My first night staying in Japan I was welcomed with my first cultural shock. I was already well aware that you had to take off your shoes when entering homes, and that you sleep on mats on the floor. My shock came when I entered the room I would be sleeping in and saw...the closet. In Japan, the closets are traditionally two sided sliding doors that are usually white. The inside is very roomy, so it's easy to store a lot, a very convenient closet! So what's my problem? Well when I think about Japanese styled sliding closets, I don't see a closet, I see a death trap!
Since this was my first time visiting Japan, I had certain things associated with what I've seen them from. Unfortunately, I've watched way too many Japanese horror movies! I happen to be a fan of the Ju-on: The Grudge series and when I saw that sliding closet all I could think of was a dead body crawling out of it. It was hard to get this creepy imagery out of my head, and suddenly it felt like I was a kid again afraid of the unknown evils in my room. As embarrassing as it was, I even rearranged the furniture in the room so it could block off the closet...you know, just in case anything wanted to crawl out.
Needless to say, my first night sleeping in this room was very challenging. Even though I was very tired from traveling, I found it very hard to sleep knowing that this closet was next to me. It took me a couple of days to get use to it.
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