Japan 30 Day meme: Day 1

Since this is my Japan blog, I figured for the sake of encouraging myself to update more often, I would do a Japan one-a-day survey meme that I found on a friend’s livejournal. Hopefully she doesn’t mind that I snagged it, but it seems like a fun one. If anyone else wants to do their own, I’d love to read your answers ;) Credit goes to hinoai @ LJ, via chochajin!

Here are the questions I’ll be answering over the next month:

Day 01 – A picture of you “in Japan”. (doing or wearing something “Japanese”)
Day 02 – Describe your neighborhood in Japan.
Day 03 – Most interesting person you met.
Day 04 – What’s your favorite place that’s not in any of the guidebooks/lists of places to visit?
Day 05 – Which, if any, Japanese mannerisms or expressions have you adopted?
Day 06 – Food that you swore you would never eat but now love (or tolerate).
Day 07 – Which Japanese words do you use in English? (hanami, shinkansen, etc.)
Day 08 – Are you a Herbivore or Carnivore? S or M?
Day 09 – Favorite stores/shopping centers.
Day 10 – Something about Japan that sets it apart from anywhere else.
Day 11 – What did you find most overrated and underrated about Japan?
Day 12 – Describe a fail!gaijin moment. (Where you did something wrong or completely misunderstood because you couldn’t ~read the air~ or just plain had no idea what you were supposed to do because you weren’t born and raised here) Describe a gaijin!smash moment .(Where your foreignness was to your benefit)
Day 13 – Something about Japan that reminds you of home? [I made up this question actually... it was originally a repeat of number 10 so I came up with a new one to answer instead!]
Day 14 – What is the hardest thing about living in Japan versus your home country?
Day 15 – Weirdest food item you’ve seen, and weirdest food item you’ve actually eaten.
Day 16 – How you realised you’d acclimated to Japan. (if you have)
Day 17 – Your karaoke top 5, your sushi top 5, your conbini top 5.
Day 18 – Post some amusing/cute/faily purikura.
Day 19 – Your favorite Japanese character(s) and Gachapon/UFO Catcher toys
Day 20 – Favorite Japanese festival or folklore.
Day 21 – Favorite and least favorite Japanese fashion trends.
Day 22 – Your favorite Japanese saying or kotowaza (proverb).
Day 23 – What is something you have/do in Japan that you wish you had/could do in your home country?
Day 24 – Your favorite Japanese slang or borrow-word (外来語), e.g. セフレ “sex friend”
Day 25 – Most interesting vending machine find.
Day 26 – What’s your favorite/least favorite train line.
Day 27 – Place you avoid going to if at all possible.
Day 28 – A picture of you looking like a weaboo/A picture of you trying to blend in and failing.
Day 29 – What’s the thing you [will] miss most about Japan when you leave (either on vacation, or move away)?
Day 30 – Did Japan meet your expectations, both good and bad? What has been the most surprising thing about Japan for you, or the thing you least expected?

And here is my response for today!

Day 01 – A picture of you “in Japan”. (doing or wearing something “Japanese”)

I have plenty of these, too many to choose. So even though it’s kinda lame compared to some other stuff I’ve shared in the past, I’ll just pick the most recent photo of me saved on our camera:

Here is me at our neighborhood Autumn Matsuri in Fukui, on the first day of Autumn of course! It was raining like cats and dogs that night, but it didn’t stop all the Japanese baby boomers from dressing in their finest wafuku to cover their favorite enka classics on-stage for all to enjoy! (To quote Tatsuya: “This is SOOOO inaka (country) matsuri!”) Also, you can see Otousan in the background talking to a neighbor friend. Good times.

I still want to do regular life updates in addition to these, but at least now I definitely have something to talk about every day for a while! Thanks for reading, see you again tomorrow! ;D

Tags: 30 day meme