SNAPSHOTS
My list of strange and interesting things about this city has been compiling and only slowly leaking out into the blog. In an attempt to purge a few of the more interesting and/or bothersome things about where I live from my mind, I'll give you another snapshot of Shinjuku:

Knock-knees: I have seen so many pigeon-toed, knock-kneed, sissy-stepping girls in this city. I won't go so far as to say "Japanese women in general" walk this way because I don't want to stereotype (more than I already have) and I know for a fact that not ALL women do it. I'm not sure where this problem originates but I imagine that it has to do with one of two things: 1) poor footwear with terrible arch support and bad insoles (a definitely possiblity if you observe the common female's shoes and that these women tend to be those who walk knock-need) 2) a stylization of bizarre feminine fashion walk. I hate to think that number two might be true but it just might, even if on a subconscious level. If these girlies were broght up from kids without having their wacky walking corrected, it just might have evolved into something friends all did together. And it looks horrid and silly. I know, how culturally biased... but come ON.

Loan companies: Once I learned the kanji for "lend" and the names of major Tokyo moneylenders, I couldn't help but notice the signs everywhere, especially at night when they tower over the stations and bars. I don't know what the personal credit history stats are like here, but with the prevalence of loan companies, pachinko parlors and the strange presence of credit-card specific floors on department stores, I really have to wonder.

Icy Bums: In more than one way, this city is full of cold bums. There is, of course, the problem of homeless communities (-- if they're allowed to build houses, are they really homeless?--) but here I refer to the OTHER kind of bum. Japanese houses are typically NOT centrally heated but have either gas or electric heaters in individual rooms for temporary use. Really, similar to my apartment and other rental in Eugene. But here the insulation is so poor that if you exit from one heated room to go to another unheated room like, say, the bathroom, you quite literally just might freeze your ass off.

I'm really grateful that my family has cloth toilet-seat covers. Before, I just thought they were dorky kitch but now I realize (having used the toilet *without* them) that they're the only thing keeping the seats from retaining ambient temperature. Ouch. And taking a shower means undressing in a room that is not only unheated but usually has a window ajar. Ahem. BRR.

Kiddie Molesters: As far as I know, Japan is still considered pretty safe, except for the growing prevalance of obnoxious foreign men and a few gangster hold-ups every now and then. But I guess that kids are in enough danger from repeat robbers/ kidnappers/ molesters that some neighborhoods have taken to handing out pocket noisemaker alarms to all the elementary school kids. Parents seem to be really afraid of baddies carrying off their kids. There are, in fact, signs everywhere depicting scary, looming males (sometimes with knives), waiting to jump out on young boys and girls. I can't really read them but my guess is that they say something to the tune of "LOOK OUT FOR STRANGE CREEPY MEN!!!" Maybe it's a bigger problem than I originally thought.

Pets: Besides lots of ugly, ratty dogs, I've seen few pets in Japan. Some stray cats, a few stray dogs. But most interestingly, the homeless in front of Shinjuku at the bus depot have kept a rabbit in a cage for some time. At night and when it's particularly cold, they move it into the station. Today I noticed that they now have a pigeon in a cage too. Maybe it replaced the rabbit if it passed away. Maybe it was hurt and they're taking care of it. How on earth did they manage to catch it and stick it passively into a cage where it now sits like it's the happiest pigeon on earth?

Personal problems: A friend of mine is taking a class on Japanese medical history offered through the Kokusaibu. In doing research for a recent paper, he discovered a delightful bit of information that he gladly shared with us over lunch, "the prevalence of pads over tampons in Japan is due primarily to the fear and hesitation of Japanese women to touch their own genitals." Lovely, charming but true. There are probably a BAZILLION pad companies here who broadcast dreamy and sensitive ads all throughout primetime TV. But you never see a tampon ad and if you look at your local drugstore, you might only see one or two brands on the rows of shelves covered with different, ergonomically designed pads. I've been satisfied with what they've got, because if you ask me, a tampon is a tampon. But some girls can't find them "heavy" enough and some girls can't find more than boxes of 8-10 for outrageous prices. So much for variety. And heck, I don't care HOW ergonomic a pad the Japanese THINK they can design. I wore diapers once and I'm sure I'll be old and incontinent enough to wear them again someday. The thought of walking around with a sticky, skanky diaper plastered to my bottom while I'm in the throes of an already uncomfortable personal moment is utterly and dissgustingly unappealing. I don't know HOW people do it. There ain't nothing outside of a medical problem that could change my mind, thanks.

