Salad bowl

Now I live in the northern part of Brooklyn where a lot of African Americans and Jewish people live. I found that people usually live in communities composed of the same ethnic group. When I took the subway (3 line), I sometimes found that there are only African Americans and Jewish people, and no Asian people on the train. I felt little uncomfortable there.

There is a Japanese community in NY Japanese people gather there, so you can buy Japanese language books and foods in NY. You can even eat Ramen there. To be honest, I felt pleasant when I visited the East Village where there are a lot of Japanese people and Japanese stores which were familiar to me. I can understand the reason why people live in their ethnic communities.

Salad bowl (cultural idea)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salad_bowl_(cultural_idea)

----quotation
In the salad bowl model, various American cultures are juxtaposed — like salad ingredients — but do not merge together into a single homogeneous culture. Each culture keeps its own distinct qualities.
----end

I think that the Salad bowl concept describe New York city situation well.

My first expression of foods in NY

I have lost 7lb (about 3 kg ) since I came to NY. The reason for the loss is that I did not know what foods to eat. I'm not a picky eater, I am just trying to eat healthy foods. I still do not know what food is good to eat.

My first expression of foods in NY is that

(1)A lot of foods are bigger than in Japan
(2)seasoned with more salty and more sugar
(3)Contains more artificial coloring

(1)A lot of foods are bigger than Japan
When I visit grocery stores, some vegetable are bigger than in Japan. There are an astonishingly big eggplants, strawberries, and green peppers in stores.

The portions in fast food are also bigger than in Japan. I was surprised by the large size of juice bottle.

(2)seasoned with more salty and more sugar
I found that most Japanese foods are lightly seasoned. Most foods seasoning in the US which I have eaten are too strong for me. I should look for lightly seasoned foods in US.

(3)Contains more artificial coloring
I was astonished by a blue cake I saw. I have never seen a blue color cake in Japan. Not only the blue color cake, but also other foods seem more artificially colored.

Anyway, I have to adjust to the foods in the US.

Working hours

Normal Japanese 30 years olds with permanent jobs work long hours. An astonishing 20% of the people work more than 60 hours a week. The lifetime employment contracts and the difficulty of changing jobs causes this problem.

The most surprising thing in the US is that people usually do not work long hours like the Japanese. My host family's father usually comes home at 6:30 PM. He is not an exception, other people also come home early.

On the other hand, most Japanese fathers can not have a dinner with their families on weekdays. I think that American people enjoy their lives, and Japanese people can not afford to enjoy their lives now. The Japanese are like “the Grey Gentlemen” in the novel of Momo written by Michael Ende.

We should change our working environment and eradicate the most shameful word, Karoshi (death from overwork) , and then we can afford to enjoy our lives, and humor.

The breakdown of bicycle

When I was assembling my bike, Birdy, the chain got tangled. I managed to untangle the chain. After untangling the chain, the derailleur could not work well. The gears wouldn't change well.

I'll have to go to a bicycle store and have the derailleur repaired.

I noticed that the bike's chain was dirty, so I'll be buying the detergent and oil for the bike chains.

After coming home, I went to wash my hands. Despite that, my fingernail remains dirty.

090725

The “Name” problem

Now I am remembering new words everyday. I found that a lot of things in the US are different from Japan. Especially proper names. I have to remember a lot of “names”.

Human name : It's difficult for me to remember and pronounce Western people's name.
names of food : Almost Every name is different in Japan.

e.g.1 “vanilla” is “banira” in Japanese. The words resemble each other, but the pronunciation is totally different.

e.g.2 When I am living in Japan, I sometimes visit Subway and Starbucks Coffee. The names of the items on these shop's are different from Japan's! So I have to lean them again.

These kinds of words are not taught in English classes in Japan. TOEFL and TOEIC classes do not teach them either.

I found that the English which is taught in Japan's educational system is not sufficient for the conditions of living in the US, but just part of the necessary conditions.

Observing the eclipse of the sun from Aku-seki island.

There was a total eclipse of the sun the day before yesterday in Japan. Many Japanese traveled to the southern islands to observe this phenomenon, because it has been 46 years since the last eclipse of the sun.

Some Japanese paid about 3500 dollars a person, and traveled to Aku-seki island. They would have observed the eclipse there.

That day's scenes.
http://image.blog.livedoor.jp/dqnplus/imgs/b/9/b9094eb2.jpg
http://image.blog.livedoor.jp/dqnplus/imgs/3/8/3841c005.jpg

Aku-seki island received the direct hit of rainstorm! And a Tornado also hit!
I could have died when I saw these pictures.

They paid a lot of money, but they had to take refuge from there instead of observing the eclipse.
They should have bought a new television, and should have watched the eclipse at their home.

Is “being modest” a virtue?

In Japan, we should be modest in public. Japanese regards “being modest” as a beautiful virtue, so we dislike people who are vain and take pride of themselves.

One famous example is that Japanese saying “It's a trivial present” when they give a “wonderful” present. This humble attitude is a virtue in Japan.

I found that I practice this attitude without realizing in the US. I noticed my “inappropriate” behavior when I was pointed singled out.

This is one culture shock which I experienced here, NY.

How do you produce your best work?

As long as I practice the “Dale Carnegie” method, I can produce my best work. The “Dale Carnegie” method is written in the book of “How to stop worrying and start living”.

This problem solving method is made up of three steps.

1.Get the facts.
2.Analyze the facts.
3.Arrive at a decision, and then act on that decision.

We sometimes waste time in worrying about something which is unclear. The method says that we shouldn't worry about the unclear problem. Otherwise, we tend to waste our time and worry too much. First of all we should get the facts before we analyze the situation, then we can see what to do.

This method is common to Business Administration and military art. “Getting the facts” is the most important thing when you try to accomplish something.

