Garbage in Japan

I realize that lately I have posted a lot of politics related stuff and not a lot of life-in-Japan stuff so I thought I would rectify that. So this post will be about garbage. Garbage-wise, Japan is an interesting place. On the one hand, you have to sort absolutely everything. As you can see from these photos of a pamphlet about garbage that we received, there are 10 different garbage categories. Japan also puts symbols on everything that tell you if it belongs in PET (bottles, cans), puro (plastic bags etc), tegami (paper) etc. to help you sort things. One would think that this is a reflection of a concern about how much garbage a place is producing. On the other hand, Japan is incredibly wasteful. If you buy a bottle of water or a pack of gum at the convenience store, they put it in a little bag (often while you are getting out your money so I only catch them about half the time). As I mentioned before, vending machines are everywhere, with plastic bottles. The produce is wrapped in plastic. Want a carrot? Here is a single carrot . . . in its own plastic bag. Bananas? How about five . . . in their own plastic bag. Perhaps some grapefruit . . . placed on a Styrofoam tray and then wrapped in plastic. Even the ginger is wrapped in plastic. It is absolutely ridiculous. As the garbage situation is so complicated, we had a 15 minute presentation today about how to sort your garbage. This included details like how you have to separate your paper - newspaper and white paper cannot go together. White paper and small ripped up pieces of paper cannot go together. It was fascinating.

Another frustrating thing about garbage in Japan is that garbage cans are really rare here - you just don't see them around at all. So if you buy a soda or a coffee or something, you can end up carrying the can/cup around for a fair bit until you find a place to throw it away (in the proper garbage can, of course). (Another question - it's considered rude in Japan to eat or drink while walking . . . so where do people drink all the drinks from the vending machines and eat the food from the conbini? I always see people buying this stuff, but never see them consuming it). I was talking about the lack of garbage cans situation with a friend and she (it was either Vanessa or Sharon) said that a friend told her that Japan used to have garbage cans everywhere until the sarin gas attacks in Tokyo in 1995, after which they were removed due to terrorism concerns. This is unverified but definitely within the realm of possibility.

So yeah, there's some little tidbits about everyday life in Japan. The weather is finally starting to cool off. Everything here is going pretty well - classes have started and as expected, they are very busy with lots of homework. I actually ended up with the same teacher that I had last summer (and really liked a lot) so that was great. My morning class is all girls and everone seems to be about the same level, so that's also a good thing. This week I've just spend most of my time doing work and chatting with my new Yale roommate, who is very nice and funny. We have a three day weekend because Monday is old people's day. I might go to Tokyo and visit a friend from last year's summer program, but I also have my Fulbright IIE application to finish :( Still, all is well. In closing, a picture of Utemaro, my roommate's dog. He is a cutie!