the bad/weird stuff about japan

last week i learned that there`s an earthquake somewhere in japan every 5 minutes. it`s true. and up here in hitachi there seems to be one every other day. last week there was a big earthquake, about a 6 on the richter, followed by a typhoon that hit the tokyo area pretty badly. being on the coast, we felt the effects too and i only tried once to leave my room on saturday...okay it was three times because i was curious. it was pretty scary though since ive never even been near a hurricane before and didnt even know what the evacatuation protocol might be and i kept seeing all these news reports of people missing, dead, or evacuated. There really are no `safe from natures harm`havens in japan-not even tokyo is exempt.

ironically though what scares me the most are these country streets. its a city of like 300,000 people but there really are no sidewalks just these very very very narrow footsteps that hardly seem safe from the notoriously bad drivers zooming down these winding, up-hill, down-hill, narrow roads. one of the guys in my group gave me his bike my second day in japan and based on the above description of driving in japan you can understand why i still havent ridden that bike anywhere and i probably won`t ever. i have to remind myself to look right first instead of left, jaywalking in japan is extremely rare; cars have the right of way and they rarely stop at the pedestrian crossings.

other things from my first 2 weeks in japan:

lots of security in hitachi research land--even before the bus enters the main gate, someone boards to check everyone`s id...it`s a city within the city surrounded by mountains...one of my colleagues called it a prison because at the end of the workday there are only 2 buses back 5:35 and 7:20. but the views from the labs are amazing.

no privacy in japan--no cubicles or private offices (except for the top top people) just large open rooms and desks lined together and back to back. my boss is to my left and his boss 2 ft from him. no public or desk phones everyone carries company cell phones and when they ring everyone can hear your conversation. when i get my company phone next week atleast i can create some privacy by talking in english.

vending machine cigarettes--still surprising to me what they sell in these ubiquitous machines...even in the most country areas there`s a machine or 2 or 3 on every street.

there are 2 japanese hair salons that i see almost everyday and one of these days ill be tempted to go in one of them and ask them to do my hair mostly just to see what the response is. i read somewhere that dreadlocks have become popular amongst the shinjuku crowd. i even saw a japanese pop star on tv with dreads. ill have to do some research... maybe i can get my hair braided.