ob-la-di, ob-la-da

heres some random nonsense about a county thats all about random nonsense:

- they have these restaurants here called izakayas that im confident were set up to suck up money from english teachers. its not that they cater to foreigners or anything...its just that theyre so good. you go with about 10 or so people and just start pointing at pictures of what looks good on the menu. theres a buzzer in your private room that calls the waitress over and then the table goes crazy...5 of those gyoza dishes, 6 of those sushi dishes, 2 japanese pizzas, 2 etamomes, ect. not to mention they just keep bringing beer after beer, and until you know it youre spending over 3000 yen per person. on the positive side, the food is the best japanese food ever (id hope so...it is japan after all) and the beer is surprisingly good. by good i mean that its so light it goes down like water, but im a big fan of the fact that its always served in a frosted mug here.

- when you walk down the main streets in sakae, osu kannon, and fushimi (main shopping districts) the lamposts have speakers that give each street a soundtrack. you think youre in a movie walking down the street or something like that. on a related note, some retail stores have this wierd thing of playing oddly placed music on a loop...ie: this one electronic store kept playing the theme from rocky over and over and over and over again...if i was the staff id go crazy.

- never stop bowing. NEVER.

- everybody here wears black. men wear black business suits; women wear black business suits. you go on the subway and you dont feel out of place because youre white. you feel out of place because you have a green shirt on with a gold tie.

- artists that are more popular here than i thought: simple plan, posh spice, weezer.

- it seems that its typical for a japanese driver to drive while text messaging on their cell phone and watching a dvd movie on the player at the same time. and yes, they do drive on the wrong side of the road.

- everybody is about punctuality. if you start work at 9pm, you start work at 9pm. no exceptions. if the subway was late, the staff at the subway will give you a note that basically explains to your boss why you were late. if work ends at 6pm, you leave at 6pm. no earlier. and for that time you must look busy even if youre not doing anything productive at all. so far, there hasnt been one train, class, bus, whatever....thats been over a minute late. im not sure how they pull it all off, but their standards of professionalism are extremely high.

more later.