Japan - Text:
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Japan

What do you do when you are in a country where you dont understand the
language,
you cant read any signs, you stand at the doors to burger king on your way
out
realizing you have no idea how to open the doors to get out? Not much to do
except
looking like a western idiot and wait until someone else goes out.

Japan is strange and fascinating. Different. Im different. Hundreds of
japanese and
no western people. Are they staring at me? A tiny simple everyday problem
like
buying something to drink, open a door, flush a toilet, find out how to
fasten a
seat belt in a taxi with a crazy taxidriver that doesnt understand
english...everything
become a challenge. Gives me a new perspective of things.

Second day...arrive to a japanese home. Oh uh...there are no chairs and no
bed.
No chairs!?! This is going to be interesting. Other noticeable things about
japanese
homes...you cant get water to wash your hands at the toilet unless you flush
because
they are connected together somehow.

Eating at a sushi restaurant is a very strange experience difficult to
describe. We open
the doors to the restaurant and are greeted with a massive wall of noise. A
waitress
greets us...KONNICHIWA...SUMIMASEEEEEEEEEEEN!!!...3-4 other waitresses and a
couple of
guys doing the cooking echoes....SUMIMASEEEEEEEN!!!...uh oh...whats
happening.
Turns out that the noise is a part of the "atmosphere" so the personel makes
as much
noise as possible. The guests sit in a circle with the guys who cook in the
middle.
Tiny plates with different kinds of food automatically circulates around the
table and
you just grab what you want to eat. The plates have different colors for
different prices.
"One soup to table four(in japanese)"..."ONE SOUP TO TABLE FOUR!!!"...then
repeated about
4-5 times from different personel...its noisy, I feel stressed and Im the
only no-japanese
in the restaurant. But I did eat raw salmon and raw shrimps...and I liked
it.