Things That Have Changed

This is a list of things which I have come to accept as normal, but which I probably would not have done in the United States. There are undoubtedly more, but some of them have come to seem so commonplace that I can't even really remember what they are.

- Wearing a skirt while riding a bike in the middle of winter
In Idaho, I don't think I ever would have ridden a bike while wearing a skirt. However, in the summer it is much too hot to wear pants, and my bike is my transportation to work, so I end up biking in a skirt. And somehow, wearing short skirts in winter has also come to seem fairly normal. Which is why I own about a dozen pairs of leggings now.

- Eating things I can't identify
There isn't really a way around this. If you eat in a restaurant, chances are you'll end up eating something with at least one ingredient you can't identify.

- Only buying as much groceries as I can fit into my backpack and the basket of my bike

- Expecting all bikes to have baskets

- Reading manga slowly
I used to be able to read a normal-sized manga volume in about 15-20 minutes, but here it takes at least an hour. Even then, I don't understand most of what I've read.

- Going to movies alone
At home, it was pretty uncommon for me to go to the movie theater by myself, but here I do it fairly often.

- Expecting to stand out in a crowd
I didn't notice this until I went to Osaka and found that no one really noticed me. I've come to expect people to stare at me.

- Living in a bubble of my own thoughts
Since I can't understand much Japanese, it's incredibly easy to tune out other people's conversations. When I'm on the street, I go around hearing only my own thoughts.

- Using the illustrations on packaging as a main factor in making purchases
If there's no picture on the package, chances are I can't figure out what's inside it. I almost always buy the product with the most descriptive illustrations on it.

- Doing a LOT of things by trial and error
I used to be very uncomfortable going into unfamiliar situations. If I didn't know exactly how to do something, I might just avoid it entirely. That isn't really an option here, so I've ended up using trial and error as a means of learning how to do new things (such as using train tickets).