IT'S THE SMALL THINGS

Celebrating Children's Day in Japan on May 5

Long-time habits seem like minor things in life. The other day I used a different cereal bowl than my usual wide, low one. As I was scraping the steep sides clean, I noticed how different The new bowl felt. I had to work harder or differently to do the same task. Small thing to think about, but it reminded me of the little changes that occurred when we moved to Tokyo.

First change: I bought envelopes to mail letters at the stationery store next to our apartment building. I inserted my letter and licked the envelope only to realize more than once that there was no glue along the edge as there is in the United States. The Japanese used two-sided tape to seal envelopes - a much more sanitary closing when you think about it. They also address horizontal envelopes in line with their culture and opposite of what we do. Traditionally, the address moves from large to small, first the postal code, then  Japan followed by the city, the district, the nearest street corner, and the house number, which is not in numerical order, but in the order when the building was constructed. At the end is the person's name, last name first. Whenever I mailed an envelope, I thought of the difference in a culture's values. Is the individual more important or is the community?

Prayers hung at shrines in hopes of success on school finals

The second change:  I walked around our new neighborhood and saw at each street corner small plastic bags filled with trash and covered by a blue net haphazardly piled up across the sidewalks. At home in Danville, we had four large containers to collect our own trash, compost, and recyclables for the week. In Tokyo, I questioned their practice because the local crows quickly figured out ways under the blue netting and tumbled the trash out on the walkways. It just seemed like a huge mess. I later found out that Japanese homes reused much of what we Americans consider waste and each household left only a small grocery bag filled with absolute waste from a week of careful planning. After our first week in our apartment, I put our normal trash in the complex's small containers in the community closet meant for the 14th-floor occupants. Our trash alone filled the containers. I had to rethink our practices.

Third change: Walking down the street, we learned to walk single file because of the crowds on the walkways and also to walk on the left side of the path. The Japanese drive on the opposite side of the road from us and walk the same way. We also noticed the police kiosk in every neighborhood. I thought how easy it would be to summon help when we needed it.

Children Walking to School in Japan

We marveled at the line of neatly dressed kindergartners walking with their teachers down the busy streets. We saw same-aged children traveling by themselves on subways to school and the people on the trains looking out for them. Each child carried a heavy rigid backpack covered in patent leather or shiny plastic. They also wore either a red or yellow cap to make them stand out in a crowd.

Living in a different culture helped me to dissolve old habits and small-minded thinking that my own way was the only way to do things. The little differences made me more aware of alternative ways of living and how set in our ways we become when we don't experience the ways of other places.

Japanese builders put windows to frame a beautiful view