Left is Right and Right isn't Wrong

Living in Japan has opened my (Megan) eyes to many things.  In particular, all the things that are completely opposite from life as I knew it in America. I have begun a mini "file" of these things in my mind, and I think it's fun to consider how two places can do life so differently, yet still be similar in many ways as well. At first the opposite things drove me crazy. Now I'm learning not to judge so much and to consider how both ways have benefits. For example...

Language

Example of Japanese Newspaper
•  Japanese uses complex images (Kanji) to represent sounds, and English just uses the sounds.
• Japanese books often read from the right to the left, and the sentences are often written vertically.
• Grammar in Japanese works backwards from English. For example:
• English: "I like traveling by train to Nagoya every Sunday."
• In Japanese: "Every Sunday Nagoya to traveling is like (i)."
• In Japanese, there are lots of words and grammar structures only men use or ones only women say, but in English I think those are very rare.

Driving

The intersection by our church

• In Japan, you drive on the left side of the road. 
• The green arrow for those making a turn at an intersection, comes at the end of the green light, instead of before like America.
• Of course, Japan (and the rest of the world but the US) uses the metric system -  km/h, cm, m...
• Most people in Japan use public transportation regularly - bus, train, subway, bullet train. Most Americans own cars and travel by themselves.

Home

Our tatami bedroom floor

• Doors in homes slide open in Japan, in America they open in and out.
• Floors in Japanese homes are often made of Tatami, which is made of rice straw.
• In Japan we sleep on the floor, on a futon that we fold up every day to save space. In America, you sleep on a bed that stays there all the time. 
• Most people do not use/own a laundry dryer - they hang the clothes outside on a balcony. I'd never done that before we moved here!

Food

• Meat is a main food in America - either chicken or beef are a part of most meals. Japanese people consume fish and seafood much more than beef. Beef is rare and expensive here.
• Americans use forks - Japanese use chopsticks.
• Proportions are much smaller in Japan.
• Oh...and I've never seen fish heads, fish uterus's, seaweed, oysters, clams.....in an American grocery store.

There are many many more opposite and different things about Japan/America. All that to say, we've been living here for over 10 months, and we love it. Even when the differences are challenging, it's created good chances for us to grow and learn.