Today I mark 10 years living and working in Japan. To commemorate the occasion, here is one of my first blog posts from October 2006:

Some things about Japan that I’ve noticed:

• The plugs don’t have switches, so if you want to turn something off, you have to physically unplug it
• Semi-automatic doors: they lack motion sensors and only open when you press the button
• Pelican crossings have no buttons to press
• When it rains, everyone uses an umbrella
• There are little racks in which to put your wet umbrella when entering shops
• The Japanese are incredibly polite: one night some of us got lost, and when we asked for directions, we were escorted by a stranger for a good half-mile to the train station, which was the opposite direction to which he had been walking
• The local gaijin pub, Mattari, serves fish and chips
• The Japanese like queuing even more than the British. You might even expect to find them queuing on the platform for trains
• There are lots of bikes
• Pachinko parlors: buy yourself a tub full of ball bearings and pour them into an inverted pinball machine. Adopt an expression of post-lobotomy desolation. These places are completely insane.

For a more comprehensive run down of the past decade, check out my post on TEFL Journey.