Japanese on everything

The fact that Japan is so self-sufficient (e.g. it makes its own cars, electronics, household items etc) means that almost everything in it is in the Japanese language. That’s perfectly fine for a Japanese person of course, but it means hours of head scratching for a linguistically challenged person like me.

In my first week in Japan, it took me like forever to do simple everyday activities in the house because all its consoles or instructions are in Japanese: Operate rice cooker, heat food in microwave, cook on stove, figure out buttons on the automated toilets so I don’t fry myself, sort out items for recycling (this is a blog post for another day), and make sense of municipal notices. Do remember that I’m still at home, it’s another world out there…

Looking on the bright side, those challenges would also mean countless blunders for me to post on the blog, heh.