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Changes to your lifestyle since living in Japan

Wow, 5-toe socks? I wouldn't have believed if you hadn't posted the picture.

Looks like they are hard to put on, though.
 
Once you get used to them, they are very easy to put on. They're the most comfortable things in the world to wear and I firmly believe that anyone who tries wearing them for a few days in the summer will never want to wear regular socks again. I haven't even owned a regular pair of socks for at least 15 years now, and find the idea of wearing them sort of disgusting.
 
I havent had a good fart in about 2 years. I had to stop when getting a Japanese girlfriend. The first few months were hell. I would wake up about 4am with really bad stomache pains unable to move and get up to get it out my system. I think my stomache has evolved since then an i no longer have the pain or fart so much.

Its hard to start with though. Do you hold it in and begin to cry. Or do you leave the room every 5 mins in which case everyone seriously starts to worry. Or do you hope that you can pull it off silently and then act discusted with everyone else when a funny smell floats about the air.

On the beer note. How many kinds of beer does a Japanese pub have??? Just Asahi or sapporo beer ?? No stella??
Or is it just random luck you get the one you want?
 
Tim33 said:
I havent had a good fart in about 2 years. I had to stop when getting a Japanese girlfriend. The first few months were hell. I would wake up about 4am with really bad stomache pains unable to move and get up to get it out my system. I think my stomache has evolved since then an i no longer have the pain or fart so much.

Its hard to start with though. Do you hold it in and begin to cry. Or do you leave the room every 5 mins in which case everyone seriously starts to worry. Or do you hope that you can pull it off silently and then act discusted with everyone else when a funny smell floats about the air.

No, what you do is come to grips with the fact that she's both heard and smelt farts before, and hearing and smelling them from you won't shatter her world.

But on a more practical note, go ahead and deal one....but pretend that it slipped. First farts cause more awkwardness and apprehension than first kisses ever did. And like kisses, the second and all subsequent ones come much easier.
 
My father-in-law wore those 5 toe socks the whole time he was here visiting. He had numerous pairs. I wish I had some too...
 
mikecash said:
No, what you do is come to grips with the fact that she's both heard and smelt farts before, and hearing and smelling them from you won't shatter her world.

But on a more practical note, go ahead and deal one....but pretend that it slipped. First farts cause more awkwardness and apprehension than first kisses ever did. And like kisses, the second and all subsequent ones come much easier.

You mean she has to come to grips with it. I dont mind doing it, its natural it it hurts if you dont. But ive been with her 2 years now there is only so many i can make slip without her giving me silent treatment for 4 hours.

It gets easier as time goes on. Its just another one of those Bad changes that Japan has had on my lifestyle.
 
mikecash said:
Speaking of feet...how about the socks made like gloves? The ones with the separate spaces for your toes. I've been wearing them so long it never occur窶壺?册d to me to mention them here. I even took a big supply of them with me the last time I tried living in the U.S.

I remember standing at the fuel counter in a truck stop in Kentucky, wearing my slippers (also brought from Japan) with my 5-toe socks. A lady standing next to me said, "Your socks have toes in them!"

I replied, "Everybody's socks have toes in them."

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Hi,
Just out of curiosity, where in Kentucky were you? 🙂
 
Tim33 said:
On the beer note. How many kinds of beer does a Japanese pub have??? Just Asahi or sapporo beer ?? No stella??
Or is it just random luck you get the one you want?

Most bars are supplied by a single Japanese brewery, so you'll get one of Asahi, Sapporo, Kirin or Suntory. A few bars have more than one type but still only Japanese beer. They offer significant incentives to bars to only stock their own brand of beer, so what you get depends on what bar you go into. Foreign brands of beer such as Stella are almost non-existent. A very small number of bars have foreign beers. Probably the most popular of the foreign brands is Guinness which is made under license by Sapporo Breweries.

Hokkaido residents often get a little more choice in Sapporo supplied bars because Sapporo Breweries make a beer called "Classic" which is only available within Hokkaido. Elsewhere you'll usually only get "Black Label".
 
Ahh Memories!

Some of the biggest changes I had in my lifestyle while living single in Japan:

-Always removing my shoes.

-Sleeping on the floor and then putting the futon away in the morning and hanging it out on the clothes pole a couple of times a week and then beating it with the "futon beater."

-Serving green tea to my guests and friends.

-Always making hot water and putting it in the thermos in the morning and when returning home.

-Eating soba for breakfast at the station (Eki Soba)

-Learning that ramen or cup 'a noodle always makes a meal.

-Living my life according to the train schedule which I always carried in my wallet.

-Learning to seperate my garbage into "burnable" and "non-burnable" and knowing which days to take it to the appropriate location.

-Getting used to my neighbors in my apartment building snoring or making love.

-Using the Japanese "toy" washing machines and hanging my laundry on the clothes pole a couple of times a week.

-Buying "cockroach hotels." I always felt sorry for the little buggers.

-Taking a hot ofuro everynight regardless of the time and hoping that I wouldn't fall asleep and wake up with it boiling like a cauldron.

-ALWAYS sitting on the floor. But I really loved the kotatsu in the winter.

-Learning that it's quite ok to enjoy drinking alcohol and getting drunk as a "hobby."

-Learning to get used to living in the winter without no heat at all and waking up in the middle of the night to pee and freezing my butt off not to mention shaking like a leaf getting dressed in the morning if I woke up late!