I'll add one quotation from “How to stop worrying and start living” which is related to this theme.
“If a man will devote his time to securing facts in an impartial, objective way, his worries usually evaporate in the light of knowledge.”

The Prospect park and the Brooklyn bridge

I cycled to the Prospect park and the Brooklyn bridge. I tried to become familiar with Brooklyn.

(1)The Prospect park
There are a lot of African Americans and Jewish people in northern part of Brooklyn, so there were a lot of African Americans in Prospect park. They exercise here.

This park's one round is about 3 miles (about 5 kilometer). It is good to cycle in Prospect park. I've decided to cycle here regularly.

(2)The Brooklyn bridge
I crossed the Manhattan bridge last week, so I cycled to the Brooklyn bridge today. The Brooklyn bridge has the sidewalk, so there were a lot of tourist. I could see Manhattan skyscrapers and the Statue of Liberty from there.

I was spoken to two times by strangers while on my bike, because my bike seemed to rare in NY. The reason is that there are a lot of “BROMPTON”, but no ”Birdy” in NY.
( “BROMPTON” and “Birdy” are the brand of bicycle.)

My second impression of transportation circumstances for bikes in NY

Through today's cycling, I found some discoveries.

(1)Bikes from Japan are different.
There is no Mama-chari in here. Mama-chari is a very popular bike in Japan. Mama-chari is safe and carries a large load, but it is too heavy to cycle fast. Mama-chari is suited for transportation circumstances in Japan. People usually ride sports bikes, road bikes, and cross bikes instead of Mama-chari.

(2)There are a lot of “one ways”
There are a lot of “one ways” in NY. I had to choose the appropriate roads to cycle safely. I don't know the reason. I guess that roads are suited for only cars, not bikes.

(3)Keys are more solid than the one's in Japan.
Bikers seem to be strongly afraid of bike theft. Keys are more solid than the ones in Japan. My key which I brought from Japan seems fragile when I compare them.

(4)I can cycle safely using bike paths (or bike lanes)
I chose the bike paths while on my bike today. I could cycle safely. It felt dangerous when I rode on normal roads last week. Today's cycling was pleasant.

The more I cycle in NY, the more I notice differences from Japan. I'll continue to investigate that.

There are a lot of street venders instead of vending machines on the street in the US.

One of the most surprising things is street venders in the US. There are few street venders on the street in Japan, and a lot of vending machine on the street. Although New York city is a big city, It's hard to find vending machines. I find easily a lot of vending machine even in the countryside in Japan.

In Japan, there is a high population density, limited space, a preference for shopping on foot or by bicycle, and low rates of vandalism and petty crime, so I think there are a lot of vending machines from these reasons. When non-Japanese see vending machines on the street, they sometimes think that there are safes and money on the street. Almost all Japanese do not steal money from them.

There are more than 10,000 street venders in NY. Are they immigrants? I thought that their English is not good. I don't know about them. But I can guess that they have problems which is related to poverty.

I'll continue to investigate that.

Transportation circumstances for bikes in NY

I am going to write about my first impression of transportation circumstances for bikes in NY.

First the rules of the road are completely opposite. You have to cycle on the right side of street which annoyed me. Drivers were much more dangerous than Japan. I lived in one of the most dangerous drive cities in Japan. But It's more dangerous here.

Bikes are not as popular as in they are in Japan. People usually use cars instead of bikes. I thought that this was the biggest difference. I saw less bikes on the street. There were a lot of parking violations of bikes on the street in Japan, on the other hand there were quite few in NY.

There were a lot of obstacles on the street which are not in Japan. There were a lot of bumps, holes in side ditches where bikes couldn't cycle fast. There were few toilets and few vending machines in NY. I have to adjust myself to it.

But there was a quite strong point in NY which didn't exist in Tokyo. There were Bike paths. If I make use of paths, I can avoid a lot of problems on the street. I know there are tens of thousands of bicycle commuters in Manhattan. They must usually make use of them. I cycled across the Manhattan Bridge, and the west side of Manhattan using bicycle lanes. These bike rides were some of the best cycling in my life.

Anyway, I'll continue to study the transportation circumstances for bikes in NY. I brought my bike from Japan to study it!

Moving books changed my life.

If I had not read the detective story of “Sherlock Holmes” in my childhood, I might not be interested in reading. Holmes made me love to read books early in my life.

Then one sci-fi book got me interested in science in high school. Without this book, I would not read anythihng related to science. The book described the development of space in the earth orbit, and there were rockets, space stations, NASA, and Arian. Through this book, I became interested in space development, and science.

The third book is a book about history, a Japanese emigrant in the US in WW2. I could learn the forgotten history of an emigrant due to this book. If I had not read this book, I would not know the tragedy of “Manzanar”. Through this tragedy, I learned patriotism, and how important a nation is.
The 4th book is a book about accounting, “Rich Dad, Poor Dad.”. I learned about accounting, so I could save my money. I saved a lot of money, so I could come here. Most people do not know the meaning of “Assets” and “Liabilities”, so they sometimes waste their money.

Finally looking back on moving books, I found that these four books are in association with either English or the US. I guess that I inevitably came here, to NY.

I hope I'll have a good time in NY.

I am going to leave Japan on July 4th for an internship in the US.
I will work under a 24-week internship with a U.S. company.

I am going to live in BROOKLYN, NEW YORK. There are a lot of tourist spots. “Which place should I visit?” I am thinking every day.

I want to cycle on the famous streets in NYC, so I'll bring my bike to the US using an airplane. My folding bicycle will cross the Pacific Ocean. It cost me about $150 to bring it.

I will look for language exchange partners in NYC. There are a lot of Web sites about Language Exchange. I hope I can find a good partner.

Anyway, I hope I'll have a good time in NY.