Who knew .....
... that Japanese traffic engineers are colorblind? OK, maybe not colorblind and maybe it's not the traffic engineers, but... every single Japanese person describes the colors of traffic lights as red, yellow, and BLUE. And guess what? The traffic lights look EXACTLY like the American ones, so I'm not sure how blue is the same as green, but somehow it is.
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This is actually a picture of the view of Mt. Fuji from the pedestrian bridge near Ethan's school - unfortunately, you can't see the snow-capped peak very well in the picture, but you can see the color of the traffic light...
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... that Japanese snowmen are made with only 2 snowballs, whereas
American snowmen are made with 3 snowballs? Is that because we're taller?
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Ethan and his snowman creation...
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A random Japanese snowman
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... that Japanese snowmen wear buckets on their heads and not hats?
... that our Japanese pediatrician would give me such a look of disbelief (you know what I mean, the "what kind of mother are you?" look) when I told her that my vomiting children had eaten dry toast for breakfast? I was quickly yet kindly informed that they should only eat rice. Oh yes, I should have known, RICE ... in Japan. What was I thinking? Next time, I'll know to lie when my kids eat toast when they're sick.
... that EVERY year Japanese schools or Japanese classes close because of influenza? I was shocked to receive an e-mail from Ethan's school that 2 of the 4 first grade classes would be cancelling classes for the next 3 days because of the flu. There's even a word for it, and apparently it happens every year. Even the healthy kids from those classes have to stay home. So much for all the gargling and mask-wearing...
... that there is a test for the flu? Kevin was sick, and all my friends kept asking me if he tested positive for the flu and I had no idea what they were talking about. Sure enough - he went to the doctor, they stuck a little stick-thing up his nose, and 10 minutes later, they showed him the stick - red line means flu, blue line means no flu. Kinda like a home pregnancy test for influenza. Turns out he had Type A influenza and the Japanese fear of germs basically requires people to stay home from work for 3-5 days. Lucky for Kevin this happened to fall on "Superbowl Monday." Soooo, while he was home "sick," he was also lucky enough to be able to watch the Superbowl live - our Monday morning is the US Sunday. Lucky type-A-influenza-guy...
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... that Japanese moms and dads don't kiss or hug their kids good-bye? At least not in public. Ethan gives me a big hug every day (or at least most days) when we say goodbye at the street corner, but no one else seems to do that. Same deal at Ryan's yochien, and the kids there are only 4 and 5 years old.
... that even adult soccer players have to cut their fingernails before a soccer game? I was
almost able to accept the fingernail-cutting rule for kids, but for adults, it just seems even more ludicrous.
... that the Japanese postal system guarantees that New Years Cards will arrive ON (not by) January 1 if mailed by a certain date AND the post office holds a raffle using the numbers printed by the post office on the New Years cards? I had the winning feeling.... but alas, I checked every New Years's card we received and we didn't win the grand prize of a trip to Hawaii nor did we win the smallest prize of postage stamps. There's always next year...
From Ethan: Who knew... that everyone in Japan knows that I'm American because I was at this park, and this girl asked me in Japanese "Are you American?" And then I felt like "Oh great."
The WHO KNEW quiz! Who knows what is pictured below? Put your best guess in the comment below (or e-mail me) and you just might win a coveted prize!!!
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Who can guess what this is?
You gotta love the Asian-eyed Santa Claus...
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He wanted a Pikachu birthday cake, and we easily convinced him that a "rice-krispie-treat" cake would be far better, as I had zero confidence in our abilities to bake a pikachu-shaped birthday cake in our little toaster oven or our fancy-dancy rice cooker. Of course, I then had to make my second trek to the international grocery store in search of Rice Krispies. No dice on the Rice Krispies, but I thought I found a suitable replacement - it was a South African puffed rice cereal and the picture on the box looked similar to Rice Krispies. Truth be told, they weren't nearly as tasty as real Rice Krispies, but it got the job done.
