It's Normal Now

I was talking to a fellow ALT about how the longer you stay here, the more 'normal' everything gets. And we started listing all the things that freaked us out in the first place but we have slowly acclimatised to. Here are just some of them:

Being able to leave your stuff, money, laptops, phones, unlocked cars anywhere and them still being there when you get back. - Normal

Not understand what the hell is going on for 90% of time. - Normal

Seeing your breath in your house as it's so cold – Normal (But I don't like it)

Always having good service. - Normal

Going in a public bath, outside, with a load of naked dudes. - Normal

People staring at you, constantly. - Normal

Pizza being expensive and sashimi being cheap. - Normal

Never being 200 meters from a vending machine. - Normal

Never getting a straight answer. - Normal

Men wearing trainers with suits. – Totally normal

Students sleeping in class. – Normal

Not really knowing what I'm eating. – Normal, normal, normal.

People wearing surgical masks, just casually. - Nooorrrmal.

The catch is, no matter how long I live in Japan, if I was here 20 years, had kids here, only spoke to Japanese people in flaunt Japanese etc., people will always tell me that I use chopsticks really well even though I've used them since I was a child and people will always look at me and think “Well, he must be a tourist.” I will always, still be a '外人' (foreigner) and treated 'different' as such. Sometimes in a good way, but sometimes in a not so good way, but always as a '外人' (foreigner).