Hello dear readers,
Since my arrival in Japan last week I've expierienced loads of new things and I want to give you a brief insight of what happened till now.
For new readers, I'm currently on a gap year and I wanted to visit Tokyo for a few months to get a deeper look into the life of japanese people since I've always been interested in their culture and lifestyle.
Even the way from the airport to my apartment was an adventure. The train- and underground stations were extremely crowded but at the same time surprisingly clean. Every train arrived on time and the public transportation network is so much bigger than everything I've ever seen.
From what I've seen and heard japanese schools start and end at the same time each day and most of the students are wearing school uniforms feels quite unusual for an austrian. One of the hardest things is to make friends and meet people because of the language barrier. The biggest problem is that the japanese language is so different to western ones that most of the japanese people are'nt even able to pronounce most of the english words correctly but sometimes it can be really funny to watch.
One of the main problems I've experienced is that the apartment costs in Tokyo are so much higher compared to Austria and they are also much smaller. That's why a large percentage of labourers in Tokyo are commuters from outside the big city.
The main difference between Tokyo and Vienna, I think is, that there are not much big supermarkets but large fish markets and small shops and noodle restaurants where they have wax-meals in their display to show the customer how their food looks like before they even order it. I've never seen such things in western cities and I think this is a great idea.
Well, eventhough most of the things I mentioned were positive I also want to show the dark side of living in a megacity like Tokyo. You dont even need to come to Tokyo if you have claustrophobia 'cause it's a heavily crowded place. Also a disadvantage is that you always have to be aware of pocket thiefs and other petty criminals and tourists are perfect targets for them 'cause they cant notofy with the police and other inhabitants.
All in all I'm very impressed how they manage it day for day to maintain such a big transportation system. It's a great place to live for now but will it be for a long term?
Stay tuned and find it out in my next blog entry where I will have had my first day working as a manga seller and much more...