Useful or Useless: Surgical masks

Earlier I posted some pictures of people wearing those surgical masks in trains. I used to think that people just use them to avoid spreading germs when one is ill (besides the normal usage of hygienical purposes in medical facilities). I guess it is considered polite to wear one so you can’t be a “meiwaku”, trouble or annoyance causing thing or person. With the society being that the majority does not deviate from the norm, everyone who even as much as sneezes needs to wear one. But it seems I was wrong. People also use them because they think it might help to prevent getting infected with the swine flu after it made its entrance in Japan. Since then, the masks have been sold out in a lot of places. And whether it really helps, no one knows… And I was going to buy a few to take home as souvenirs…

Quiz #2: Practicality

If anyone remembers the first quiz, the channel sequence on my tv included channel number 14 and 42. Yet, the buttons on my remote go up to 12 with no way of accessing those channels directly other than pressing the CH+ button. Why do the buttons go up to 12 instead of having the 9, 0  and -/– buttons? The winner gets the title “Master of remote control practicality”.

Memorable Moment #2: Ramu-san

I think I can finally listen to people call me Ramu-san (Lam-san) and not cringe. Oh I definitely disliked being called by my last name… It only took me 51 days.

Random picture #4: Gaijin

Today I was sitting in the subway on my way home and there was this pack of gaijin sitting there and I thought “Hey, they’re probably tourists… oh wait they’re just my classmates.”. That’s it for today.

Too easy Sebas

All aboard…

the night train!
I got reminded of this old song when I was in the last train of the day a few weeks back. Tokyo has an advanced public transport system with trains and subways having pretty much every location of Tokyo covered. The only thing they don’t cover that well is.. time. Sure, the frequency during day time is great. However, all public transport activity stops around midnight. So how do you get home after a night out from the popular areas of Tokyo to your outer suburb? You don’t. When you miss the last train, you miss the window of opportunity of getting home in time for the normal price. The only other option is getting a taxi which from what I hear is outrageously overpriced. Some people continue partying until the first train or find some place to kill time/sleep like capsule hotels, internet cafes, karaoke boxes, stations etc. Pretty much everyone goes for the last train though, meaning people go out very early. They get home, when we back home would start getting ready to go out.
So yes, this last train is special. Everyone _needs_ to be on it. It’s the 3rd rush hour of the day. Most places people go to during social outings start closing up before midnight and the streets will be crowded with people hurrying to the station. Minor detail: a lot of them are entoxicated resulting in scenes that can not be seen elsewhere. Perhaps worthwhile when you’re out of tourist attractions to visit.

Random picture #3: a FYI

Yeah… just so you know…
if you’re ever in need of some…

Seperating garbage

The Japanese sort their garbage. Thoroughly. According to this page from the municipal ward I live in, we need to sort it in 7 categories. I don’t know what happens afterwards with it but I guess it happens for good reason. I’m also not sure if everyone does it but after having observed this society for over a month, I’m sure the vast majority seperates their garbage. The categories:
Plastic
Combustable
Incombustable
Paper
Bottles
Can
Pet Bottles

So yeah I have 7 different trashcans here in my already miniscule room… well, not really but I guess I should be glad it’s not like this.

Zebra crossings

The Japanese just love them. I take it I do not need to mention THE crossroads near the Shibuya train station. Here are a few smaller ones I encountered so far.

This one looks pretty normal… if it weren’t for the fact that hardly any cars pass these crossroads in the outskirts of Tokyo and the streets are only just wide enough to fit 1 car (they’re all one-way..)

Why make seperate zebra crossing marks when you can just make one huge one?

What can I say? Mini-Shibuya! (Don’t worry, person with the red hooded sweater, I made sure to make you incognito)

Random picture #2: ( o )

No this is not a shop for men.

Ice cream pizza vs 27/m

Old stuff from back in April, starting to run out of topics to post… anyway, we went to eat at this Italian restaurant and this ice cream pizza shown at the entrance caught my attention. Naturally, having been trying out unknown foodstuffs ever since I arrived, I ordered this novelty I had never seen or heard of before. They took their sweet time making it but the result was a pizza which turned out to be more like a pancake with a bit of a crust in the end. Time to prepare: 45 mins. Time to eat: 5 mins. Way to eat: messy. I tried eating it by spreading the ice cream all over the pizza, so every bite would include some of the ice cream. Wrong decision. As the ice cream started to melt, everytime I took a bite from slices it started leaking onto the plate from all sides, my hands had molten ice cream all over them. Why hello there 5 year old.