Wonderful things about Japan

Hello friends!!! It has been a few days since I last posted, so I thought it was about time :-)

I don't know if I have ever mentioned that this is my first time ever spending winter in Japan. Recently it has cooled down quite a bit so walking to and from the train station is mildly painful. The other night when I got home my legs were so cold they could not fully warm up until I got into the bath. This brings me to my topic of the day, "wonderful things about Japan". Of course, there are many wonderful things about Japan, but here are a few I would like to highlight today.

#1. Japanese baths.

BY FAR the best part of daily life in Japan. At home, we take showers and baths often in the same unit. However, in Japan, the shower and bath are separate (unless you live in an apartment than it could be diff) but are a part of the same room. Here is a picture for clarification.

So the really nice part about having a shower room is that you can sit and shower. It's nice because it's more relaxing to wash your body and hair sitting down. It's also a lot easier to shave this way too. It's sort of hard to see in this picture, but the faucet is the silver thing above the blue bowl. So if you want to put water in the bowl, it's nicer when you wash your face and stuff. It's also efficient because you can save water this way! :-) The thing that is covered to the left is the bath tub.

This is the tub without the lid. It's nice and deep so when you sit in it, it covers your shoulders easily :-) The little panel with the black screen on the right is the most amazing piece of technology ever! With the panel you can select how hot you want your water to be and how much water you want the tub to fill. Also, note that there is no faucet to the tub. This because once you set the panel to what temperature and how much you want to fill the tub, you push a button and it automatically prepares the bath for you from inside the tub! The tub has the ability to maintain the same temperature, so you never have to worry about it getting cold over time. AMAZING right?????

#2. Japanese Cellphones.

While I am in Japan, my good friend is letting me use one of his three phones because he works for NTT Docomo (thank you Shingo!) Even though the phone is about two years old, it is AGES ahead in technology compared to American phones. Instead of texting, they have e-mail which is what they use instead of texting. Although this may not seem like much of a difference, it's really nice because people can "text" me directly to my phone from a computer. So if you ever want to send me a little message, feel free to text me at sachiyo.isoda@docomo.ne.jp. I have unlimited emails so any message is welcome :-)

The other nice thing about my phone is that it takes great pictures. My digital camera is about 6 years old now, but my camera and my phone almost take the same quality picture (ridic). I can also watch TV as a part of my all you can use internet plan which is pretty cheap. Even though you can do a lot of these things on an iphone, the monthly plan is cheaper than having an iphone which is awesome. You can also use your phone as a credit card, although I'm currently not doing that.

#3. Japanese food.

Japanese food is definitely the best (I am aware I am biased). For those who are not aware, ramen in Japan is amazing. It's not the cheap crap that college students eat because they don't have money. People really get into it here. Really popular ramen places have lines going out the door and you have to wait to get in to eat. My first weekend in Tokyo, I went to a ramen place in Shibuya, and it was SO good!!! The place is called Ichiran, and of course, there was a line to get in. It was an interesting place because the seating was private booths, so even though I went in with 2 other friends we all ate separately in our own booths. They specialize in tonkotsu (pork broth) ramen. Gochisousama*