What I Don’t Miss About Japan
Lack of Vegetarian Food 🥕
You can live off of convenience store onigiris but you can’t live off of them for too long. Besides, the likelihood of your onigiri being available at all times is slim. (I managed to survive off of seasoned seaweed onigiris, inari sushi and junk, like fries.) Vegetarianism is a joke in Japan but I knew that before coming to the land of the rising sun and somehow made it work for me despite going hungry here and there during my trip.
Lack of Individuality (or the lack of acceptance of it in society)👗
People basically dressed the same. (Think neutral colors, like blacks, grays, whites and beiges.) If I passed as Japanese, I was definitely too individualistic for them with my pinks, blues, reds and colorful backpack. Whatever because I’m not Japanese. And it’s not really my fault that most couldn’t figure out that I wasn’t Japanese and thus had a good reason to be “different”.
The glares 👁👁
I don’t know what is up with a good amount of people in Japan but many tend to have a glaring problem and that glaring was unfortunately reserved for me. I found the glares to be rude. Ridiculously rude. (It was opposite of the so called polite culture I was expecting to observe and experience. Meh.) I really don’t know wtf this was all about since I didn’t go there with blonde hair blue eyes but it’ll be pondered in a future post, for sure.
FYI, I’m using the word glare synonymously with dirty looks.
The other tourists 🎒
I have smack to say about some of the other travelers I encountered in Japan alright but for the sake of keeping this entry as condensed as possible, I’m going to only bring up the tourists from mainland China. Now, I’m not the type to create beef but I just can’t let this go. So, there are a lot of rumors/truths said about mainland Chinese tourists on the web. (If interested, you can google all about it.) I’m not going to talk about that. What I’m going to talk about is how I found it somewhat disturbing that these mainland Chinese tourists would give me and my travel companion a look(s) after hearing us converse in English. There were unfortunately a couple of accounts where things went beyond a look(s) though. I still remember when this girl in front of us scooted herself closer to her companions and even tapped on her female companion to come closer (away from me and my travel companion). Like, wtf.
First of all, you are another fellow foreigner and not a Japanese native. (Heck, you aren’t even Japanese.) Secondly, if you’re going to have the nerve to be afraid of the unknown, why bother to travel in the first place? Stay in the comfort of your own home.
Third, as universal of a language English is, I wouldn’t be surprised if these despicable tourists thought it was some other language. (No joke, since a group of natives actually thought me and my traveling companion were Russian. Russians are beautiful but that’s a different story and I will blog about my experience of being thought of as Russian in a future post. lol) I don’t want to even imagine what language they thought we were communicating in and what ethnicity/race we were based off of the language they thought we were communicating in.
Lastly, I wasn’t loud. If anything, they were the loud and disruptive ones. They only overheard my English because they were in line next to us. These people needed a major reality check.
Excessive Assumptions
If you’re American, you have blonde hair blue eyes. Wrong! But apparently, this seems to be a factual belief in Japan and it’s a damned shame. (Can’t really blame them too much though since they are quite a homogeneous group of people. I leave it up to you to judge on whether that’s good or not.) So what’s the issue with this? Well, it’s a bit of an issue when you can tell they don’t really believe you’re from America… (I should add that in general, I/my travel companion didn’t get asked where we were from but would get asked from time to time when language was too much of a barrier in touristy areas.)
Judged and Discriminated
I mentioned that I’m not Japanese. I’m not but because I suppose I somehow pass as Japanese, I’m expected to know how to speak the language but I know way too little Japanese. So little that I can’t even order properly. And this shouldn’t be my fault since I’m not Japanese even though I “look” native to natives.
So, my efforts in the language are disregarded because I should know better when in reality, I shouldn’t. It’s disregarded because I’m not obviously American or in other words, White in appearance. Worse would be how that White traveler can speak Nihongo a lot better than me, if not fluently. Better or not, praise will fall on the White guy even if he only knows how to say “sumimasen” or “arigato”. Ironic and annoying.
Annoying because I get to experience discrimination while on a vacation. And it’s unfair. I remember experiencing it throughout my time in Nikko and I hated it. I felt so unwelcomed. It was bad. So bad that I was left with a bitter aftertaste in my mouth and actually looked forward to just going back home despite having looked forward to vacationing in Japan for so long.
Crazy Girlfriends 💋
Almost every girl I came across that had a boyfriend seemed batsh*t crazy. In other words, these girls seemed overprotective of their boyfriend or overly worried that some single girl (*cough* like me) would try to go for their man. Sorry to disappoint you, but I do not play that way. If a guy is taken, I will not consider him as a potential date/boyfriend. Even if he’s 100% my type and loaded, I will not consider him as a potential date/boyfriend. You, crazy girl are wasting your time worrying over me. Besides, if you had to worry that much, perhaps the guy you’re with isn’t that much of a great guy. (If he has a history of infidelity, he will eventually cheat on you regardless of whether you work hard to keep girls off of him or not. Heh.) There was this one girl in Tokyo hugging a guy while going up the escalator. Her eyes were on me the whole time. I was like wth. First of all, I’m not interested. Second of all, if you want to try PDA, why don’t you go further (like a lot further) to prove your point? But I suppose you can’t because hugging is already too “edgy” for you. (The most I’ve seen couples do in Japan is hold hands. This girl was something else.)
Traditional Toilets 🚽
I had to use a traditional toilet (aka squatting toilet) once. It’s been so long since I last used a traditional toilet. Not cool. Not fun. I’m way too accustomed to western toilets.
Coins 💴
I ended up with a lot of Japanese coins. It was a nuisance. This was more of my own personal issue, though. Basically, I’d rush to pay for my convenience store meal(s) with either a 1000 yen bill (or a 500 yen coin) in order to not slow down anyone in line behind me. I should have and could have used my coins to pay off my meal(s) purchase but Japanese coins weren’t (and still aren’t) second nature to me and I thus would have taken forever to count out money. On top of that, I’d probably look like an idiot counting money. Not that I’d really care, but… lol Near the end of my trip, I started preparing coins in advance to pay for my convenience store meal(s) purchases. Not sure why I didn’t come up with that tactic sooner. Eh.
Rush Hour 🚊
I will not miss being inside a train during rush hour. You have no idea what it’s like to be crammed inside a train until you go to Japan (specifically Tokyo). If it’s crammed enough with just people, try adding luggage to the picture and imagine how fun that is. So not fun.
Lack of Pedestrian Right of Way
This wasn’t really a big deal for me since I’ve stayed in a country where like in Japan, pedestrians don’t always have the right of the way. In the states, pedestrians are used to having the right of the way, regardless of whether they’re actually right or wrong. Meh. Either way, it still doesn’t change the fact that I get sh*t scared every time I hear a car, motorcylce or bike (wtf lol). Bike, not so much but there apparently is some rule for bikes that I’m unaware of and I know there is some rule since I’ve had two bikers give me a look. (I can assure you it wasn’t because I was so hot that they had to turn around to look at me. Heh, I have a nerve to joke.) I can’t tell you how many times I had to squeeze myself to the edge of the street out of “fear”. You just can never be too careful, you know? And I’d rather not compete against a moving vehicle.
Subtle Perverts 👖
The perverts on the trains exist. I fortunately only encountered two (bleh) but this is something I will definitely not miss about Japan. (I will definitely blog in detail about my encounters with these subtle perverts in the future.)
If you’ve been to Japan, feel free to share what you don’t miss about Japan in the comments below. In a future post, I’ll be blogging about what I miss about Japan. Do be on the lookout for that! 😉