Week 1: First Impressions

We’ve been here just under a week, and impressions strike fast and furiously:

POLITENESS. Thank goodness Japanese people are so polite. A street the width of 1-1/2 American automobiles is shared by cars going both directions—fast, bicycles, pedestrians and sometimes buses. If people drove with typical American aggression and entitlement, we’d all be roadkill. As it is, everyone adjusts casually and it all works.

By the way, both Daimler-Chrysler and Mercedes Benz produce small, classy-looking, fuel efficient cars for sale here. Wonder if we’ll ever see them in the U.S.

COLD. Before we came, everyone kept telling us it would be very cold in Kyoto. I’d check the travel guides regarding climate; they all said that typically winter lows are around freezing, and most days top out in the high 40’s and 50’s—sounded easy after New England, and I scoffed at the softies. In fact, my New England outerwear has been more than adequate for the out of doors in Kyoto. It’s for the indoors I reserve my longjohns. We haven’t been here long enough to get a utility bill, but I guess that electricity is very expensive because SO much care is taken to minimize its use. We have a heater in the living room and one in the bedroom. They do not have thermostats sufficient to maintain a comfortable temperature; we turn them on until the room is too hot, then turn them off. The hallway and bathroom never get heated (except by a small and inadequate space heater a previous tenant left), The hardest part for me is that the hot water is on a switch that gets turned on before showers or washing dishes and the rest of the time, we are washing our hands in ice water. Silly me. I turned on the hot water the other day to prepare to do laundry, only to discover that the hot water is not even attached to the washing machine--all laundry is done in ice water, too.

HOT WATER. We found the solution to the cold is easy and pleasurable. Fifteen minutes by train from our house, we were in quiet, misty mountains at Kurama, home of natural hot springs. For about $10, we were granted access to beautiful outdoors baths for as long as we could stand it. We came home shiny-skinned, warm to the core and calmed by the views.

SHOPPING. Some things are incredibly expensive (Bring gifts of good peanut butter if you come!), some incredibly inexpensive (a dozen crab balls for ¥ 198 or about $1.70). I saw a ¥378 apple next to a ¥138 avocado. We bought most of what we needed to supply our apartment, including a toaster oven and CD-player, for ¥24,000 or a bit over $200.

Sudafed and Claritin are both prescription drugs here.

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION: Japan is known for trains and buses, and Kyoto fits the paradigm. We can go anywhere we want in the metropolitan area--including up the mountain to the hot springs--without a car. From our apartment to Doshisha University (where Jonathan is teaching), we take the subway. To go shopping at a department store, we take the bus. It's not cheap (most rides start at around $2), but it's certainly fast and convenient. What is sometimes confusing is the number of different companies that provide train, bus, subway service. The prices and rules vary and a ticket on one is of no use on another.

NEIGHBORHOOD: We live in a northern suburb of Kyoto, near two small village-center-like shopping areas. Thus far, we've found four grocery stores, myriad convenience stores (including Circle K and Seven-Eleven), a French bakery, a German bakery, a Kyoto-style bakery, two big drugstores, and many restaurants. We've been eating mostly at home, despite the enticing plastic models of sushi and other goodies that surround us, and we enjoy the shopping. We've got one bicycle so far (borrowed from the university), and a second one is promised this week. Wish us luck playing dodge-'em with the cars and motorcycles on the Kyoto streets!