5 Things I'll Miss When I leave Japan

There's many things I miss being here in Japan, mostly mexican food, Dr. Pepper, clothing stores with sizes that fit me, and 24 hour stores like Meijer. Also perhaps being able to communicate with people. However, I have stumbled upon somethings that are going to be horrible not to have in the US, such as:

1. Fruits Milk

The little store at my high school sells this delicious fruit flavored milk. Whenever they have it, I go and buy a carton. It's gotten to the point where the woman who works behind the counter of the store saves one for me. Fruits milk is super delicious and perhaps nutritious, being milk and all.

2. Parfaits

In America it's all about the ice cream sunday. Here, it's all about the parfait. Sometimes yogurt, sometimes ice cream, usually super fancy with fresh fruit. Delicious!

3. Conbinis

Conbinis are amazing. You can get all kinds of food, alcohol, pay your bills, send money home, buy concert tickets, bus tickets, print things, make copies, send faxes, stand and read manga for hours, they're actually open 24 hours, they have ATMs that work 24 hours (in Japan, this is amazing. All other ATMs actually have hours, and times when they are closed, just like a bank,) and they have trash cans! This is also amazing, especially given how complicated it is to throw anything away here.

4. Daiso

Daiso are the very popular 100yen stores. Unlike most dollar stores in America where most things are super cheap quality and ugly and at times you feel dirty buying them (not always, just sometimes) Daiso has all sorts of quality items. They have everything, and I mean pretty much everything. Yes, sometimes the quality is not as good as if you bought it at an actual store in the mall or something, but it's significantly cheaper. Almost everything in my apartment is from Daiso. I only wish they were 24 hours.

5. Purikura

Purikura, or print club, machines are all over the place, and super popular. They're similar to photobooths in that you go in and take pictures with your friends, and it prints them for you. However, purikura prints sticker sheets, so you can give them to your friends to stick to their binders or something. The booths will also give different choices in backgrounds, framing size (just your heads to whole body,) and sticker sizes, so you have to choose which booth you prefer. Not all purikura booths are created equal. After taking 4-6 pictures, you head to the other side of a booth where you get to edit your pictures by changing the backgrounds (sometimes) adding graphics and text, and all sorts of fun. Then they print out your photo stickers and there you go!

As an added bonus, most, if not all, purikura booths mess with the lighting and your eyes to make you look more "cute." Because really, giant eyes are just adorable, right? Everyone wants to look like this!