Meme Time!

[blodeuedd]

Day 02 - Describe your neighbourhood in Japan.

I live in Mitaka, which manages to be totally surrounded by train lines, yet not have any train stations in it except on its very outskirts. Mitaka is located in the central-western part of Tokyo prefecture, though I consider it to be West Tokyo because to me, anything west of Shinjuku is.

My neighbourhood is suburban, with a mix of apartment blocks and houses. I live just off a main road, and have a supermarket practically in my back yard. Within a ten-minute walk, or five-minute bike ride, I have a couple of other supermarkets, a few family restaurants, a home and garden centre, a 100 yen shop, a large drug store, a computer superstore, and at least two convenience stores, not to mention many businesses (such as a photography studio and a video rental place) that I have never had need to frequent.

In spite of being close to the main road, it's pretty quiet here. Since I'm on a residential street, there's no through traffic, and people walking by or riding their bicycles. As with everywhere in Tokyo, there's a vending machine every hundred paces (there's one on the corner opposite my building), and we've even got a vegetable vending machine a little ways down the street. There's a community vegetable garden right behind my building, and the neighbourhood has lots of trees, bushes and plants, including lots of lovely plum trees along a nearby street. It smells wonderful in the spring!

The residents seem to be the usual mix of families and older people. Apart from myself, there aren't a whole lot of foreigners; at the supermarket, I've seen perhaps a total of fifteen different [obvious] foreigners in the two and half years I've lived here!

Day 01 - A picture of you "in Japan". (doing or wearing something "Japanese")
Day 02 - Describe your neighbourhood in Japan.
Day 03 - Most interesting person you've met.
Day 04 - What's your favorite place that's not in any of the guidebooks/lists of places to visit?
Day 05 - Which, if any, Japanese mannerisms or expressions have you adopted?
Day 06 - Food that you swore you would never eat but now love (or tolerate).
Day 07 - Which Japanese words do you use in English? (hanami, shinkansen, etc.)
Day 08 - Are you a Herbivore or Carnivore? S or M?
Day 09 - Favorite stores/shopping centers.
Day 10 - Something about Japan that sets it apart from anywhere else.
Day 11 - What did you find most overrated and underrated about Japan?
Day 12 - Describe a fail!gaijin moment. (Where you did something wrong or completely misunderstood because you couldn't ~read the air~ or just plain had no idea what you were supposed to do because you weren't born and raised here) Describe a gaijin!smash moment .(Where your foreignness was to your benefit)
Day 13 - How is daily life in Japan different from how it was back in your home country?
Day 14 - What is the hardest thing about living in Japan versus your home country?
Day 15 - Weirdest food item you've seen, and weirdest food item you've actually eaten.
Day 16 - How you realised you'd acclimated to Japan. (if you have)
Day 17 - Your karaoke top 5, your sushi top 5, your conbini top 5.
Day 18 - Post some amusing/cute/faily purikura.
Day 19 - Your favorite Japanese character(s) and Gachapon/UFO Catcher toys
Day 20 - Favorite Japanese festival or folklore.
Day 21 - Favorite and least favorite Japanese fashion trends.
Day 22 - Your favorite Japanese saying or kotowaza (proverb).
Day 23 - What is something you have/do in Japan that you wish you had/could do in your home country?
Day 24 - Your favorite Japanese slang or borrow-word (外来語), e.g. セフレ "sex friend"
Day 25 - Most interesting vending machine find.
Day 26 - What's your favourite/least favourite train line?
Day 27 - Place you avoid going to if at all possible.
Day 28 - A picture of you looking like a weaboo/A picture of you trying to blend in and failing.
Day 29 - What's the thing you [will] miss the most about Japan when you leave (either on vacation, or move away)?
Day 30 - Did Japan meet your expectations, both good and bad? What has been the most surprising thing about Japan for you, or the thing you least expected?



Day 02 - Your first love

That would be reading. I have so many fond memories of books that were read to me, of books I've read, of the experience of reading the books. In a way, reading is almost better than travelling, because you can go to so many more places! Not that I'd ever give up travelling, of course.

I can't remember actually learning to read. When I was little, my father read to me at least once a day, and even when I'd graduated from picture books to books that had more text than pictures, I still always sat on his lap, or beside him, so I could see the page. When he read me The Lord of the Rings (we started when I was nine), I remember SEEING the scene at the Ford of Rivendell, the words on the page and my father's voice combining to make it come alive for me, leaving me breathless as though I'd outrun the Black Riders myself.

I remember being twelve and reading the Dragonlance books and sharing them with M-P, then reading scenes out loud with her, after spending hours discussing our favourite and least favourite characters. I remember being sixteen years old and reading The Lions of Al-Rassan over the course of a car trip across the continent, staying up long after everyone else had gone to sleep because I had to know what would happen next. I remember losing myself in countless imaginary worlds on trains and airplanes and buses, emerging as from a dream when it was time to disembark.

That is my first love.

Day 01 - Introduce yourself
Day 02 - Your first love
Day 03 - Your parents
Day 04 - What you ate today
Day 05 - Your definition of love
Day 06 – Your day
Day 07 – Your best friend
Day 08 – A moment
Day 09 – Your beliefs
Day 10 – What you wore today
Day 11 – Your siblings
Day 12 – What's in your bag
Day 13 – This week
Day 14 – What you wore today
Day 15 – Your dreams
Day 16 – Your first kiss
Day 17 – Your favourite memory
Day 18 – Your favourite birthday
Day 19 – Something you regret
Day 20 – This month
Day 21 – Another moment
Day 22 – Something that upsets you
Day 23 – Something that makes you feel better
Day 24 – Something that makes you cry
Day 25 – A first
Day 26 – Your fears
Day 27 – Your favourite place
Day 28 – Something that you miss
Day 29 – Your aspirations
Day 30 – One last moment