Interesting things about Japan

1. People are very relaxed about vehicle safety, especially with children.  The Japanese government made having a car seat for a child a law only 6 years. ago.  It is still not really enforced, and I have seen all kinds of crazy situations since I have been here.  I saw one mother driving with her maybe 5/6 year old hanging halfway out the back window with no seat belt on.  I saw a mother drive to the grocery store with an infant on her lap in the front seat.  I have seem another mother put her infant in a child seat but had it in the front seat of her car facing forward! I have even hear from someone that they saw a mother with a baby in a sling on her back driving!  The baby was smushed between her back and the seat of the car!  Thankfully Miki's mom rented a pretty good car seat free from the police but we have to bring it back every 10 days to renew the rental.  She also had a booster seat that she wanted to bring to the police station to get them to check if it was safe (which it wasn't) on the hope they would realize that and give us the good seat for an extended time.  The police man didn't care about the safety at all, he said as long as there is a car seat (it doesn't matter if it fits the child or not) then the situation is legal.  It was rather shocking as in Canada every car seat law is so focused on the child's safety and making sure the seat is installed correctly and the child is strapped in the right way to the right kind of seat.

I also learned that there is not "test" to get you licence.  The process is that once you are 18 you can pay 3-5 grand and take some lessons with the government centre and get your licence.  Not test, road test, or anything!  It's a little scary and is indicative to some of the crazy drivers here.  I do not think there is any kind of pedestrian right of way here and you must always be aware of cars around you and look both ways when you cross!  Especially the opposite way we are use to looking since they drive on the opposite side here.  I saved Greg from walking straight into an oncoming car!  When parents say always look BOTH ways before crossing the street it's for good reason!

2. There are deadly insects here!  I saw in Ueno park the other day dome kind of demon centipede. Turns out it is called Mukade here and can grow up to 20 cm long!  It is not something that can be squished as the are very fast and deadly.  There is a special spray that people buy and it stuns/paralyze them for a short time allowing you to dispose of them.  They have a thick black body and yellow or read spiky legs.  I am so
thankful I live in Canada...and I thought our centipedes were gross.  They are like cute bunnies compared to the Mukade.  Here is a picture, though I did not stop to take one of the thing I saw, I found this off the internet.  If you get bit by one of these you must go to the hospital immediately!

3. On the train to Ikebukuro Greg got a great view of a special Japanese animal!  I saw it quickly as he pointed it out but not a good glance.  When he started describing it to me saying it was a big shaggy black animal with a blue face I thought he was out to lunch, but I looked up Japanese wildlife on Wikipedia and found the animal! It is the elusive Japanese Serow, called Kamoshika.  They are indigenous to the largest island here of Honshu.  They are not endangered, but are very hard to spot and we asked 4 Japanese people so far and none of them had ever seen one or knew anyone who had.  So we were especially lucky!  Here is the link.

4. There are no towels in any public bathroom.  The are also no hand dryers.  Everyone here has special hand towels they carry with them.  You can buy these towels everywhere and they come in designer to cute patterns.  There is also no soap in a lot of public bathrooms which is freaky, thankfully I brought antibacterial wipes with us!

5. There are also no garbages in most public places.  Often you have to carry your garbage around with you back to your house.  It is extremely surprising that there is not a lot of garbage around, at least nothing as what you would expect for having no public trash bins!