I Still Don't Get it...

It's been about two months since I last posted about the subtle differences between Japan and America. I'm clearly using sarcasm to cope with my homesickness. Here are 20 more things I still don't understand about this country...

1. ATMs are not 24 hours. ATM machines charge you (from your own bank) when you take out money after the bank is closed. 
2. Walking, driving, and standing on the escalator on the left. The driving part I knew before hand, but it didn't occur to me that everything would be backwards. I can't tell you how many times I've almost gotten run over or hit by a bike. 
3. No one says anything when you sneeze. 
4. They offer you dry ice for carrying your frozen goods home. 
5. They have so many traffic controllers at the shopping center. I swear there's like two for every entrance and there's at least four entrances. As my co-NET put it, "They don't even have that many people directing planes on the runway." Word son. 
6. Plaid is called checked.
7. People dig panty-lines and camel-toes
8. They dislike the number 4 (the number 4 sounds like the word for death)
9. Men wear headbands 
10. Men also have nicer purses than I do
11. They brush their teeth after meals in public bathrooms
12. Envelopes are not adhesive. 
13. Liquid sugar 
14. No refills on self serve fountain drinks
15. Bruce Willis on a Daihatsu commercial and he speaks Japanese
16. Colored, decorated manhole covers (picture to follow)
17. Refills for soap and such in bags
18. Toilets. It's like a urinal, but on the floor. Not the place to sit and read anymore.
19. No trash cans...anywhere. I often carry more trash than money in my purse.
20. Never any napkins at restaurants. They give you a damp cloth when you sit down to wash your hands before the meal, but nothing else. 

That is a pretty manhole.

Until next time! またね!

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New vocabulary:

~左  he-dah-ri   left

~歯 hah   teeth

~封筒   foo-toe   envelope