Everything is "Just my size"

Having always been short in America, finally, everything here is just the right height for me. The kitchen table in my apartment is perfectly low, coming up to my upper thigh. The counters are just above waist height. My bed is low to the ground, and easy to fall into to sleep. When I went out to eat on Saturday afternoon, the table wasn't embarassingly high, so I didn't have to sit on my leg to be tall enough to eat at it. (I have to do this at some tables in American restuarants, and whenever I sit in a booth at one.) Here in Japan, I really do feel tall, or at least grown up! :-D

sounds of tokyo

I've noticed, living here in Tokyo, that there are some new sounds and sounds that I appreciate more, now that they are rare.

New Sounds

• I keep hearing and seeing these large, loud and resonant crows. Honestly, these crows (ravens?) sound like they're cawing into megaphones!
  
• While the typhoon was threatening off the coast of Japan on Sunday, Tokyo saw a lot more wind than the gentle breezes I had been enjoying pulling through my apartment. As the wind blew between and around all the buildings it ocassionally made a sucking sound, like a giant vaccuum cleaner!
• The area that I live in is relatively quiet, because it is off of main roads a bit and the city I live in, Chofu, is technically outside of "official" Tokyo. So very few "city sounds" disrupt my little apartment. However, I do hear sirens now and then. These are different than the normal fire, ambulance, and police sirens from home. I think they sound like the French police sirens, which sound kind of old fashioned, and you know, funny.
  

English!

• I have been listening to a Tokyo radio station, 81.3 am, which plays some English music. It's DJ's occasionally say a phrase or sentence in English and the commercials have the random short sentence in English or familiar word: "I'm lovin' it!" or "Starbucks." (Actually, one of the first businesses I saw in Tokyo was in the train station area underneath the airport terminal. It was a Starbucks. I was equally saddened and comforted. I didn't shop there, though. Instead, I got a Melon Soda (by Fanta) at a stand upstairs, with the help of Osamu, who picked me up.)
  
• "Hi I'm Johnny Depp. I hope you like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." When these words came from Japanese tv out of the mouth of no other but Johnny Depp, I was enthralled. It was only a preview for the movie, with Johnny Depp wishing that his Japanese audiences would enjoy it, but it was in English. And it was a face I recognized! At the end of the commercial, Johnny was back on and he did a little wink and maybe a cool "guns" thing. I just wish I could have watched it with my Depp-fan, little sister. Sammi, I am considering trying to tape it for you, but I've only seen it once so far. . .