I Think I'm Turning Japanese

My roommate bought a copy of You Know You've Been in Japan Too Long... by Bill Mutranowski last week, and while the bug-eyed cartoons creeped me out a little, some of the jokes were insanely funny for a foreigner just 5 months in on her time in Japan. So I thought I'd share some with you.

1. You say things like "How many families do you have?"
It is the sad truth that after months of teaching English as a foreign language, your own language skills begin to fade. All but my most essential vocabulary has slowly been stripped from my everyday speech. This is for the best during the day, but occasionally, I'll have a high-level student and be unable to come up for the word I'm looking for. "Just a minute, its uh...um...something like espionage, but not about spying..." Good news is, I'm told English skills return when I go home. Now, if only I could improve my Japanese in the meantime.

2. You think a bench, a tree and a patch of dirt constitute a park.
Again, in Nagoya, this is definitely the case. Evey 'large' parks have concrete sidewalks, edifices and fences every few feet to remind you that you are still in the city. As a Japanese friend of mine said when she studied abroad at my university in the States, "laying on the grass is so American!" She enjoyed it, but it generally seems to be a foreign concept in Japan. Not that people don't go outside. There are places to hike, bike, and see the mountains, but you do have to venture out of the city a good way to find them. In the city, concrete is your friend... but luckily cherry blossom season should begin soon and the city parks will at least be bursting with natural beauty.

3. You rush like hell onto an escalator, then just stand there.
Having spent a summer in Boston, this is something I still am not used to, but see everyday. In Japan, 99% of the time, escalators are ridden, never walked up or down. Even at subway stations when people are in a rush to catch their trains or to get to work, the stairs are generally avoided, especially on the way up. Last week I saw a man run onto the escalator to wait until he reached the top. The stairs, just alongside it, would have been about five times faster. My recommendation: Take the stairs whenever you can, in a rush or not. Save some time for other things.

Anyways - these are some funny examples of things you notice in Japan after living here awhile. Some of the jokes in the book are still beyond my understanding, so it will be interesting if when I read it in a few more months if I will discover more things I can laugh along with.