Everyday Japanese life
When I came to Japan, I worried, “How will I live?” How will I find food? What will I eat? (That was my single biggest concern: food.) What if I need a doctor and medicine? What if I need shoes, or furniture? How will I be able to do anything? How will I find my way around? What if it rains? What if I need shampoo? Or Q-tips? I’ll just die like a fish out of water. I remember my father telling me that the Japanese were friendly people, and that it would all work out. He was right. Japanese are very friendly.
Why, oh why did I come here? I came anyway. There were no jobs in Canada. I know, because I applied to every public school board from Halifax, NS to Vancouver, BC - literally, not figuratively - and several Catholic School Boards and northern Indian Reservations as well, and there were no jobs. Or, no jobs for me, anyway. Plus, I figured that if I was ever going to embark on an adventure like this, that was the time to do it. I’m not an adventurous person. I have a low threshold of excitement, I think. But there is merit in moving away from home and seeing places new as well as different.
There was no internet when I came to Japan. No Wikipedia, no website homepages to provide quick and easy information. (No laptop computers, no digital cameras or cell phones, or DVDs either. No Google, no Yahoo, no Facebook and no Amazon.) Everything came through print media, or verbally from people with direct experience and knowledge.
Fortunately, Japanese people are very kind, and Japan was/is a fully stocked modern country. I could recognize drug stores, supermarkets, food, banks and post offices, dental clinics, dry cleaners, etc. just by looking at them. Every neighborhood has its own local shopping street (a “shotengai”) providing daily necessities to the neighborhood. And commuter hubs are developed centers of business and commerce. Large stores can be found near the train stations. Sometimes, the train companies own the large stores (and sometimes a professional sports team, too) and put the two together: train station and department store in one big unit. Not only is Japan a normal place to live, but in many ways it is a better place to live - better than … other places.
Convenience Stores
Seven-Eleven FamilyMart Lawson
NewDays Ministop Daily Yamazaki
Tomony
Fast Food Restaurants
McDonald’s Burger King Kentucky Fried Chicken
Wendy’s Lotteria MOS Burger
Freshness Burger Yoshinoya Matsuya
Family Restaurants
Jonathan’s Saizeriya Gusto
Denny’s Royal Host
Coffee Shops
Starbucks Mister Donut Doutor
Excelsior Tully’s Pronto
Beck’s Veloce
Department Stores
Marui Mitsukoshi Isetan
Takashimaya Parco Seibu
Odakyu Keiyo Lumine
Matsuya Kintetsu Daimaru
Supermarkets
Olympic Inageya Summit
Seiyu Co-op Tsukasa
Life Aeon Ito-Yokado
Peacock Ozeki
Drugstores
Welcia
Matsumoto Kiyoshi
Sundrug
Dollar Stores (¥100 Shops)
Daiso
Can Do
Lawson Store 100
Tokyo Geography
(the 23 central Wards)
Shinjuku Shibuya Shinagawa
Setagaya Suginami Toshima
Nerima Nakano Chiyoda
Chuo Kita Itabashi
Ota Taito Sumida
Edogawa Bunkyo Adachi
Arakawa Katsushika Minato
Meguro Koto