Ramen Girl

At the suggestion of my friend, I decided to watch Ramen Girl. It's on Netflix Instant Streaming, so if you have access to Netflix and some free time, it's a cool little movie to check out. It's cute, funny, and has the late Britney Murphy, who is just as cute as a button. However, in a way, it awakened some of my worst fears.

One of the things I absolutely want to do is learn Japanese. Not being able to understand simple things like time of day would be frustrating. To my understanding, the base offers survival Japanese courses you can take upon your arrival. I'm sure this combined with the total immersion will go a long way to helping me learn my way around the language.

Second, being an outsider is going to be tough. There's a lot of things the Japanese population can do that a Gaijin (outsider aka American) will not be allowed to do. Apparently, it's common to pull to the side of the road and take naps in your car. If you're caught napping in a "foreigner" marked car, it's also a good way to be arrested. Not that napping in my car is something I long to do, but it's just an example.

Oh, and a mistake in this movie....Japan's taxicabs have doors that open automatically so you don't have to touch them. People say part of the culture shock in returning to the US is that you stand outside a taxi door expecting it to swish open for you.

And lastly, smoking inside establishments in Japan is very much allowed. I think almost all states in the US have banned smoking indoors. So, this will be something that is difficult to get used to. When we lived in Virginia, four years ago, smoking was still allowed indoors. However, since being in California, I'm glad I'm not forced to be inhaling cigarette smoke while eating a meal. Hm. It's so odd that as technically progressive as Japan is, they haven't banned smoking indoors and it doesn't look like that's something they're interested in pursuing.

Just some random musings tonight. Everyday I think of the upcoming move. I just can't wait to have my hands on those plane tickets so we can have some firm dates to start working backwards from............(ending this blog post on a preposition...deal)