Then again, in the same vein the Japanese are a population still resistant to hormonal birth control because of a scare some years back that convinced women it would damage their delicate, Asian bodies. These days the number of women using protection is abyssmally low. Even condoms, the primary method of control, are often used as an afterthought and commonly discarded in embarrasing situations. Abortions are thought a legitimate method of birth control. I don't find this at all liberating, especially since you can "catch" a lot more from casual sex than a baby.

Stupid bicyclists: I know I mentioned bicyclists before, but I continue to be so (un)impressed by them that it's worth mentioning again. We pedestrians, due to a lack of bike lanes, share the sidewalk with bicyclists who: smoke cigarettes while cycling (I once saw two men on one bike doing this), carry umbrellas while cycling (sometimes in the street!), talk on cell-phones while cycling, are inebriated while cycling, balance children while cycling, and are generally incapable of distance percption (fellow with one eye patched and today saw one fellow with one eye obviously blind) while cycling. Hello? Regard for others? No wonder the sidewalks are so crowded. I'm really tempted to get as much in the way of these safety-hazards as possible but that wouldn only make it worse. I've seen at least ten bike/ pedestrian and bike/ car accidents since I got here and it *DOESN'T* surprise me. You won't EVER see me on a bike in Tokyo. Nutcases.

Food: Youd think that because rice is such a common dish here it'd be dirt cheap. Not so. Rice sale in Japan is limited to only certain producers and therefore results in the cost being about 5 times higher than it is anywhere else in the world. Despite that, my family throws away more food each day than I did each WEEK in Eugene. They don't keep their leftover *anything* and that includes rice, which is like GOLD here. They make a big (at least 2-cup) pot of it each day in the cooker... and though some of it is sometimes saved, most goes into the trash with the rest of the leftovers. Bah.

Nutcases: There's a crazy guy in my neighborhood. And he'd really, really like to be my friend. Truth be told, he's not a bad guy and not crazy in a malicious way but he obviously has some mental/ social malfunction that makes him a bit... weird. I first met him at my bus stop when he decided to ask me out. I thought at that time he was just a normal guy being flirty, but since then I've seen him on the bus maybe five times and each time he accosts me with smalltalk until I'm squirming uncomfortably in my seat and have to ignore him to make him go away. The thing is, he doesn't just do it to me... the guy LOVES to talk and will talk incessantly to anyone on the bus. Like I said, he's not a bad guy and he's VERY CHEERFUL but he crosses the lines of social comfort in a way that makes me think he's either a bit slow or maybe schizophrenic. The Japanese tend to ignore him in the same way I eventually do. Many of them don't even indulge his rambling.

I'd actually like to talk to him but I can't understand much of what he's saying except when he repeatedly tells me, in English, that he thinks I'm beautiful. He told me today I should break up with my American boyfriend to go out with him. Then he laughed and said "joke, it's joke," before striking up another, TOTALLY RANDOM conversation with the old guy sitting in front of me. Tres amusing.

Political Incorrectness: I had to explain to my new English client today (kind of a weird guy) that he should not, under any circumstances, refer to African Americans as "negros." He'd used the term several times to ask me about the demographic of America. I ignored it the first time because I thought I'd misheard... and his English is really poor... but then he said it again. At least he learned something at today's lesson. Where he hell did he get the idea it was OK to use the word "negro" in casual conversation? My head still hurts after that...