Something seemed odd to me the other day when I saw a stop light hung vertically, then it hit me, Japan is starting to look ‘normal’! I remember when I first got here, which wasn’t that long ago, how strange everything seemed… Horizontally hung street lights, driving on the lefthand side of the road in a righthand drive, the clown-car sized vehicles, a language that’s so far removed from anything I’ve ever known that it may as well be invisible and inaudible, the obscene amount of traffic, the glowing presence of vending machines in every nook and corner of this country, going an entire day (out in the public) without seeing a single Caucasian or any other non-Asian race, the ridiculous amount of bicyclists (and not the kind that respectfully share the road with vehicles)… These are just a few things that don’t strike me as odd anymore. It’s funny, and quite amazing, how quickly one can adapt to a new life.