For our last dinner in Japan, we had a special fest with a lot of food and a lot of beer and sake. I was very emotional because the welcome I received from the Yamamoto familly in Japan was extraordinary. I took some funny shots with Hiroaki-san as it is not the custom in Japan to have any form of body contact, even for family members. Mitsuko got her hug too on the next day before the departure.
Mitsuko really wanted me to have some fresh rice for our last meal, so we got some rice bags from the latest crop and went to the rice mill. The rice mill is a do-it-yourself automatic facility where you simply put some money to start the machine and select your preferred setting from highly refined (white rice) to coarser (brown rice). You put the rice with the shells on one side and it comes out as white rice on the other. Fresh rice tastes so good!
In this sporting goods store of Nagano, I tried the biggest Crocs I’ve ever seen. They were a bit off my size.
Common signs of Japanization include: Having a strange feeling of being suddenly taller, being awaken in the middle of the flight to eat some noodle soup in a Styrofoam cup and craving for some more noodle soup once you finally step on the solid ground.
First culture shock: Despite expecting to be a curiosity in this country with relatively few foreigners, nobody appears to be looking at you. You may eventually start missing the more frequent eye-contacts present in other cultures. When meeting other gaijin, don’t be shy, fulfill this need by looking in their eyes as long as you can! It must be a relief for them too. It is very important in the Japanese culture to avoid making others uncomfortable and therefore looking or staring at Japanese strangers should be avoided.
