The Good, The Bad, and The Weird

Hello!

After a long and tiring flight, I finally reached Japan safely on Friday night. I'm now in Okayama City, Japan where I'll be training for my job. I'm staying in a dorm with about 7 other English teachers (all from America). So far, I LOVE Japan. It is really amazing. Everything about it is just bizarre, but so far, in a good way. Let's start with the good:

The Good:

• It's safe
• It's clean
• The people are really friendly
• The food is so good (and I haven't tried any sushi yet)
• It's actually really pretty here
• There are so many interesting things to see and to go to in and around Okayama city
• Technology is way better than in America

The Bad:

• It's pretty expensive. It's very reasonable for food but transportation and alcohol are up there. I mean beer is about 4 or 5 bucks at a bar. It's not too bad but you won't find me drinking 3 times a week.
• There's not much to do as far as nightlife goes. We found a foreigner bar, and I thought it was pretty horrible. It was like hole in the wall, but in a bad way.

The Weird:

(Japan is just about the weirdest place as far as civilized countries go. Mind you, I think weird things are even better than good things. This is what I love about traveling. The weird.

• Green tea flavored everything is everywhere (green tea flans, green tea ice cream, green tea Kit Kats, green tea soda, green tea cakes, green tea donuts, green tea cookies, green tea flavored tea
• Butter flavored potato chips (the foulest thing ever)
• Men are super flamboyant (make-up, purses, more make-up, skinny pants, hidden high heels, lipstick)
• The grunting (Japanese people just kind of grunt sometimes. Sometimes, I feel like I already know Japanese because you know, I'm an expert grunter). For example, yesterday, this guy came up to me and started flexing his muscles at me while grunting. Then, he touched my arms and grunted. Then I grunted and that was perfectly normal.
• People wear halloween costumes (last time I checked, it's not even July)
• Dragon Ball Z and all of your favorite Anime characters are part of the national culture
• Just about everything on TV. Turned on the TV and saw a group of women dressed as weird pseudo super heroes with colorful makeup...grunting at each other.
• Vending machines everywhere. Heck, even at some restaurants, you pay for your food at a vending machine
• Bra and boob bouncing infomercials. 
• Just general perverseness (hentai..weird)
• Arcades with the weirdest assortment of games ever

The list could go on and on....all in all, I love Japan. It's fun, it's new, It's exciting...life is fun right now.

I'm really looking forward to my year here but I already miss my friends and family in Houston and my mom in Quebec. Ok, well Sayonara!