we don't know if they use their half.

Paul couldn't go to Costco, but our friend Ian, and I needed to go, so Paul coerced us to go pretending Ian was him. It's a long way, and quite a gamble. We have to take a 15 minute train, switch trains for 5 more minutes, then a 15/20 minute bus ride, which, by the way, I've written both music and lyrics to the jingle for the bus. The bus is run by this French Walmart-type store. It buses people free to it's gigantic mall conveniently next door to Costco. "Carrefour, drivin' 'round the corner, Carrefour, coming to pick you up..." It's cheap, though, since it's just one stop from where Ian and Paul work and Nova reimburses us for travel, they just pay the difference (Oh, and I posed as Paul with his taiki for that little trick. Thanks Nova!)

Well, Ian and I got through the door ok....we just sweated enough to be cold in the heavenly a/c of Costco. We ate some American-sized food...ahhh.....then went for an hour-long shopping spree, filling up our basket, agreeing to split this and that. We didn't think about our next feat until we had the basket full, then we got a bit nervous. We "naturally" placed our groceries on the conveyer belt and Ian walked through to hand the woman his card. She started saying "blah blah blah address?" in Japanese.....(he knows some Japanese) and he responded, appropriately he thinks, "no". She was insistant, though about the "blah blah blah," which, I guess he didn't catch. She called the manager over.

She talked to him, we sweated, he looked at the computer, grabbed the member card, looked it over for a couple seconds and stared right at Ian. He handed us this card that they always hand us. It's this form for "international" members. We always have to explain how we started the account here. Then he grabbed the card again, and asked, "have you changed you address since you've been here?" Ian said, "no" trying to just move on, and I said, "yes." It was really funny. Anyway, he said to just change our address at the membership counter.

This is the real Paul, just in case you can't tell....
This is not Paul.....


Well, the rest of the story is that Ian and I each got a roasted chicken. It's horribly rude to eat in public in Japan, but we figured, most people must carry their groceries home on the train, right. The whole way home, people were staring at us. Usually, they look and stare, but quickly look away when you look. This time, they didn't stop--they actually looked offended! They weren't talking to each other about us--that's pretty normal, but they were staring. At one point, while Ian and I were sitting across from these two staring men, and we decided that it was possible that something was on the "wing" behind us (heehee, get it?), so we both looked behind us, nothing! Heehee.....it was amusing the whole way home.....the giggles the stares and the pokes.....

That is soooo Japanese....

Have I already titled a post this? If not, I should have. I can't say Paul and I had any culture shock, really. We weren't THAT surprised by anything, but I have to say that the longer I'm here, the more that shock hits me. Mostly, it's funny.....but sometimes it just bothers.... Many of you have asked for a quick generalization of 'how it is' from time to time, and I just usually say, "well, it's strange, stupid, and just what you'd imagine.....then there's somethings that you would never have imagined...."

I saw the funniest thing ever....the thing that I have to say was the most shocking, and sooooo Japanese.... I wished so much to have lost that little angel on my shoulder for a couple seconds just so I could've snapped a shot of it. Paul and I were walking down an arcade--a covered walkway that functions as a mall, stretching between stations--late at night when I saw a bum. Bums don't really stand out too too much here. I think it has a lot to do with the crazy propoganda these people are fed and then feed to us about not ever seeing bums, and how every man is for himself. Anyhow, this bum was truely Japanese--he had an MP3 player....heehee I had to look twice....

Now, for a less light-hearted "sooo Japanese" story. Today, Paul and I went to get cell phones. We held off for as long as we could, because we didn't and still don't see them incredibly necessary as we have about the same schedule, we live in walking distance of everything we need to get, and so on. We had to get them just now, because I'm about to apply for a job, and I need a phone number for the application. It's sort of a dumb reason, I know, but we saw no other way. Normally, we put our corporate office number on things, but obviously, that won't work here. Anyhow, I think I may have mentioned at some point my frustration with Nova for not using computers...for teacher's easy, but also just for their practical use in keeping records, for example. Well, banks don't use computers, either...they keep records completely on paper! Well, to add to that, you don't just carry around your ever so trusty signature, but you must carry your "honko" (a stamp with your name in katakana--the phonetic alphabet used to write foreign words) to every signature-necessitating event such as setting up as bank account. Did I mention it takes like fifty years because of these two sooo Japanese points? Our little day trip to get phones lasted...I me is lasting...way longer than it should take any visit to any business in which customer service is important. Well, at least they gave us juice. Soooo, Paul doesn't know where his honko is. Who cares?! You can get a new one made for just 5000 yen (ok, so maybe you can get a new one cheaper, but most people buy crazy expensive ones). Anyhow, we just learn not to carry around important-possible-identity-stealing-aides where I'm from....how often do you carry around your birth certificate?? We don't have phones, but someday, if we're lucky, we may get these. Until then, Paul and I will live inefficiently--waiting for each other, just missing each other, and so on.....