Things that are slightly, or even very, different about Japan:
There are fire hydrant signs, but that doesn't make it any easier to find the fire hydrants.
Even cars beep when they back up.
You don't have to wear your seatbelt in the back seat.
No street addresses!
Bigger rear view mirrors.
No central heating in the houses.
TV programs start at odd times.
Buttons on the keyboard are not always what they appear.

That's all I can think of right now, but I'll keep you updated.

Okay, what have I done lately? On Thursday Okaasan took us to Minka En. There are about 20-25 old style houses on display. The big ones of the nobility, not common peoples' houses. But there were houses from all sorts periods and locations around Japan. It was kind of peaceful there, like Hobbiton or something. There was even one house with a circular doorway! Bery bery cool. We had some dango san kyoudai there too. Pretty yummy, if hard to eat. Had to sing the song of course. Sometimes I wonder if they think that we came here knowing nothing about Japan, they are always so surprised when we do know anything.

Later we took our first trip to a hyaku en store. A 100 yen store. It was interesting, but there wasn't a whole lot that I wanted to buy. There was a bunch of stuff that I will definitely get before I start classes though. Fun Japanese paper, pens, and utensils. Fun fun. Then I tried my Visa card for the first time, and it didn't work. But at least I was just trying it for fun. I've got to figure out what went wrong, we were in a hurry, so I wasn't paying attention.

Then we went to the Kawasaki Community Center and watched someone receive Gohonzon. Then we were in the picture. I don't quite know why they wanted us in the picture, it was more on a intimate ceremony than in the U.S. Well, I don't want to know, I wish I didn't know. Right.

Yesterday we had a quite day at home, mostly. I slept until almost 11. Then we took Rano the dog for a walk. It was a long walk, and we got lost a little, but only a little. He's an old dog, so he had some trouble going up and down stairs. It was kind scary. Mostly he would trot along like a puppy, but when we came to stairs, his back feet would miss and he would stumble. He actually fell once, but I was behind him to catch him. Scariness.

Then we separated again to go to a block meeting. Block equates to Group, but with twice or three times the number as I'm used to. There was a guy there who lived in the U.S. for 26 years, longer than me. So he translated for me. They were very interested in SUA. For the people who almost single-handedly financially support SUA, they certainly don't know much about it. The Mizunos didn't even know that there was a graduate school.

Oh yeah, and Okaasan had me wear a sunflower, the symbol of the current Komeito candidate. We're a little nervous about a religious organization mandating voting for one party. Okay, a lot nervous. So we asked what the Komeito poplicy is. They said peace. So we were like...how? And they didn't have too much of an answer. They were focused on peace in Iraq. But I don't know what that means for Domestic policy. From what I've heard, it sounds very conservative to me, which I don't agree with. Otousan said that most parties lie, and this one doesn't, so they are the best. But to me, if they tell the truth about doing something I don't agree with, that's still bad. Anyway, it seems very like SUA to me. High ideals with very little in the way of concrete policies that are going to make it happen.