Weird Stuff: Part I

There's a typhoon coming! It's basically a Japanese hurricane, and I don't feel like getting caught in it, so I'm going to sit inside quietly and blog, instead.

I thought I'd take some time to share some unexpected discoveries about Japan. Since I'm sure I will continue to find more weird stuff in my year here, I have dubbed this "part 1 of ?". There were a lot of things I expected to be different. For example, Japan has temples and shrines all over the place, and the U.S. does not. In America, we drive on the right side of the road, and the Japanese drive on the wrong, er, left side of the road. Here are some things I was not expecting:

Cute Manhole Covers

How cute is that?? Pretty much every manhole cover I've seen has been nice-looking. What a random and pleasant way to decorate streets and sidewalks.



Huge Toilet Paper

This is one piece of toilet paper. It's like 2 1/2 squares of U.S. toilet paper! I first encountered huge toilet paper in my hotel room, and I wasn't sure if it was a normal thing or a fancy hotel thing. Then, I got a complimentary roll of T.P. when I moved into my dorm room-- 1-ply, but still huge. When I bought my own from the store (the one shown in the photo, complete with cute animals on it), it was also huge. It kind of makes sense to me, though. I mean, who only uses one little square, anyway?



Using the Honor System for Booze
So, I bought some beer and sake from the local convenience store. They don't care to see your ID, you simply have to touch the button on a touch-screen that says you're older than 20 (the drinking age in Japan). I thought maybe it's because I am clearly older than 20, but my younger-looking classmates had the same experience. I have always heard that Japan is a relatively safe country with a lot of honest citizens, but I didn't expect it to go quite this far.



Pee Pole?!?
Students at Nagoya University have to have a medical check-up, which involves a health self-assessment, a chest x-ray, and a urine sample. My university doesn't do this, but it doesn't seem that strange...
 until they hand me a really complicated-looking urine container called the "Pee Pole II". Uhhh...

They gave us English instructions, so I'm thankful for that. I suppose it's better than a cup with a lid, but I'm still a little nervous about it. The really Japanese part is the cute illustrated characters peeing into the pee pole. If this is Pee Pole II, I wonder what the first pee pole was like...