50 things which surprised me when I was in Japan - Part 3

   Hello everyone ! It's been a while since I didn't write in English, isn't it ? Today, I wanted to share with you 10 supplementary things which surprised me during my trip to Japan. 

1.     Tea, tea and tea

   As a complete teaholic, I was really excited to come to Japan ! It is not a cliché : Japanese people do drink a loooot of tea. For breakfast, after your meal, in the middle of the afternoon, while eating, ... All the occasions are good to take a good cup of tea. The most famous one is green tea. Macha, Sencha, ... Japanese green teas are really tasty ! My host-mother, knowing that I really loved her tea, was filling me a bottle of hot green tea she had just made, every single day, so that I could drink it all day long.

Look at this wonderful japaneses-style teapot !

   Furthermore, in restaurants such as ramen ones, in which people have their own little compartmentalized place, you can make your own tea thanks to a tap giving you hot water, and a small box full of green tea powder !

    As someone who doesn't really like to do like everyone and falling in love with all the American stuffs, I didn't really like Starbucks... Nevertheless, my host-mother told me that I had to test their Matcha Latte in Ôhori Kouen, because it was really delicious. Therefore, I did. And, oh my god, it was... REALLY delicious ! So delicious that each time I see a Starbucks, I manage to get myself a Matcha Latte.

2.     "I'm tall"

   This is not a secret : Japanese people are not really tall.

A shopping-mall close to Kushida shrine

   In France, if you are not even 160cm tall, then, you will probably feel small like me. But, if you come to Japan, you are just going to feel like you are normal ! Ironically, this is the truth. Obviously, some people are tall, like in Europe, like anywhere, but people in Japan has this tendency being smaller than us.

3.     Shrines & temples

   There are a lot of shrines and temples everywhere in Japan. They can be lost in a small street, close to a road, big or small... Japanese people have a really strong bond with this kind of places. They often stop and pray when they see one.

   Some shrines are very famous. When I was in Fukuoka, I went to Dazaifu Tenmangu. It is an enormous shrine in which people come to pray for the success of their exam, or to have luck in their job seeking.

A beautiful shrine in Fukuoka

   In shrines, there can be various ceremonies. To pray, there is a specific way of doing things. You have to follow 2 steps :
   1. Purification : you have to wash your mouth and hands with the water, and then to wipe them.
   2. Prayer : you have to put a coin in a trunk, make the shrine's bell ring, lean over twice (as if you were greeting someone to who you have a lot of respect) and then, to draw the god’s attention, you have to clap your hands, twice also. Finally, you lean over again, to make your prayer.

4.   Robbers ? Doko ?

   Here is a speciality of Japan : compared to other countries, the number of robbers is really low. The number 1 rule that everyone teaches you when you say that you want to go to Paris is : ALWAYS keep your eyes on your bag. You do not need to apply this rule in Japan. You can let your bag, money or anything somewhere, if, a while after, you come back to this place, you will see that what you left is still there. I call that : the magic of Japan.

5.     One bike, Two bikes, ...

  The first means of transportation that Japanese people use SHOULD be bikes. Seriously, if you walk on the street, you will either cross the way of a hundred people riding bikes, or see parkings dedicated to bikes, with another hundred ones.

6.     "Why don't you take public transportation ?!"

   When you ask people how you could go from a point A to a point B, they often tell you to take this bus, this underground, this train, etc., … Furthermore, Japanese people almost all own a card that allows them to use public transportations without limits.

Funny underground

   Japanese buses are really respectful toward environment and they are equipped with a start-stop system, which really surprised me, as I thought the driver was stopping the engine each time he stopped the bus. I live in campaign, forgive my ignorance ^^’

7.     Seat belt ? No, thanks.

   My penpal’s family brought me, two weeks before I left Japan, in that famous Dazaifu Tenmangu I was talking about previously. They picked me at my host family’s appartment. I sat in the car, between my penpal and her brother, and, when I began to put the seat belt in its notch, he looked at me and said : "Oh, don’t ! You don’t need to". I was almost shocked, because in France, wearing a seat belt is compulsory, and if you don't, you can get a fine.

8.     Traffic lights

   Traffic lights are not where they are supposed to be. Let me explain : in Europe, we are used to the fact that the traffic is just when you have to stop when it turns red. Let’s picture that you are on a road A, and that, at some point, there is a road B crossing that road A. The traffic light telling you either that you have to stop or to keep going, is not before the road B, but after.

   For me, it is as complicated to explain as it is to use.

9.     "What's that sound ?"

   If you already walked on the streets of some big cities in Japan, you may have heard some lovely melody (or just a random « beep-beep »). This sound is coming from the lights of the zebra crossings, and its use is to indicate blind people (or, maybe the ones who are constantly looking at their phone and not where they are going) when they can cross the road or not.

10.     Yellow lines

   There also are yellow lines all over the pavements. These ones are also made for blind people, to indicate them where they can walk. That’s a pity that this system is not existing in a lot of countries, beside Japan.

   I hope you had a great time reading these 10 other things that surprised me in Japan ! What did you think about it ? Did you already know them ? Tell me that in the comments !


A~