Here we go...

My older brother said that it would take me three months to get this up and running... well... he was obviously more ambitious than I. 

 I have been in Japan now for five months.  Suffice to say that a lot has gone on in the last five months, and while I will do my best to remain true to the reason for this blog, I can't promise that it will be informative, interesting, or accurate.  I am also, not entirely sure how to blog, so I suppose this is going to be, more than anything a learning experience.

How about, to start things off, I go ahead and say one thing that surprised me most about Japan when I arrived?
I would say that Japan being a little bit technologically old-fashioned was probably the most surprising part about arriving here.  For some reason, I envisioned Japan: world of super-fast computers, widespread wireless internet, and cash transfers so smart I could just think about purchasing a new sweater and all the Japanese super-technology would find it, choose the right size, and buy it for me, without me ever having to leave my own head.

I'm sure you could imagine my surprise to find that the computer I use in my office is a very slow hp circa 1999; that wireless internet is available, but not widespread, and obtaining it in my own house took a considerable amount of time; and well, as for financial issues, I will just say that Japan is almost entirely a cash society.  This means that my first night in Tokyo was spent searching around for an ATM machine.  I found a few banks, with ATM machines inside, that were closed, asked about ten different convenient stores for directions to ATMs, finally found one inside a 7-11, only to find that it didn't even accept MasterCards.  Now that I have a Japanese bank, I still need to be wary as all ATM machines close at 9pm, no bills can be paid online, and next to nothing can be purchased with a card.  What does this mean?  Plan your day to get to the bank before 5pm (when it closes), or pay extra withdrawal fees at the ATM (even if it is your bank), and when you do get out money, make sure to get out enough... because if you run out... there is no other way.

Luckily, though, the people in Japan are so wonderful, that I have been bailed out of a few financial jams merely on goodwill.  Yes, perfect strangers have either given me money or paid my way for me, if the situation so called for it.  This includes being loaned money to buy lunch, being given a free ride on the train when I realized I had no money, being given a free ride on the bus after an unsuccessful trip to the only ATM machine for miles out in the countryside only to find it was broken, and being bought dinner by a complete stranger at least twice.

On the same vein, I will say that all banking still uses papers here in Japan too.  Internet banking is uncommon, and all ATM machines inside banks still utilize bank books that print all of your withdrawal and deposit information every time you use them.  Which I like.  This is one part of American banking that I miss and has been lost relatively recently.  It's sort of cute to have a little bank book that records all your financial comings and goings.  It's convenient, and all in one place, and unlike an internet website, it is tactile, and albeit, occasionally able to be lost in your purse.

Of course, I do not live in Tokyo... so I realize that there are some international banks in Japan that do offer internet banking, and a very intricate system of banking exists.  Actually, that brings me to my next point, that, there is actually nothing lost in this system.  While I can't pay my bills at 11:59pm the day they are due online, I will say that most companies in Japan don't charge late fees anyway.  So, if I forget to pay my bill today, I can go to 7-11 to pay the bill tomorrow without any trouble.  It actually makes a great deal of common sense.  Secondly, you just adjust.  In the same way that cultures where things close for siesta between noon and three, you simply adjust your life so that you make it to the bank by 5.  Or you go without.  The paperwork, the keeping of paperwork, and of bank books, and of stamps and seals, while seemingly outdated in the U.S., is actually very far from it.  If anything, there is again, real tactile evidence of things being paid on time, papers being signed, money being deposited, withdrawn, transferred etc.  The system works very well.  If I want to pay for a plane ticket directly from my bank account, I go to my ATM machine, enter a routing number for the account I want to deposit the money into (which the company I am paying will have given me), and I can transfer that money into the account in a few minutes.  And as I mentioned before, bills can be paid at 7-11, giving reason for the name "convenient store."  Most bills are actually automatically taken out of my account every month (another great part of the Japanese banking system- widespread automatic deposit), but for all bills that aren't automatically paid from my account, I can simply bring them to 7-11, and the clerk accepts my money, stamps my bill and acts as middle man for my bill paying.  Nice system.

So, I guess, back to my original point... what surprised me? 
I guess the way modernity looks in Japan surprised me.  It is actually far less futuristic than I imagined.  And, to be honest, it's much more real.  It seems that modernity has more to do with how old models are adapted into today's modern society in Japan.  It makes sense that old traditions are maintained so well in Japan, then.  This is something I'll express more later, but I just keep getting the feeling that the old slogan "out with the old, in with the new," doesn't apply here.  But rather, it is an accepted fact that old stuff needs to be maintained in order ensure its ability to continue to work now.  Old computers are still used because it seems that maintaining a good computer and continuing to use it, is better than creating more waste and unnecessarily buying a new one.  Likewise, using a fail-proof banking system, that has been used for a long time, adjusted to fit the times with neighborly manners and flexibility as far as bill-paying is concerned works just as well as a minute-by-minute internet banking system.  In fact, in some ways, it works better.  (No paying heaps of late fees or overdraft charges).  And as for wireless internet well... I love mine, and I love places that use it.  It used to be available everywhere in Japan (is what they tell me), but something happened ... I'll need to check up on it.