in Japan

Things that are expensive in Japan:

Batteries
New clothes (As opposed to used ones. Used clothes do not have the "thrift" connotation as they do in the US)
Heating oil
Gas
Electricity

You can tell that you would have to live differently from how you live in America, if that's where you live. Actually, I should really be prefacing the list with "Things that are more expensive in Japan than they are in the States," because there's no doubt in my mind that all these things are higher. Of course, it all comes down to negotiation on the oil prices, right?

But note the first one. That's what spurred me to write this. If you buy 100-yen batteries here, you suffer the consequences. I still have not learned my lesson on this, and these batteries run out in I swear 1 hour of camera use. The same is true for 100-yen toothbrushes, and I finally figured that out about a fortnight ago (lol, I wrote "a week" at first and in the next sentence realized I needed to change this, so I decided to make it so I'd only change one word). I got a 555-yen (or so)toothbrush and it's still there, in good shape. Awesome. How come they don't last this long for me in the States? Maybe those wholesale deals really are a ripoff...

Well, I finally got expensive batteries (ugh, it's like $1 a battery) and they should do well; we'll see. But you see, in this society that we perceive as being one and the same with its progress in technology, or rather as having becoming completely integrated with its technology and reliant on communication, life, and spirit through it, or whatever, well... there's more to this picture than that. Especially after you marry or get a job. Then, everything, EVERYTHING changes.

What a split in Japanese life, from the life of cramming I see with high schoolers to the life of laidback days and slight excess (+ part-time job) that I see with college students to the half-life of work and the half-life of family, that is, the man taking the work half and the woman taking the family half, with neither really getting what Westerners would think they should of the other, or at least that's the normal situation here. And yet it goes on. It's a pretty solid foundation, at least until the earthquakes come. And of course, that goes without saying; how often can you predict an earthquake? But it needs to be said. It really looks like Japanese society will continue to be what it is for a long time, because it seems so efficient and it works so well. But who knows? Big things happen.

I really wish I had things more specific to say about things I've seen, places I've gone. But for some reason those aren't as easy to write about. I mean, they've been great, but still.

I did have some great conversations with Tim today, but I can't remember any of them. I especially can't remember the ones about Fushimi-inari, which fate led me to a second time today. Well, it would be more accurate to say fate led me here today because we really didn't know that the mountain we wanted to climb with an orange gate on it was the mountain with many, many, many orange gates on it. Hmm, what did I think about when I was there?

Well, what do I think about it now? It's great. Orange gates. In Japanese, they're called red gates. I don't know why. The fox statues aren't nearly as scary as the random cats that you can find pretty much everywhere. Apparently, there was one with red eyes that Tim saw that was sick. I didn't look.

One thing I do realize is that I'm feeling more at home or rather at one with the fall season now, with the cold temperatures. They seem to be helping my body rather than wrecking it as I thought they would. There's a heater in my room, but I don't want to use it anymore; it was bothering me. I've heard that heaters and air-conditioners aren't actually good for you because they throw big fluctuations in temperature at your body, and they're especially not good for you if you don't clean them regularly.

I'm tired now and I'll log off and think more about this tomorrow. If there are any profondeurs (yes, it's French) that I reach tomorrow, I'll let you know, and good night.

Alex