Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 5, 2002
Occasional dispatches from a student ambassador to Japan.
More observations about life in Japan:
Talk about service. Even the luggage handlers on the tarmac wear white gloves.
I am fairly certain my host family's dog speaks English; we understand each other very well.
Cell phone technology seems generations ahead of the United States. Like the States, almost every teenager has one. But more than to make phone calls, they use their color screens to send each other pictures via e-mail and browse the Internet.
After school, Japanese children go to their equivalent of a burger joint, where their friends often work as waiters. But this is an udon noodle joint.
All the Japanese girls stop, stare and giggle at the Americajin when they think you don't notice them.
Japanese classes have two teachers who teach every subject, all in the same room, except for PE.
Japanese calligraphy is nowhere near as easy as it looks.
Bicycles have the right of way on the sidewalks, and as nice as the people are, they expect you to move or be run over if you are on foot.
Planning on reclining your seat on All Nippon Airlines, the Japanese carrier? Not if someone is in the seat behind you. It would be too rude to do so.
"Hazardous" does not begin to describe the Japanese driving experience. Roads are narrow as can be. One slip to the left or right on the road to my hosts' house will put you in the rice paddy below.
American movies are very popular in Japan. I spent about an hour with a Japanese student who spoke minimal English, recalling scenes from Top Gun and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. This was all done with facial expressions and a few dramatics.
- Aaron Connelly and Jennifer Hipfl, both 17, will be seniors at Shorecrest Preparatory School in St. Petersburg. They are serving as student ambassadors to Takamatsu, Japan, St. Petersburg's sister city. Aaron plans to pursue a career in international relations; Jennifer plans to pursue a career in international business. If you want to send the ambassadors a letter from home, send to connellyinjapan@hotmail.com.