Noodles for Neighbors

I discovered this custom recently in Japan. Whenever a Japanese person moves into a neighborhood, that new resident makes a noodle dish for their new neighbors. This dish is called Hikoshi Soba (lit. Hikoshi-Moving Soba- noodles)
The origin behind this custom is that the word for noodles in japanese is "Soba". In addition to meaning "noodles", "soba" also means "nearby/next to/next door". Therefore, the new resident that moves into the neighborhood makes soba for the "nearby/next door" neighbors as a gift as a token of appreciation. So in this context, it's something like saying, "Thank you for allowing me to live here". You can see a picture of Hikoshi Soba in this article.

Hikoshi (pronounced like He-Ko-She)
Soba (pronounced like "so-bar" but minus the "r")

Culture Shock in Japan

These are some of the things I have encountered since I've been here.

With the culture shock , its many things. Just to go to the gym to workout , I need 2 pairs of shoes, 1 for outside the gym and 1 for the actual gym. Also they have public gyms and private gyms here. The public gyms are like $1.00 a day. That's something we don't have in Atlanta. You can pay your bills at the convenient stores. People don't use credit cards often here. Most people carry cash on them. Oh and the atms have a certain time that you can use it to withdraw money and you don't wanna try to get your money out on a national holiday bcuz the atm will be shut down. In America, you can have access to your money 24 hours , here not at all. Most atms stop giving out money at 8pm thru the week and on the weekends even early as 5-6pm.

Grocery Shopping in Japan

Here's is my experience of what its like to handle my food situation here in Japan.

Japan is expensive too. Not just Tokyo or Osaka, but all around Japan. Before I came here, I thought the country town and outskirts were much cheaper but I was wrong. For example, in Japan, the refrigerators are very small. If you've seen a minifridge in the U.S, then picture a fridge just a tad bit taller than that with a freezer and a refrigerator in there.Well, it doesn't hold much food so If you buy meat or vegetables or anything frozen , you're gonna keep buying stuff constantly even weekly or biweekly bcuz you can't hold that much stuff. To solve that problem though, I bought a deep freezer for about $190.00 that can hold a ton of stuff and then I just shop for the month which is no more than 3 trips over the period of 1 month to the grocery store for me. Also, if you like chicken, here in japan, what they do is take a chicken breast cut it into 4 or 5 thin slices and sell it for the equivalent of $5 Bucks. I got around that by going to the Brazilian Import Store which is anywhere where there are brazilians and I get that Peito de Frango(Chicken Breasts) in big pack of about 4lbs or 2 kilos which is normally about 7 thick chicken breasts for aboout $3.98. I buy a lot of those and store it in my freezer and I also get this meat called picanha and its like sirloin but cut from a different part of the cow, it has 85grams of protein per 1/4 slice. I just eat that and chicken for my meats. When I first got here, i had to learn how to live Japan style but I have since figured it out and its aiight.

The 80/20 Rule on American-Japanese friendships/relationships

Ok y'all,

Here is my explanation on the 80/20 Rule. Feel free to post your comments.

You know how we say "break the ice"? People here can be cold like ice but underneath it all, they are pretty good people. Well its really true over here because if you try to get to know japanese people thats exactly what you're doing-breaking the ice literally. There is also an 80/20 rule with American-Japanese friendships/relationships. Basically what it means is that most americans will give up 80% of themselves in a friendship while the japanese will give up only 20%. What I mean by that is that when you meet someone, like me and any other american, its easy for us to communicate and really go deep with our experiences and get to know a lot about each other.
But with the japanese people, what you find out about them will only be the surface. For example, the japanese person will talk about just their professions, how many people are in their family, maybe the foods they like, the music they listen too but its limited to stuff like that. Finding out their emotions or their opinions on things and such are a bit complicated and its something that they don't discuss openly with their foreign counterparts, why they are the way they are, how do they feel when xyz happens to them, dreams, etc. You're lucky if you can get deep with them. Now that rule may apply to all foreigners and japanese but I'm not 100% sure but I know thats the case with many American friends i have surveyed over the past couple of years.

2010 Update

Whats up, readers?



I'm sorry for the long delay. Its been a while since I posted. Its all worth the time because I learned a lot since I've been here in Japan. And I had to put some things in perspective before I just post certain things up here. I'm just letting everyone know that I will be updating this blog more often after. I will put pictures up soon. Anyone reading can expect to see something up this week. The things I learn and am continuing to learn will be posted here