Lucky Lizards

So in addition to swallows, many thing will bring you luck in Japan if you have yet to figure that out.
But by far the most bizarre that I have encountered are geckos. And in this case, it is not only a superstition in Japan, but that one will follow you all around Asia. It pretty much just goes like this, if you have geckos on your house or building, it is foretold that it will be prosperous.
You see, these guys really like climbing and they are only about the size of your palm to fingertip and they can easily grasp the stucco or the weird clay that they used to make houses out of in Japan and climb up all over it. So it really isn't so irregular to find them hanging over your doorway, especially the farther south you go. Japan being as geographically central as it is and having 'four seasons and all' (this is the most annoying thing to be told by locals. also all my life I have grown up in areas that have 'four seasons'), you actually don't see these geckos all too often. At least not up north. They are more summer lizards for us, but I suppose the rarity of them is what makes them special. Not everyone is allowed to be lucky you know?

New Apartment

So after the long and arduous search for an apartment (approximately 2 days) these ended up being the two that were short listed

Fender Bender

Traffic rules go a little differently in Japan. They drive on the wrong side of the road, there are less police enforcing proper driving etiquette and it just seems like they care a whole lot less in general.

The ones who do care are the citizens. Not that they really care about their driving or that pedestrian about to cross the road or anything. They could care less about that. They care about their cars and their appearance. I am not sure if this is what comes from being a country devoted to the make and drafting of cars so early on, or perhaps it is the fact that not everyone owns one, let alone more than one per family. Either way, they take impeccable care of their cars. I am not just talking about cleaning either. You will be hard pressed to find a car with dents or scratches on it. This goes doubly for taxis.
Once upon a time a taxi hit me on my bicycle (this was a long time ago) on one of the many back roads behind Kyoto buildings. Nothing was wrong, there were no dents or bruises. Perhaps just a little hurt pride of the taxi driver. After all he had to report it. And call the cops. And persistently insist that I must see a doctor. Well the reports and the cops were unavoidable, but I promise you I did not go to a hospital for such a silly thing. Pretty much taxis are obligated to do procedures as such because they then have to report it to their company and if there was any damages, they need to be notified right away with a report filed so that their cars and reputations will remain in tact.
To maintain such public face, they get their cars in the repair shops stat and get any dents and dings hammered and polished out. It is the same with most people in Japan. You will not find many cars with dents or scratches on them, I would almost say that you would have a better chance of finding the lucky taxi. It is actually quite the same in Korea. Once I witnessed an accident go down and my car insurance friend showed up to work out the details and later explained it to me that fault doesn't matter as much into it as they will both pay a bit for the others repairs. One will obviously pay more...Anyways, he is called immediately even late at night to the scene so that they can get the car to the repair shop immediately.
It seems odd to me since in it was a bit of the opposite as in America. People would get in a fender bender and then decide that it was only aesthetic and then just leave it for months of years at a time. I can promise you my family still has that one car that has the giant scratch from where Jeff backed into the mailbox when he first started driving. Yup. Never fixed that one. 

Signs of Swallows

In America many people flock to the tattoo shops for permanence and symbolism. Everyone wants to unique and memorable. All the boys want tribal tattoos or skulls and stars and the girls will all have stars and feathers and birds. Especially birds. Swallows.

In America, swallows came to be of some significance not too long ago. I feel like it was my college years. And I can't even say what brought it about. It is not like we had many of them flying around, at least not to the degree that I find here. But I do know what they began to symbolize among the masses. The same thing everything else does. Love. Swallows are unique little birds that are said to mate for life never changing partners. 

In Japan, it is an entirely different matter, you don't see them on people bodies, nor their shirts, nor their accessories or jewelry. You find them where anyone else would find a bird: in the sky. Swallows are the bringers of summer here. A lot like uguisu is the bringer of spring with its warbles. Swallows chittering and nesting is the onslaught of summer. But more important than that. It is said that they're lucky. 

Many places, restaurants, store fronts, and homes will try to warn people of their presence when they are nesting nearby. The little birds are said to bring good fortune to nearby businesses and prosperity to all establishments where they adorn themselves. As such, places will put up signs, tell patrons to be a slight bit mindful of them, or merely lay down some news paper to capture their droppings making the street easier to clean. An additional mention or perhaps superstition, never have I seen anyone taking down their nests. 

Swallows will typically build their nests right under the overhang of a building. That little awning it has right before the street. And if the birds are more fortunate, the awnings or overhangs will have a little lip, ideal for nesting and catching little ones as they begin their tortuous lessons of flying. 

For rent

Renting people in Japan is no new thing. There are hostess and hosts bars, there are call girls and there was that interesting sleep partner one for the sleep cafes. And now I find that you can rent a person for just about doing anything. I don't know how I manage to still be surprised at these things.
I find it insanely interesting that it is possible to rent a person for an outing in Japan. I mean sure it is no different than going to a hostess club and paying for their services to sit and chat with you, or summoning a call girl to come to your home, except that there is a lot less regulation. You are not going to have driver come and pick you up at a location at a certain time where you have been the entire time, you are not going to their established place of work where every action is monitored by their pimps, I mean hostess mammas. But to actually rent a person and just do normal things like going out and about, to a zoo or a park or shopping...
In reality, it is really not much more different than an escort, except I am under the impression that for the duration of the visit all clothing articles stay on. It is more like you are renting a character to play a part in your life. You are renting yourself a boss to command you to work to get you out of that game night where you made a bet that you are really starting to regret. Or better, you are finally getting married to your dream girl, only you lied to her family about having a job and now you need to rent a bunch of people to pretend to be a law firm where you practice. Of course you would have to have enough money in the first place for that to be possible, but hey, maybe you are a undesirable drug smuggler with extra cash lying around. Not that there are many of those kinds in Japan, but I suppose its possible. Probably the best excuse for using such a service though, would be to rent a boyfriend or girlfriend and get seen with them in tons of public places to get that creepy weirdo stalker or ex to leave you alone.
And whats more??? You can rent an entire family. Wanna go see that new Iron Man movie and don't want to go alone, rent a family, you can even have your choice of brothers and sisters.  Now that, is weird. It is like this service especially caters to Batman.
However this is a one time service kind of thing. You cannot keep renting the same person over and over. This isn't a call girl or a host/hostess. This is a rent-a-person. And they don't want you falling in love or stalking them. They are purely there to keep you company for a single duration of 8 hours. They even come with a fake name and address to make sure preventative measures are taken against any undesirable actions. Of course you can rent a person from the company again, it just can't be the same one. This also lowers the chances of repeat customers.
All this for the low price of $150.00 per person. And a discount for a family (once you realize what having siblings is like they go for half price) at $350.00 for the whole bundle.

Am I not selling you well enough? Are you not Batman?
Well there are other services too. Of course there are the other services, but I am not talking in a sexual manner. There are bed partners. Extremely similar to the cuddle and sleep cafe partners who will come to your home just to sleep next to you. And it is exactly that. No funny business. Of course you can do other things too, like dining or cleaning or cooking, provided that you provide the dinner, equipment or ingredients, but there is a strict policy of no touching.
What is to say that other things happening behind closed doors or how they enforce their policy. I have no idea. I would imagine there was some kind of emergency call button the man or woman could press if things were progressing in an unsavory manner.
Sleeping not exactly your thing? You can even plan a tasteful dream date with a companion for no small expense.

Really the intricacy and detailing of these sales pitches are really quite interesting. I really wonder about how their businesses are going...
Rental Persons
Tasteful Sleeping and Date services