photo by author, 30 Dec 2008
On my second day in Japan a friend brought me to a typical variety store. The thing which struck me about this store was its layout. The aisles were just wide enough for me to navigate, and products were packed onto shelves from floor to ceiling. It seemed to me to be a good analogy to something which is a constant reminder of where I am: Japan is a place without much space. Its population is about 125 million people (more than a third of the size of the USA) but they live on islands with total area less than that of California, and more than 70% of that area is uninhabitable mountains. These are things I've learned from talking with Japanese people.
photo by author, 30 Dec 2008
I arrived just in time to celebrate New Years with a Japanese family. They are happy people, and they wanted to heighten my culture shock with food they thought a westerner couldn’t eat – boiled octopus. I ate it in two bites. I had to do it before they got their cameras out. The experience highlights something which I find strikingly different from my own country. In America, it’s rare to eat meat which still resembles the animal it came from. In Japan, this kind of food is common. They expect westerners to be too appalled to eat it!
