Bakery

I went to a bakely last weekend hoping to grab a quick bite to go.  I thought I would be in and out like a convenience store visit.  As I was p(r)aying for my baked goodness, the cashier reminded me that all bakely staff are platinum (w)rappers.  They've all wrapped a million pastries by the end of their first week.  When you buy three different things, they wrap each thing separately.  Why do they wrap so much?  There must be a bakely union in Japan that sets the standard for wrapping purchases.  The first commandment probably reads, "Thou shalt wrappeth each type o bakt goods individually."  I looked over at lady standing at the register next to me who was purchasing three cream puffs.  The cashier wrapped two cream puffs in one bag and the third cream puff in a separate bag.  I thought this was an Eco country trying to cut down on the use of plastic bags.  Little did I know that the second commandment reads, "Two puffs at a time".  I wonder if I can earn some Eco points on my next bakely purchase.

Escalator

Riding the escalator can be a positive experience in Nihon compared to other places.  In big cities, the natives stand to one side of the escalator allowing people to walk up the escalator on the unoccupied side.  Those in a rush can walk up the escalator rather than waiting behind the crowd.  However, some strange side effect has been produced from this courtesy.  Some people when walking up the escalators stop at the top as the escalators level out.  This often creates a traffic jam and you wonder why they had energy to walk up but then they became lazy all of a sudden.  On the other hand, people who stand on the slow-moving side often start walking early before the escalator levels out.  It does help alleviate the traffic on the slow side, but why do they switch from being lazy and standing around to starting to walk early?  If I'm on the walking side, I walk all the way through.  If I'm on the standing side, I wait until the absolute last second to get off at the top.  Going up was used as the example here, but these things also happen when going down.

The end of the escalator isn't the only place with problems.  Old ladies sometimes cause problems at the beginning of the escalator.  They'll stop at the beginning and wait for the right moment to step onto the escalator.  Hey lady, this isn't a video game where you'll die if you step on at the wrong moment.

Adjustment

Whenever somebody sits in an empty seat next to someone on the train, the person that was already sitting will do an adjustment of their position. I've categorized these adjustments into three categorific categories of categorification:

1. The long coat/dress adjustment - If you have a long coat, dress, or other garment that spills onto the next seat and somebody sits on top of it, you become restricted in movement. Some people will pull their clothing out from under the other person that sat on it. Others will think ahead of time and pull it out of the way as the new person is sitting down.

2. The dumbass adjustment - A lot of people don't sit properly to allow the maximum number of people in the sits. Part of their body will spill onto the next designated seat. When a new person sits, it'll feel particularly crowded on the side which the first person took up too much space. The original sitter will readjust to get a little farther away from the new sitter. Sometimes the dumbass adjustment has to be done because some dumbass sat in the wrong place, but the people that sat next to the dumbass tried to position themselves as best as they could given the situation. You'll see a row of people adjusting themselves as a new person sits down to make up for the one person that screwed things up.

3. The fake adjustment - Some people do a little wiggle or move forward or backward on their seat as or after a new person sits down next to them. The original sitter was already relatively positioned correctly and the adjustment doesn't change their position at all. This adjustment is the most puzzling. Why fake an adjustment when you don't have to? Is this some form of BS courtesy?

Photo

The citizens don't seem to have much photography skills. With the recent outbreak of cherry blossoms, a blooming of professional photographers cropped up at all the parks. A lot of old men and women carrying their big SLR cameras could be sighted everywhere. You'd think that with such great equipment, they must know how to use it. When I wanted my picture taken with the great white seas of flowers, I often had to ask random strangers to take a photo for me. I didn't expect the people taking pictures with cell phones to have any skill, but I figured at least somebody carrying a big camera might be able to take a decent picture of me. But I was wrong. One picture has a bunch of grass in half of it and another picture is an intense close-up. All the pictures failed to get a significant amount of cherry blossoms in them. I couldn't tell if they were horrible photographers or if they were trying to be artistic.
"Hai, chiizu! Daijobu desu ka?"

Knees

Many eateries have a small little shelf under the table or counter for customers to store their bags. Despite the usefulness of this feature, some of them have a design flaw. Some of them are too low and stick out too much. You often unexpectedly bang your knees against these shelves. Itai!

Heating 2

I felt like eating ice cream the other night and I stepped into Baskin Robbins for some overpriced goodness. It was so hot inside the store that my sweat glands started firing. Eating ice cream while you're sweating in the summer is expected, but eating ice cream while you're sweating in the winter is unneeded. I went outside the store and ate my ice cream in the night temperature hovering above freezing because I couldn't bear the heat inside. Doesn't heating the store and cooling the ice cream at the same time create a high energy bill? Maybe that explains the high prices for ice cream there.

Gomi 3

The other night I walked past a guy and I heard something drop on the ground. I looked over and saw that he had dropped a cigarette butt. About a second later, I heard the same sound and looked back. He had dropped two more butts. I suppose the Japanese enjoy the view of cigarette butts on the ground. It must be a kind of traditional action like the tea ceremony. I focused on the street for the rest of my walk and noticed many cigarette butts. Maybe littering leftover cigarettes is a form of art? Nippon is so advanced that I can't keep up with these radical ways of thought and expression.