My First Day In Japan

For those of you who were coming to my blog to read insightful testimonies, see beautiful pictures, and be inspired I have to apologize today. You won’t find any of that for this blog entry. In fact, I won’t even be offended if you stop reading now. Why you ask? Let me explain if you really want to know.

Today was my first full day in Japan. I’ve never been here before so I was excited to get out and immerse myself in the culture. But God had a different plan. Yesterday on the flight from the United States I noticed I was getting a sore throat. Today I woke up and was feeling awful and running a slight fever. So…I have been forced to spend the entire day dwelling inside the OMS guest apartment. Not all was lost, however, as I recalled some of my missionary training that I got this past summer in Indiana. (Thank you Dean Davis!)

The training was in regards to paying attention in a new culture and making several observations about what you see around you and asking lots of questions about those observations. So as I rambled around the apartment I noticed several things that were different right away. Let me share them with you and we can learn together! (You can click on any of the pictures to make them larger.)

The first thing was this bottle of CC Lemon drink that had been purchased for me. The hope was that if I overdosed on Vitamin C, I would be feeling better in a shorter amount of time. Anyway, the label says there are 210 lemon’s worth of Vitamin C in every bottle. How do they know that? What size are the lemons? Is this stuff safe to drink? These are some of the questions that quickly came to mind.




My next observation came in the refrigerator as I was putting my lemon drink away. Here was a strange food substance with a picture of a baby on it and the claim that it is food for ages 0 to 100. What if I’m 101 years old? And what’s the deal with the baby? It has a Mohawk and what looks like little wings behind it’s back. It’s kind of creepy. And I’m still not sure what the food is, but maybe tomorrow if I’m still sick I’ll work up the courage to eat some of it.


Next I went into the bedroom to take a nap. It was warm in the room so I grabbed the remote control for the air conditioner to cool the room down a bit. First of all, remote controls for air conditioners are a great idea! I’ve seen them around the world, but not in the States. Maybe that’s because I live in Oregon though. Anyway, as I was saying the remote is awesome, but what’s not so awesome is the Japanese writing next to the buttons. Fortunately I found a translation sheet lying in the room. What if there had been no translation though? Would I have burned up in misery?





Back to the kitchen I was horrified to discover that the evils of American culture have been more destructive in Japan than anyone ever thought possible. Buried deep in the cabinet was this can of SPAM. As if that isn’t disturbing enough, take a good look at the label. At the bottom is a warning not to use the knowledge of SPAM for evil purposes. Who would put such a warning on their product? What type of evil purposes are they referring to? Isn’t taking SPAM around the world an evil thing? And look at the label again. There is actually a proper method for slicing SPAM. And the slice guide lets you know how thick to slice it if you are an infant or a linebacker. More questions I have are: Who would feed this to an infant? Would a linebacker know how to read instructions on the back of a can?




Sensing the urge to use the bathroom I began to wonder just what effect those 210 lemons were having on me. As I stepped in the bathroom I couldn’t help but notice these next jewels of cultural genius. Heading over to the sink there are what appear to be cleaning instructions attached to the fixture. Apparently magic scrubbing stars are the way to clean the sink instead of other chemical cleaners such as AJAX, bleach, toothpaste, nail polish, and the mystery bottle which every bathroom has. But where can you buy magic scrubbing stars? Are they anything like the scrubbing bubbles we have in the States?

Finally I noticed what has to be the miracle product for all the women in the world. For all you ladies, it seems as if the Japanese have finally discovered the way to keep us guys in check with instructions about where the toilet lids should go. Take a close look at the green sticker on the underside of the lid. I don’t think any translation or further observation is needed.

Now that you’ve read this far even though I suggested you didn’t have too, do you feel any closer to the Japanese culture today? I know that I certainly do. It’s amazing what you can learn if you just take the time to look around and pay attention. May this be a lesson we all take with us today. Oh, and by the way, please pray that I’ll be feeling better soon. I really don’t want to be forced to eat the mystery food for ages 0 to 100 that is lurking in the fridge.