Cultual Comparisons

The Difference I realized 

The first thing that I surprised is the passport control. To enter the United States, I need a passport, visa, I-20 and to write customs declaration. It requires four documents to enter the USA and sometimes more than four. So I felt weird when I only need a passport to come to Europ. Otherwise from another country, like Africa or the Middle East, took more time than I did. They asked the address that they are staying, the purpose of their trip, and they required a visa of entering the Europ. They asked like that because to protect the Europ.
I felt that Europ trusts Japanese passport. I am proud of my country at that time.

Second I realized that "water" is usually sparkling water. When I said "water" in the airport, I get sparkling water. I surprised when I pour it into the glass. If I want just water I need to say "without gas." In my country, tap water is drinkable. So I never think I should buy water until I came to the United States. In Europ, most of the country can't drink tap water. I researched at The Internet why most of the people drink sparkling water and found out that Europ water contains high calcium. So it does not taste good without sparkling water.

Third  I already know because I searched on google, but the plug has two holes.

I took picure from my room. In Japan, the plug is another way. It is interesting to me that they use longitudinal plugs. My plug made for parallel, so most of them unplug easily. 

Why do they do this??

First, I surprised how the foods are showed!  One is the pretzels. In Japan, there were played on showcases. I never thought hang like this way! It's like hanging the clothes.

Also, sandwiches are stacked a lot.  Why do they pile up like that? Wasn't smash by top sandwiches?? I don't understand.

Second I arrived at Frankfurt airport and surprised that bicycle is running.  I saw trams are running in the airport but not cycle. I forgot to take a picture, but it was interesting! I thought that would be dangerous for people who are riding. 

Third I confused how the Germany separates the trash. Maybe it 's hard to read but there are two "paper" written on a garbage can. 

I searched at google and knew the recycled paper and used paper should separates in Germany. So if you wipe up the table, you cannot use the paper anymore. So you need to trash that at a not good paper. If you want to through the notebook that you used, is going to recycle paper. Otherwise, you cannot tell which one is which from the label, so you need to look inside and separates the paper. In Germany, you need to do a lot of separation. Like you need to separate bottles, papers, cloths, organic wastes, residual waste, and power pack. In the United States, it is all in one. In Japan, we separate plastic, paper, and power pack. I honestly felt that I don't want to live in Germany because there are a lot of work to separate things. 

Transportation system

After we had finished first day of class, we went to Duomo di Milano!

We walked to metro station near the University. First, I surprised about the ticket.


We touched the machine by the card and  recognize the card. This system is same as Japan. There is card called "Suica" that you could use for transportation and some store. Right one is the Japanese one and left one is metro pass ticket.

You need to charge the money in there. Or you could buy a season ticket when you are going to school. If you are a student, this season ticket is cheaper than adults. When I was in high school, I bought this season ticket to go to school.
Second I surprised at the automatic ticket gate. There were few types of gates.
One is like the elevetor door and one is like amusment park gate.

 I don't know why they change in each station. In Japan the automatic ticket gate are all same.

In United States the automatic door was like amusument park gate.

Secondly, I surprised that there was no timetable at the station. It said, "5 minutes until next train comes." In Japan, there are a timetable and most of the train works on time.

Third, I thought the metro system of Italy is much easier than Japan! First picture is train map at Tokyo Japan. The second one is Italy metro map. It way easier to use the metro than using the train in Japan!