Life as it is... living in Japan

In just eight months in Japan I have seen more money than in my entire life. The reason is not that I earn more money now than I ever have, it's that Japan is a cash based society. Unless it is set up as a direct debit from my account, I see the money pass through my hands. I bought my car using cash. My new couch, my monthly rent, fuel, food, insurance, all cash. Anything I want, need, have bought or will buy, you guessed it cash. Drawing $300 out of an ATM is not a big deal. In fact, I very rarely would draw less than that out. That is generally enough to cover one bill, with some remaining for everyday expenses. Most people will tell you that you need at least $200 for 'walking around money.' That's probably a fair amount in my experience. It used to bother me, having so much money on me. Even if it was only for 5 minutes while I walk from the ATM to the bank teller, it would make me sweat. What if I loose my wallet? What if I get mugged? In the end you rea...

After years and years of high school computer classes and hours upon hours of practicing on Messenger and Facebook Chat, I am happy to announce that I am accomplished in touch typing. Well I was, before I moved to Japan and someone moved the ‘@’ key. Its place of residence is now to the right of the ‘p’ button, and does not require the simultaneous pressing of shift. Not that big of a deal, right? Wrong! Typing an email becomes quite stressful if you need to look at the keyboard for a solid minute to find the @ button every time. And blogging about said @ key is just as annoying.   But wait, there’s more. More keys that is. More keys that have moved that is. Actually there are quite a few differences on a Japanese keyboard as you may notice from this picture. Another one that frequently trips me up is the apostrophe. Now, just between us, I never really found the apostrophe key all that useful in the first place. I mean don’t versus dont, who cares right? Spell check wil...