Daniel- Living in Japan

Living in Japan　(Daniel)

This is where I live in America:

The center house is where I live in Japan:

It's almost as though someone took my American house and flipped it on its side, and then shoved it in between two more flipped-over houses, and then added ten more houses in front of it.

This is the norm in Tokyo. Japan has limited space because it is an island nation. To make things worse, around 70% of that space is uninhabitable due to mountains and forest. The result is extremely high population densities within cities - especially Tokyo.

View of Tokyo from my house:

Flipped-over houses are all over the place and people are literally living on top of each other.

Tokyo congestion can be experienced first-hand when riding the metro during rush-hour. I think Japan is the only nation with "subway-pushers", whose job is to push people into trains because the doors won't close otherwise.

Because space is so limited, everything is much smaller in Japan. You'd think that being such a big and burly Slavic man, I would feel uncomfortable here. But, honestly, I enjoy it. In America, where there's lots of space, people tend to keep their distance. Only friends get close and personal. In Japan, everyone always gets close and personal because they have no choice. It makes me feel like I have lots and lots friends.

The lack of space in Japan has resulted some interesting creativity.

This is my room before bedtime:

This is my room at bedtime:

All I have to do is lay a futon out on the floor and sleep on it. When I awake, I just roll it up and put it in the closet. Pretty neat.

Lastly, here's the view of Tokyo from my room:

Hello neighbors. I think we will get to know each other very very well.

Comments

Daniel- こにちわ！！

こにちわ！！　(Daniel) Hello,こにちわ, bonjour, Привет ! My name is Daniel Panasenko, and I am the 2012-2013 LEX intern in the Hippo office in Tokyo. I am from Sacramento, California, although originally from Dnipropetrovs'k, Ukraine. I first came across LEX and Hippo when I came to Japan with People to People in 2009. I was hosted by members of the Hippo Family Club for four days, and I enjoyed the experience so much, that I came back to work for Hippo as an intern. Although I am fairly new to Hippo, I have been received warmly and welcomed into the Hippo family. Everyone at the office and at the family clubs are very kind, supportive, and incredibly patient as I unintentionally butcher their language. As the year progresses, I will blog about my experiences in Japan as well as my insights into the language and culture. Although I am a bit overwhelmed by the novelty of the lifestyle and language, but I am more than happy to be here, making fascinating new discoveri...

Dannielle- Setsubun

Setsubun In February, there is a holiday in Japan called Setsubun. In celebration of the special day, I ventured out to Nagatacho (close to my work here in Shibuya) and visited the Hie Temple. It was so beautiful and peaceful up on a small hill, and oddly placed among the city life of Tokyo. It was crowded with people (but not too crowded, hence why I chose Nagatacho over Asakusa) standing in front of the temple "stage", within which we could hear some music and see some people inside dancing and preparing for the event. Because I got there earlier, I had to wait a bit, and so I talked with the older couple that stood next to me. Turns out, the husband and wife had been to the US before and lived in New Orleans about 10 years ago, so we eased into some great conversation. Very sweet people. When the event started, I witnessed a person dressed as an oni (demon) emerging from inside the temple, being drawn out by the priests who threw beans at him and shou...

Danielle- Shopping Malls

Shopping Malls I noticed I don't talk about shopping enough, so here's a brief overlook of some of my favorite shopping malls (so far~) out here in Japan. AEON I have one about 5 minutes away from my local train station here in Chiba. It feels very homey to me, just because it's really spacious and open and reminds me of a shopping mall I had back in Illinois. What I love about Aeon, too, is that it has a bunch of different stores (other than just clothes). On the first floor, you have your groceries, bakery, and cosmetics, and stuff like that. On the other floors, you have your clothes, electronics, food court (talk about majorly nostalgic, especially with the KFCs and Subways), and mini arcade. Chiba is kind of out-of-the-way, and so Aeon has been a very convenient place for me to buy my toiletries and CalorieMate... and just walk around, if I feel like it. I bought my first winter coat there and some gloves, and it was all reasonably priced, I think (granted,...

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