Things I will not miss in Japan/Tottori

I don't want to focus on the negative side of my life here, but there are definitely some things that irk me/I think could be better.
  1. Trash - probably the number one bane of a foreigner's life here. I think I've mentioned before that Japan categorises trash in 126 ways. I always tell Japanese people that it's really weird that there aren't any trash bins around like we do in SG.
  2. bike "problems" - I always feel like killing high school students who insist on riding side-by-side on pavements. I also abhor the fact that Japanese think that using your bike bell is rude, so they rather squeak their bikes instead!?
  3. Retardly expensive fruits & veggies - even if it's something grown locally. A melon is 3000yen, an apple is 180yen, and 4 stalks of asparagus will cost you 350yen. Good thing is the supermarket near me sells frozen vegetables cheaply. But I rarely have fruits ever since coming to Japan.
  4. Eating fish 3/4 times a week - Japan consumes a lot of dark fish at school lunch and I hate it cos it's SO fishy to me. There was once we had this fish in school and it tasted like it was just fished out of the mud that I had a hard time keeping it down. Sorry, only white fish please.
  5. ATMs have operating hours - (again, I've talked about this before, but) the most ridiculous one was when my local bank closed its ATM services during the entire golden week holidays - the time when people need money the most!!! I guess I will never understand why...
  6. The education system - especially when it comes to foreign language learning. It seems that English is just another subject taken just for the purposes of entrance examinations, since it is taught in a very technical way, and there is almost no focus on students' conversation abilities. Another concern that most ALTs face is that there is a big disparity between what is taught in elementary and junior high school.
  7. Domestic travel cost you a bomb - I love Japan and I love prefecture-hopping, but I'm done paying so much to travel within the country for what could get me to another country in Singapore.
  8. Smoking-friendly Japan -  I don't understand why some restaurants bother to have smoking and non-smoking areas when they're both in the same indoor space!!? Also, the government is just encouraging smokers when they have smoking rooms/spaces inside and outside train stations. They should probably take a look at how Singapore bans smoking in certain public areas.
It's funny how I worked on this post after drafting my farewell speeches. Anyway, I still love Japan and these are things I will miss in Japan/Tottori.

5 comments:

  1. Their ATM is not automated and someone is hiding behind the machine. lol

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  2. Haha I agree with so many of these things!!! Especially 3, 7 and 8. Grrr.

    Hopefully it'll make us appreciate these things when we go back home though. That's how I make myself less cross about it anyway!

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    Replies
    1. The thing about smoking irks me most I think. Cos the people here smoke anywhere and everywhere and right in front of babies/young children.

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  3. "Retardly expensive fruits & veggies". Goddamn it, it's true. They say fruit tastes better in Japan -to me it just tastes expensive!

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    Replies
    1. haha indeed! Every time I wanna buy a bag of apples I have to consider carefully!

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