-Getting used to the fact that as a gaijin, Japanese women were always attracted to you and often wanted to touch my long blond hair. Weird! But the benefits were worth it!

-Getting used to eating every meal with rice! Today I love it!

-Not believing that I had to BUY my phone for about $100 (30,000 yen back then!) which I got back when I sold it back to the phone company!

-Learning that it's quite ok for a man to usually have a shoulder bag that resembled a purse. Man was that ever handy!

-And yes, I also learned to love receiving those tissues at the train stations. I always had a few stashed in my bag and they really came in handy in critical situations. It was so ingrained in me that even today I am never without some tissues or napkins in my pocket which my wife finds hilarious.

Yes quite a few changes to my lifestyle living in Japan.
 
duff_o_josh said:
anyone have an urge to want to be more fashionable since your life here started?

Nope... I've occasionally felt the urge to curb my eating so I don't look like 'another fat foreigner'. It would help if my fiancee didn't keep putting huge plates of food in front of me though. I seem to be on an almost perpetual diet to try and keep at a reasonable weight.
 
I want free tissues!
Hmm I feel like I shouldnt be writing in this thread coz I dont live in Japan...
Toe socks are great! Good for your health too... according to all of my japanese friends.
I have always taken my shoes off indoors, it just makes cleaning easier.
I like sleeping on the floor, even if its wooden, im a bit lazy at rolling up the blankets the next morning though.
I dont like the stupid washing machines that have to filled by hand, and have the little spinner section.
I just think it would be more fun to be a guy. Things in Japan and Korea are more acceptable for them than they are for women.
 
Pachipro said:
-Learning that it's quite ok for a man to usually have a shoulder bag that resembled a purse. Man was that ever handy!
😌 When I first arrived in Japan, I absolutely swore that i would never get one of those. After several months of carrying a small piggy-bank's worth of coins, a wallet, cigarettes, lighter, mobile phone, hand towel, and keys in my pants I finally broke down on got one. (I still don't know what was worse, the feeling that I had become a pack mule or the incessant jingling of coins and keys) Man! What a difference. I had become so accustomed to carrying one, I brought it back with me to the States and now get teased relentlessly for carrying a man-bag. :p
 
Tim33 said:
You mean she has to come to grips with it. I dont mind doing it, its natural it it hurts if you dont. But ive been with her 2 years now there is only so many i can make slip without her giving me silent treatment for 4 hours.

It gets easier as time goes on. Its just another one of those Bad changes that Japan has had on my lifestyle.


this has got to be the most enlightening conversation i've ever heard, i had a friend went through the same thing, but after time he just worked on it and was going like a steam train.
 
Hey guys !! A lot of good answers to a profound question. I had to make the same adaptations that a lot of you all (ya'll) did too. :p

Mike, my man...there could be a debate over whether Kentucky is really 'south' or not--I grew up in the Heart of Dixie--but I really hear you on that iced tea thing. A big glass of iced tea, half an iceburg compressed down in that almost one liter glass, with that hot, stll sizzling fried chicken and mashed 'taters'...or catfish, yeah....with big fat hushpuppies....WAIT . . . This is supposed to be about Japan, man....

One more thing that I recall I had to get used to, is the neighbors telling me not to do something--even in my own yard. (lived in a samll one house apt. in the city then) Another was not to park my car just anywhere.

Pachipro did a great job on all the others. I have avoided making any possible problems with those stinky cracker-dust clouds from way back. And I can't find any size 30 five-toed socks to save my in-grown toenail--I do use one big-toe, grouped four style though. 🙂
 
Mars Man said:
Mike, my man...there could be a debate over whether Kentucky is really 'south' or not--I grew up in the Heart of Dixie--but I really hear you on that iced tea thing.

You're conflating two different things. 1) My being from the South and 2) my having been to a truck stop in Kentucky. I am from Tennessee, which is a Southern state. Kentucky is not a Southern state. Neither are Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, or Missouri, even though many people labor under the misapprehension that they are.
 
mikecash said:
You're conflating two different things. 1) My being from the South and 2) my having been to a truck stop in Kentucky. I am from Tennessee, which is a Southern state. Kentucky is not a Southern state. Neither are Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, or Missouri, even though many people labor under the misapprehension that they are.

Gottcha there !! My miss. I somehow didn't see the 'truck stop' bit. Yes, the 'vounteer state' is right there with Bama. And I absolutely agree with you on the other point too. (and I really wish I could get some good hushpuppies and cat here--can get the cat, but not the buttermilk and cornmeal.)

Talk to you later !! 🙂
 
If you have a line on some channel cat, hook a brother up!
 
I don't live in Japan, but just for the record you can get 5-toed socks quite easily in the UK. The only drawback is that they have to be in bright, stripy colours... :giggle:

And they are comfortable to wear. And surprisingly easy to turn back round from inside out, too... :)
 
Well, from my visits to Japan, I have a greater appreciation of housing since space is in such short supply, so living space is extremely small compared to what we enjoy here in the States. I live in a three-bedroom rowhouse (inherited from my late mother) and I imagine that most Japanese would find it cavernous.

I also appreciate the importance of mass transit and the incredible efficiency of Japan's rail system compared to the sometimes haphazard systems here in America. I'm a nut for trains, so it's a big deal to me. Case in point: Japan's had high speed bullet trains running for some 40 years, but we've barely had it for less than a couple (Amtrak's Acela service) and it's been plagued with all sorts of problems.

I also appreciate sushi which seems to taste better in Japan than here. But that's just my opinion!
:)
 
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