Cool Things About Japan:
1. 100-yen ($0.85) stores that actually sell useful stuff, like umbrellas, candy, drinks, school supplies, and even underwear
2. Karaoke, the cheapest way to spend the whole night someplace, and the cheapest non-alcoholic nomihodai--all you can drink.
3. Free tissues at every train station! I even got some for opening a bank account at UFJ.
4. Trains that go everywhere, and a wide variety of options—from karaoke to capsule hotels to manga cafes to sleeping by the (surprisingly safe) river—for when it’s too late to take them.
5. Food food food! And lots of great cheap restaurants where you can get gyuudon (beef over rice) for $3, or lots of good gyoza or all-you-can-eat naan for under $10.
6. Seven-flavor days at Haagen-Dazs. Which are every Thursday. Seven scoops, seven flavors, around $3. Oh yeah…
7. Engrish everywhere. One of my summer projects will be submitting this stuff to engrish.com and putting it up on my Website. Unlike Taiwanese Engrish, Japanese Engrish usually makes sense, but just doesn’t quite seem to fit. This is why I bring a camera with me whenever I go shopping.
8. Vending machines everywhere. With 120 yen ($1) in hand you’re usually never far from a soda, juice, iced tea, Pocari Sweat (see Engrish above), iced coffee, or even hot coffee. Some even sell ice cream for 110 yen, and these are precious.
9. Konbini (convenience stores) everywhere. Cheap food, 100-yen ice cream, and their ready-made lunches, which they will happily microwave for you, ain’t your standard 7-Eleven fare. Ironically, there are a ton of 7-Elevens here, but no Slurpees
10. People handing out free DSL modems and Internet access on every corner...