Interesting Things In Japan!

Today we wanted to give you a glimpse of a few things in Japan that we find most interesting!

Have you ever parked your car this way? Parking is always difficult in Japan because there is just no space. This is called a parking carousel! It's more space conscious to build the parking garage up and stack the cars than to have a wide parking garage that we're used to. It seems efficient enough. However, it can be a pain if you forget something in the car.

Only in Japan have I seen places for you to store your umbrellas individually outside of a public place. You place your umbrella in the locking mechanism and take the small key that is inserted thus locking it securely and then replace the key when you return. Of course, this is free. It's also popular to see special plastic wraps for your umbrella just as you enter a store so as not to drop water all over the floor. We could use those in the states.

Can you imagine what this is? In the rice fields that surround us in Okagaki we see a lot of these human like scare crows. They are a little strange because there is a manikin head placed on top of this pole with some sort of clothes. These heads on stakes scare us...I'm not sure about the birds!

If you love Crispy Cream Donuts, then you love the fact that there is one in Tokyo. It's the only store in Japan, so far. People will line up for hours to get these doughnuts. We've seen people walk away with 5 or 6 boxes! The Japanese always say that they don't like sweet American deserts, but Crispy Cream is as sweet as you can get!

It's all about presentation in Japan! The presentation of gifts and food is especially important. Here is a perfect example of a beautifully display of desert. The only problem is that you're left wanting to order another one because there's not much to it.

Yes, this is a tree with paper bags in it! Much of the fruit in Japan is handpicked. So, they don't mind covering each piece of fruit with a paper bag to protect it from insects, weather, and coloring. If you remember when we helped with grape harvest here, the grape clusters were also covered with bags.

One thing that we've found common amongst all the Asian countries we've visited is bicycles! It's very convenient to have a bicycle in Japan. We just can't get used to seeing them lined up all the time. Some have locks and some don't. Also, most of them look like there straight out of the 1950's with a big wire basket on the front. When we were getting our drivers license in Japan there was a section in the book for riding your bike! There was a funny rule that said you must not hold an umbrella and ride your bike at the same time. Now, they should change it to texting on your cell phone while riding a bike. Sometimes we see people doing both! Nick and I are not that talented.

It's seeing strange signs in English or interesting things like these that often remind us that we definitely live in a foreign country.

Interesting Signs In Japan!

Living in a foreign country makes you a great observer of culture. It's always fun and interesting to compare your native culture to the foreign one that surrounds you. We enjoy finding interesting signs that are posted in English. They kind of make you wonder.....

You're imagination can run wild with this Dog Bakery Sign.

We found this sign in a cave. It was used to describe a rock formation.

I've never seen a Parking Lot for Bicycles in the states before.

Our favorite is this sign! We saw it at a Japanese hot spring. It was written to entice people to come in and try the water. I don't know about you, but I don't want enter right into hell!

Pictures of more interesting things coming your way soon!

Fighting Fire In Japan!

We've had many cool adventures with our friends Morio and Yukiko, but seeing the fire boat was the coolest! Nick's parents were with us at the time. Our friend Morio is a fireman and Nick's dad Bob is a retired fireman. So, of course, Morio set up a day of touring different fire fighting facilities. One of those facilities was a fire boat!

There are not many fire boats in the United States because they're usually located in big cities where buildings can be reached with water from the boat! Bob was a fireman in Colorado Springs and had nothing like this. This ship has long water canons that can shoot water up to 100yards give or take a few.
The crew not only let us walk around on the boat. But, they also let us go for a ride in it!! This is not a privledge that everyone has. I think it was a mixture of being a foreigner and being a fellow fire fighter! We didn't get to see them shoot the water though! That would have been the icing on the cake.It was interesting to see the engine room!
This is a picture with the great guys that took us on their boat!We also got see a few of their fire trucks. Yes, they are smaller than the ones that you see at home. We've seen trucks smaller than this one! They look like toys.
Some of the small fire trucks are still too big to go down some of the roads in Japan. They wheel this cart of hose down the narrow street and connect it to the water truck in order to get to the fire!
We also got to visit the fire training center that day. According to Bob, it blew American training facilities out of the water. We got to see some men there doing training on Recee-Annie.

Here's all the firemen together! We always have a full day when we go out with our friends Morio and Yukiko. I'm glad that we got to share this day with Nick's parents!