I once started to share my experiences in Spain with you and my experiences during my Erasmus, but I failed with that. But now I’m here in Tokyo, far, far away from (almost) everyone, I thought it would be a good reason to start again, and while I’m only here for a month (okay a month is a lot, but if you compare it to 9 months Spain, than not), it won’t be that difficult.

As you probably already noticed, I’m in Japan, or more specific, I’m in Tokyo. What the hell am I doing here all alone and all by myself at the end of the world where everything is written in Japanese. Let me explain it to you. As some might know it already, I got accepted to join a summer programme of the Institute of World Literature organized by Harvard (Yes Harvard, isn't it awesome), with the University of Tokyo as host this year. So besides acting like a tourist (I can tell you I feel now even more tourist than I did while living in Spain), I am also attending 4 times a week seminars and joining guest lectures focused on world literature. The seminars are quite intensive, and I’ve never read so much as I’ve done the past week, and this is only the first week out of 4, so it will be lots. However, it is also very interesting where I am also learning a lot.

So basically I am living the Japanese life, going everyday by subway to the university, attending a seminar, have some drinks/get some food with the people I’ve met and go home again. While I’m being part, for this month only, of the Japanese society, I also notice lots of differences, both with The Netherlands as with Spain. You can say that Holland is a perfect combination of the Spanish and Japanese life regarding to arriving on time. Where in Spain everyone is always too late, in Japan everyone arrives on time and even everything arrives exactly on time. So Spain you can learn something from this, no offence XD. What is also very remarking is that the Japanese are cueing and waiting politely when its their turn, they even are cueing for the escalator (it’s amazing). I can tell you that I’ve never seen such a thing not in Spain and definitely not in Holland where everyone just wants to be the first and wants to go home or to work or whatever. This organized life I’ve noticed in Tokyo is also very convenient, especially during rush hour. I have experienced already a couple times Japanese rush hour (no, they don’t have men to push you in the metro and you also won’t get pushed) and I was surprised how easy-going everything went, it’s amazing. What I also found really amazing is the amount of Japanese who are sleeping in the subway, not only while sitting, but also while they were standing, expert level I would say.

When you think of Japan, you probably think of the very high-tech and advanced society. I can tell you that’s correct, but the one thing they are really lacking is their English skills (okay not everyone has to talk English, but still it would be very useful for tourists who don’t speak Japanese). It never took me that long to find an adapter for my charges in a store and trying to ask it. What normally takes about 5 minutes, took me now more than 15 minutes, and I was lucky that they had a translator on their iPad XD. But with gestures and a little bit of English and being creative you will come somewhere, and you can also see it as a challenge.

The most amazing thing I’ve experienced so far is definitely the Japanese kitchen. The food here is amazing, but like finger-licking amazing. So many different types of food, and all so far are delicious. And yes the sushi is definitely better than in Europe, just like the tequila in Mexico is way better than the shitty tequila in Europe. Even while everything is written in Japanese, so you have to guess or you have to be lucky that there are pictures or even more lucky that there is a menu in English, what sometimes led to a surprise of what you will get. But so for it was all so delicious, and god the amount of fish here is amazing, if you are a fish lover, well grab your bags and fly to Japan. Also the different sorts of drinks are here very diverse and because everything is in Japanese it is like a game, and see if you pick something you like. Sometimes you’re lucky, and sometimes you’re not. It is apparently also very normal here to drink and eat at the same time. I thought it would be nice to have some juice or something that is not water, so I grabbed a drink with a picture of grapes on it, could not go wrong I thought. Well, first of all it was really sweet, it was not that bad, but really sweet. But then all the sudden, instead of drinking I was chewing something jelly-ish. It turned out it was a grape-drink with jelly inside (only possible in Japan XD). As regards food, I haven’t had so far weird food stuff, but I will definitely try as much as I can, because there is so much variety, I bet not even enough for whole one month.

What is also really remarkable, during my stay in a share house (you can see this as a giant student flat but without the parties and not only students are living here but also adults), I cant walk inside the house with my shoes, (and the owner gave me a pair of really cute cat slippers to walk in the house) as it is typical for the Japanese culture. So every day when I leave the house I have to change my shoes/slippers at the front door. So if I forget something out of my room (of course when you just put on your shoes), you have to take off your shoes again and get your stuff. On the one hand it is very annoying, but on the other hand, the floor is very clean and you don’t leave stains with your shoes. I can say that in general the Japanese are very clean, you don’t see that many trashcans on the street, but you also don’t see trash on the street, they just safe it and throw it away when they see a trash can. Not only are the street very clean, but also the toilets. If you’re familiar with the Spanish toilets, than you must think totally the opposite: clean, always toilet paper and there are even buttons to play music so they won’t hear you.

These were my experience so far in my first days, and I will try to keep you updated on all the stuff I’m doing here, the delicious food I will have, my experiences, and my life as being a student and tourist.