Community. When looking at my community in the nearby vicinity in Morioka, it's a bit hard. There's not much interaction between my host mother and the neighbor at least in what she includes me in, so it's hard to say.

Here's what I do know. It's quite beautiful; despite being near a major road with businesses lining the sides, it's fairly quiet (except for those annoying government vans and the dog living around the corner). The neighbors all seem to know each other on an acquaintance basis; it's not rare to see two passerby stop for a quick chat, and my host mom is often sidetracked by fellow neighbors when seen with a foreigner. For the eighth or ninth time too, haha.

So people seem to mind their own business with a cheery disposition towards others. I wonder if this is because of the business setting right in their backyards, or if this is uniform throughout Morioka or even Japan.



But the best part of the community in my opinion is that of the park being simply in the middle of it. The trees seem to split it up giving enough space and area for relaxtion whether it's older school kids biking, someone taking a quick bite during a breather, or kids playing on the equipment. In fact, green seems a very common theme with plants shoved in almost nook and cranny not road, house, or parking.

Impressions

As with all traveling experiences, I guess the biggest thing that sticks out for people is the differences. For me, there was no difference. I think it all started with the plane where English wasn't the 1st option, or even the 2rd, but the 3rd.

Finally English! After three screens of Chinese and Japanese only for it to be in... the metric system! This eventually changed as once we hit Narita, you get to add Korean to the mix. It does make for shortcuts if you know Kanji or Hangeul; otherwise you're stuck waiting for English to know where you are. Not a gripe, but was definitely the first sense of culture shock.

After that it was, 'Look at this! Look at that! It's so different!' I don't think it helped we stayed in a traditional looking inn for the first few nights either...

Either way, after the initial shock, the differences seem to give way to the similarities. Hopefully, as someone wiser advised me, that will help highlight what makes Japan so special.