- Want to be a supermodel ? Well you can get the "Model Credit Card" and be on your way.
- Like Aubrey Hepburn ? Well get the Aubrey Hepburn credit card.
- Want to lose weight fast ? Go on the "Micro Diet", just replace two meals with a drink, and you too, can compete in the micro-diet beauty pageant / weight loss Olympics.
- Need some non-prescription medicine, then go to "Drug-Eleven", It is the 24hr Convenience Drug store. Sort of like Priceline in Aus.
- Big chain stores (as they call them here) like Myer, or Dick Smith, play their shop anthem, it is either like some footy song, or a wiggles song. Either way, it is sung by people with high pitched voices, and kind of annoys you in a very short period of time. And shopping centers have their own anthems too. There is a store called , Yamada Denki (Yamada Electrical) and its theme song uses the tune from the old arcade game "Bubble Bobble".
- When you ask a shop, if they have something, that seems obvious to you, and they do not have it, when you ask them "why ?" they seem shocked, that I could ask such a question. e.g.. There is a takoyaki shop that sells takoyaki, okonomiyaki and noodles. You can get them by themselves, or takoyaki and noodles, or okonomiyaki and noodles, but not takoyaki and okonomiyaki, when I asked why the did not sell that combination, the guy looked at me with an expression of "you as so rude, how dare you insult my shop by asking why."
- Don't have time to read a book, have it read to you (on CD or Cassette) 1.5, 2 time faster then normal speed. (there was other info, it could have been even faster, but I am not sure.)
- An apple the size of a grapefruit costs 500 yen, a little over $6
- Credit card transactions go through on one day a month, so if you buy it today, it may not show up till next month. (and you can split them up, and have your expensive item, charged to your credit card over many months)
- For me to travel from the city I am in, to the next major city, it costs me about $14, this is a 30 min train ride. This is also where the nearest ATM I can use is.
- Pork and Beef, are expensive, so to make it cheaper, and look more, they cut it thin. To compare to something in Safeway, sometimes it is like shaved ham, and sometimes like sliced ham.
- Did you ride your bike to the station ? Is it raining ? Well ride home, holding an umbrella in one hand.
- Want to join a gym in Japan ? Make sure you have a nice fresh new pair of runners, to change into when you get to the gym. No shoes that have touched the street are allowed. Walk in, take off your shoes, go to the shoe area, and change into your clean shoes, go into the gym.
- Going to a fast food place, to get "fresh" からげ fried chicken, this involves re-heating some fried chicken that was prepared earlier. Yuck !!!
- Apparently it is "cute" to talk in a high pitched whiney voice (only women do this), I dunno, I just want to say ごちゃごちゃうな!!! (Stop whinging)
- When you take your dog for a walk, it is optional to actually let your dog do some walking.
- In trendy shops, all the shop assistants dress the same, have the same hair and makeup. It is trendy this way, I guess. They look like the singer, Ayumi Hamasaki.
- Before you have a bath, make sure you have a shower, to make yourself clean. Baths are just for soaking in.
- In Diamaru, there are counters, that look like sales counters, with girls standing at them, so when you go to buy something, the girl runs off with your money, and the item, and says wait here (I think). They then run to the cash registers, and returns a moment later with your item, and the change.
- In the 100 yen shop, near where I live, they continually, at about 30 seconds intervals yell out, (in the annoying high pitched voice) いらしゃいませ which means welcome. A few minutes of this, and I wonder why Japan is not a more violent place, I certainly want to shut them up.
- Toothpaste contains sugar.
- Young high school boys greet me in the street, in a kind of stereotypical, black American, TV greeting.
