Gaijin • Tokyo • Undergound

New bread scanning register in Japan!

I stopped by the bakery located within Nakano station ( I wanted bread items for dinner, and I don't have to pay extra for leaving the station). I basically have stopped by here once a week for the last month and a half. Today, to my surprise at the register was this strange board of light. It looked similar to what artist used

as a light board for drawing. 

At first I thought what is this, then the display panel my right shows the tray of food products I wanted to eat immediately. The panel then highlighted the shapes of the items and priced them accordingly. 

I have been living in Japan for over 5 and a half years. In this time I think everyone I know has been on Japanese tv for one reason or another. But still in all this time I had never been approached, until now! I finally (maybe) will get my 5 seconds of foreigner glory to be on tv! The show is called sekaibanzuku and it usually features foreigners who are asked questions about Japan and their own country. We were asked to reply in Japanese, so I did my best ask to I'm still hey shakey at best.

Some of the questions I was able to answer unaided but a few I had to turn to my friend for the simplified version of the question in English. At that point I was able to answer in Japanese. Some of the topics were, how are the train systems in your home city, how do the compare to Japan. Compare doctors in Japan and ones home country and finally, the most importantant one of all... Which is your favorite type of ramen.

So to potentially see me on tv check out the Japanese site http://www.ntv.co.jp/banduke/ if I can get the video I'll eventually post it.

Just taking a moment to step back and take in your surroundings is key to keeping your sanity in japan, Tokyo in particular. 

This shot was taken in Shinjuku, west of the station. I was having lunch with some friends and while waiting for our food I looked out of the window and saw all 3 train lines arriving at the same time. For some reason this moment gave me that 'wow' factor, reminding me why I love living in Tokyo so much. It's all this craziness of Tokyo converging into a managed frenzy. 

Many tourists have this wow factor going on throughout their trip in Japan, but as a long term resident I feel many people forget the amazing city they live in. If you happen to move anywhere, I'd say no matter where you are you should always take a moment and remember the good reasons as to why you moved there in the first place.