One of my friends opened a box which had some cookies in plastic, then found a smaller plastic bag inside with items that didn't need to be separated. For a country so concerned with waste, it is just something I found contradictory. Over all, this perspective for separating garbage is something I have also recognized and have to use every day.
The last perspective I am looking at today is the use of air conditioning/heating in Japan, specifically at AIU. There is no central heating or AC here. Instead, we use wall AC/heaters. My room consists of a bedroom, a kitchen area, and a bathroom connected to the kitchen area. There is a sliding door in between my kitchen and bedroom that I now keep closed because there is a fairly wide gap between my front door and the door frame that lets a lot of cold air in. There is about a 15-20 degree difference in temperature between my bedroom and my kitchen/bathroom area with the door closed. If it is open, the temperature meets in the middle, which is very cold at this point in the year and will only get colder.
At school, only common spaces are heated: lobbies, classrooms, and the cafeteria. The hallway is not much warmer than the temperature outside, so I have to put on a jacket before leaving classrooms. Getting used to the perspective of non-central heating being better is definitely something I am struggling with a lot since I am a person who is often cold. It really does make sense for Japan, though. The reasoning is that with the large amount of earthquakes and damage they can cause, it is less expensive to replace a unit as needed instead of all of the different parts that make up central heating that can be damaged more easily.
