Lessons learned in Japan
I noticed that the Smackdown crew is heading out on a tour of Japan. As someone who spent a few months wrestling in Japan, I learned quite a bit about Japanese culture and daily life. I figured this forum gives me a great opportunity to pass along a bit of what I learned, mainly things I wish I knew before heading over there.
There is no need to worry about theft in Japan. The Japanese people have no desire for other people’s things. Your luggage will be perfectly safe in a hotel, in a car, or even left on a busy sidewalk. I accidentally dropped one of my bags when carrying my baggage into my hotel, and noticing over an hour later, it was still sitting untouched on the sidewalk. There’s no market for used goods in Japan. No pawn shops, no garage sales, no flea markets. Whatever is yours is exclusively yours.
There are some community items though, those being bicycles and umbrellas. It’s perfectly acceptable to grab a bicycle that’s parked outside a building and ride it to wherever you are going, and then leave it outside when you arrive for someone else to take. Because of this fact all bikes in Japan are simple and old fashion. Umbrellas are quite similar; there are a bunch of them outside of every restaurant, bar, and hotel for anyone to grab and leave at your next stop.
People have great manners in Japan. For instance, before boarding a subway train, everyone reaches in to their pockets and puts a breath mint in their mouth. Because the trains are so congested, no one wants to be rude and breathe bad breath into someone else’s face. And if you have a cold it’s a social good grace to wear a surgical mask when you are out as to not spread your germs. And everyone has business cards, when you first meet someone they will generally offer you a business card held in both hands and bow, then you should do the same with your own card, then you accept the card with both hands and bow, study the card intently while holding it in two hands, and you don’t put it in your pocket in the other person’s presence.
Everything is available in vending machines. You’ll see entire city blocks that are completely lined with vending machines on each side of the road. They sell anything you could desire. Full course meals, clothing, even appliances. There are beer, wine, and liquor machines, where you can buy from a can to a keg of beer. You can get a whiskey on the rocks on a street corner, a martini in a can, warm sake, and 40 ounce plastic bottles on beer. There are also a lot of machines serving hot coffee in a can; the best of all is probably Coffee Boss. There aren’t a lot of dairy products in Japan, so there is a lack of natural calcium in Japan. Thus you’ll see a lot of “Once a day,” machines that sell calcium sodas and vitamin juices. There are also naughty machines that sell edible underwear, sex toys, condoms and other such items. There are ten vending machines for every one person in Japan.
And don’t worry too much about figuring out the yen system, as strangely enough 100 yen is almost the equivalent of one dollar. Just think of it like the Japanese never use decimal points in their money, or you can also think about it like pennies. 100 yen is one dollar, 1000 yen in ten dollars, 10000 yen is one hundred dollars and so on.
This should serve all come in very handy when in Japan. All these things I learned out of necessity, because they are things you come across almost every day. I hope you all have a terrific time.
There is no need to worry about theft in Japan. The Japanese people have no desire for other people’s things. Your luggage will be perfectly safe in a hotel, in a car, or even left on a busy sidewalk. I accidentally dropped one of my bags when carrying my baggage into my hotel, and noticing over an hour later, it was still sitting untouched on the sidewalk. There’s no market for used goods in Japan. No pawn shops, no garage sales, no flea markets. Whatever is yours is exclusively yours.
There are some community items though, those being bicycles and umbrellas. It’s perfectly acceptable to grab a bicycle that’s parked outside a building and ride it to wherever you are going, and then leave it outside when you arrive for someone else to take. Because of this fact all bikes in Japan are simple and old fashion. Umbrellas are quite similar; there are a bunch of them outside of every restaurant, bar, and hotel for anyone to grab and leave at your next stop.
People have great manners in Japan. For instance, before boarding a subway train, everyone reaches in to their pockets and puts a breath mint in their mouth. Because the trains are so congested, no one wants to be rude and breathe bad breath into someone else’s face. And if you have a cold it’s a social good grace to wear a surgical mask when you are out as to not spread your germs. And everyone has business cards, when you first meet someone they will generally offer you a business card held in both hands and bow, then you should do the same with your own card, then you accept the card with both hands and bow, study the card intently while holding it in two hands, and you don’t put it in your pocket in the other person’s presence.
Everything is available in vending machines. You’ll see entire city blocks that are completely lined with vending machines on each side of the road. They sell anything you could desire. Full course meals, clothing, even appliances. There are beer, wine, and liquor machines, where you can buy from a can to a keg of beer. You can get a whiskey on the rocks on a street corner, a martini in a can, warm sake, and 40 ounce plastic bottles on beer. There are also a lot of machines serving hot coffee in a can; the best of all is probably Coffee Boss. There aren’t a lot of dairy products in Japan, so there is a lack of natural calcium in Japan. Thus you’ll see a lot of “Once a day,” machines that sell calcium sodas and vitamin juices. There are also naughty machines that sell edible underwear, sex toys, condoms and other such items. There are ten vending machines for every one person in Japan.
And don’t worry too much about figuring out the yen system, as strangely enough 100 yen is almost the equivalent of one dollar. Just think of it like the Japanese never use decimal points in their money, or you can also think about it like pennies. 100 yen is one dollar, 1000 yen in ten dollars, 10000 yen is one hundred dollars and so on.
This should serve all come in very handy when in Japan. All these things I learned out of necessity, because they are things you come across almost every day. I hope you all have a terrific time.