That's Japan! (Volume 8)

Fighting ninjas? That's Japan!

Delving deeper into the inner-workings of the busy machine known as Japan, the winner of absolutely no awards or accolades-- we expose the truth and make you say- "That's Japan?"; to which I must answer- "That's Japan!".
Manga! - Everyone reads it! Well pretty much everyone reads it. If you are on the train you will see old businessmen, young ladies or boys with either a small manga book in their hands or one of the popular magazines like Jump that features different manga comics. Some of the material can be quite racy too, I was surprised to see a man sitting and reading a rather explicit looking comic next to a 20-something office lady on the train in my first year. I now see it happen from time to time, the bottom line is that people react differently to stuff like that here. In Canada I figure the dude would get a slap or be taken to the cops on a harassment charge.

ShojiNo, not this Lanma

Shoji/Lanma- Most people know the site of the Japanese style sliding door, but few knew the actual name for them- they are known as Shoji. Lanma, yes- it is the same name as my cat- but it actually the name for the style of wall you can sometimes see above the Shoji that looks like it may be decorative, or it may be simply made of porous wood. Sadly I have no picture at present, I'll take one next time I visit Ritsy's mom.
Matryoshka doll candy thing -- boy they do love wrapping the crap out of their candies here. It draws to mind those useless Russian dolls everyone had in their household when they were growing up. You will tear open the bag and find a wrapped up treat. When you unwrap the treat you find more to unwrap. Seriously, in a country that seems to pride themselves on their growing sense of Eco-awareness, they are quite wasteful!
The Hair Net/Sink catcher bit of genius - A number of years back the hairnet industry was floundering seriously in Japan. They offered up a bit of "thank you money" to the main players in the sink manufacturing industry to design sinks so that we are forced to buy refills for the liner in the sink. I have a better idea, don't dump food in the sink- just scrape it into the garbage just like everyone else! (all stories and cynical comments in this bit were completely false in nature)
Goya -- While there are some strokes of genius in the world of Japanese cooking, think about it, look at what they can do with a simple soy bean (miso, soy sauce, tofu, natto and edamame all come from variants of the soy bean)! But this one baffles me! Goya is indigenous to Okinawa and looks like a cucumber with attitude on first look. It doesn't get too much better when you pop it into your mouth, unpleasantly bitter, it makes you regret that you decided to brave it in the first place. But here is the true "that's Japan" kicker-- you find yourself thinking that so many people can't be wrong and you find yourself going back to try it again and again- until you get desensitized to the extremely bitter little vegetable!

A little sarcastic today- you say? Am I growing bitter? Nah- it's just that "that's Japan".