Japan vs Australia: part 1

I recently returned to Australia after two years in Japan. After many occasions of answering Japanese people's questions about Australia, it was nice to reacquaint myself with how Australia actually is. Sometimes I'd say things like 'well, we don't have much authentic Japanese food in my hometown', then I would pause and think - is that really true? Or I just didn't notice it? You lose touch.

Anyway, after coming back to Australia, here are some of the things that struck me:

Everyone was ordering their own meals again. The meals were usually too big to comfortably finish, and nobody shared.

People didn't automatically stand to the left of the escalator, and let people walk on the right. Actually, I first noticed this in Singapore, where I stopped en route to Australia. A couple of times I had to bite my tongue to stop myself telling my friend 'shouldn't you move over?'

It's true; the temperature really does go way up and down here. One week will be all 19s and 20s; the next, high 30s. In a single day - literally, in the span of two hours - it plunged from 38 degrees down to 18 degrees. In Yokohama, the weather didn't vary quite so wildly from one week to the next.

It is cold here! I wasn't just imagining it. And my friends weren't just being sad, not-used-to-really-cold-weather Australians, either. Okay, so the actual thermometer temperatures are slightly higher than in Japan. But buildings are really inadequately heated. I sat in a library, wearing a long-sleeved top, jacket, and coat. And I was so cold I had to leave. I went to a different library; same outfit; same problem. Even cafes weren't warm.

I can get cappuccinos everywhere!! I can get decaf coffee anywhere!! I can drink coffee anywhere, any time I want! I don't have to patronise Starbucks, and Starbucks alone, all the time! (And in fact, Starbucks went bust in this city after less than two years, due to its lack of popularity. So there actually are no Starbucks here. Mind you, I do now have a soft spot for it, but Starbucks Japan's coffee was much better than Starbucks Australia's..)