{"id":1015,"date":"2008-12-02T20:06:33","date_gmt":"2008-12-02T11:06:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2008-12-02\/1015"},"modified":"2008-12-02T20:06:33","modified_gmt":"2008-12-02T11:06:33","slug":"thoughts-on-japan-from-a-first-time-visitor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2008-12-02\/1015","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts on Japan from a First-Time Visitor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n

I mentioned in yesterday's very long Joseph Niisima and The Savory\nFamily Bible<\/a> post that my friend Arthur's brother John had visited him\nfrom The States to, among other things, remodel Arthur's kitchen. John has\nreturned home, but asked me to post some thoughts he had from his trip, so\nhere they are...<\/p>\n\n

\n\n

Japan trip:<\/p>\n\n

On the airplane to Japan, I was sitting<\/span> next to a Korean<\/span> man from\nAtlanta, Georgia. He lived<\/span> in Atlanta, but was going back home to visit his\nmother. I told him<\/span> that I was<\/span> going to Kyoto to visit my brother and to\nremodel his kitchen. After some conversation, he reminded me that visiting\nmy brother was more important than the kitchen.<\/p>\n\n

I spent five weeks living in Arthur's house with Kayo, his wife, and\nMonet and May his two small daughters. It was wonderful<\/span>. I asked<\/span> Jeffery if\nI could<\/span> put an entry in his blog and he agreed. These are some thoughts\nfrom my visit:<\/p>\n\n

Liked about Japan<\/b>: Chopsticks, great salad dressing, stocking\nfeet in the house, small cars, metric system, unusual volcanic mountains,\n(the Japanese do not appreciate the unusual geology of their islands) food,\nmedical system (I had<\/span> an unexpected encounter with the medical system).\nGenerally costs were quite low. This includes food, clothing, and building\nmaterials.<\/p>\n\n

Perhaps what I liked the most is the very strong sense of security. You never<\/span> feel threatened or insecure. You never<\/span> worry about that sort of\nthing.<\/p>\n\n

Disliked about Japan<\/b>: road system, including the numerous and\nexpensive toll roads, lack of central heating, lack of napkins and paper\ntowels.<\/p>\n\n

Weirdly different<\/b>: I was<\/span> surprised at the difference in bicycle\ndesign. The brands<\/span> of cars were pretty familiar, but the actual models were\nmostly unheard of in US. No matter<\/span> how small the car, it usually had four\ndoors. If I recognized<\/span> a car<\/span> model, it more likely to be a Jaguar<\/span> than a\nFord.<\/span> I never<\/span> got used to the traffic on the other side of the street. I am glad<\/span> I never<\/span> had to drive! “One time payment” What is up with\nthat? Money does not seem to flow as easily as it does in the US, but the\ncashier can float you a loan<\/span> on anything at any time?<\/p>\n\n

Things I missed<\/span><\/b>: regular microbrew beer. We do not<\/span> think about\nit, but the quality of beer in US has gone up in recent decades. Not so in<\/span>\nJapan.<\/p>\n\n

I spent a great deal of time on a remodeling<\/span> project. Let's go category\nby category:<\/p>\n\n

Electrical<\/b>: The wiring was not much different. The ground<\/span> wire\nthat has been code in the US since the early ‘60s is sort of optional\nin Japan. The two prongs<\/span> in Japan match up with the two prongs in America.\n(Japan has no third prong) Japan is all 100v instead of 120v. There is\ntemptation to use tools designed for American wiring in Japan and that is\nokay. But I suspect<\/span> that some of the tools I was<\/span> using did not perform\nproperly with the lower voltage. In a Home<\/span> Depot one can find a larger<\/span>\nvariety of electrical boxes. That is an issue with everything.<\/p>\n\n

Plumbing<\/b>: The plumbing is identical in every way. ½ inch\nand ¾ inch galvanized pipe are standard. The grey plastic<\/span> pipe I was<\/span>\nusing was the same. A standard<\/span> faucet in Japan is “vertical\nmount”, unusual, but not unheard of in America. A common<\/span> toilet has a\nlittle<\/span> sink built into the top of the tank. It comes<\/span> on automatically when\nthe toilet is flushed and drains into the tank, filling it. Pretty clever. The sinks<\/span> and bath tub drain into the storm sewers, rather than the sewage\nsystem. This relates to the complete absence of garbage disposals. Arthur\nfound a dishwasher<\/span> for his new kitchen. I fussed<\/span> and worried about it, but\nin retrospect, I realize<\/span> that it installed identically to an American\none.<\/p>\n\n

A trick in America is to use a “no hub connector”. This is a\nheavy<\/span> rubber sleeve that is put on the two pipes and then attached with\nhose bands. Think rubber tires. These guys are of heavy rubber and seen\nmost often in the drain, sewage end. They are great and very forgiving. And not to<\/span> be found in Japan.<\/p>\n\n

General materials<\/b>: Building supplies are not more expensive in\nJapan. The availability<\/span> is not different than a Home<\/span> Depot. They have 2x4s\nand 2x6s and 1x6x8s etc. Plywood comes in 3' x 6' instead of 4x8s and a six<\/span>\nfoot length seems to be more standard than 8 foot length.<\/p>\n\n

I quickly got used to the metric system and liked it.<\/p>\n\n

I did a tile project. The very great<\/span> infrastructure in US for\ndo-it-yourself tile installation does not exist in Japan. The adhesive<\/span> and\ngrout are both just Portland cement. As a chemist<\/span> and builder, I realize<\/span> that there is nothing really wrong with this, but the materials did not\nbehave as I expected<\/span> and we had to adjust.<\/p>\n\n

Attitude<\/b>: there was an overwhelming attitude that ‘you\ncannot do that, You need a<\/span> professional, we do not sell that, nobody has\never done that before, you cannot do that, but what about this?' I America,<\/span>\nvery few persons do all around house restoration, but people accept the\nconcept. In Japan, this is completely inconceivable.<\/p>\n\n

The man on the airplane was of course correct. The most important<\/span> part\nof the adventure was the time I spent<\/span> with my brother, Arthur, and his\nfamily. My nieces<\/span> cried when I left.<\/span> I cried<\/span> too, but did not let anyone\nsee.<\/p>\n\n

John Brigham<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I mentioned in yesterday's very long Joseph Niisima and The Savory Family Bible post that my friend Arthur's brother John had visited him from The States to, among other things, remodel Arthur's kitchen. John has returned home, but asked me to post some thoughts he had from his trip, so here they are...<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}