Another edition of "only in Japan"

I've got a few interesting things to post. We had dinner with some Japanese friends, and I had a bunch of questions I wanted answered. (remember, I was named most inquisitive in high school) It was a very informational dinner!! And even after my questions, we went on all these crazy tangents. So here you go:

1. Japanese blood types for relationships. Our dinner companions asked us what our blood types were, and they said that blood types are used to determine the expected success of a relationship. It's quite interesting. At dinner, we had an AB, O, A, and B, so we were all covered. This blood type stuff is kind of interesting. I hope that Christian and I are a good match. I will not tell you our blood types in case you are going to take bets on the state of our marriage. Have a look below (from Wikipedia):

Japanese blood type personality chart

Type A
Best traits	Earnest, creative, sensible
Worst traits	Fastidious, overearnest
Type B
Best traits	Wild, active, doer
Worst traits	Selfish, irresponsible
Type AB
Best traits	Cool, controlled, rational
Worst traits	Critical, indecisive
Type O
Best traits	Agreeable, sociable, optimistic
Worst traits	Vain, rude

2. Sweet potato salesmen in Japan. At certain times of the day, you can hear this incredibly depressing chant/song/moan over a megaphone. It's really sobering to hear this. It almost sounds like someone is mourning the death of a relative. I've never heard anything like it. When I've been out for a walk, I've noticed, on a couple of occasions, that the noise comes from a little van driving around the neighborhood. Or, in some cases, it might be a little push-cart. The noise comes from a sweet potato salesman. Initially, I thought these salesmen were down on their luck. Seeing as how I feel sorry for everyone, I've bought the sweet potatoes. They are nice and warm and quite tasty. However, our Japanese friends pointed out that these salesmen are quite common. Sweet potatoes are really popular in the colder months, and these salesmen are akin to the ice cream truck in the US. And what about the chant/song/moan? Well, they are simply singing, "sweet potatoes, sweet potatoes...." I guess it'd be nice if I knew the language.

3. The musical ride to Mount Fuji. A few months ago, we drove to Mount Fuji for the day. Sorry I didn't blog about this.... We didn't get too many photos, and we really did a drive-by of the volcano. Admittedly, I forgot how cold it gets on top of mountains, so we were dreadfully unprepared for walking around at the last station for drivers. On the way into the park, we drove over these rumble strips, and then we noticed the rumble strips were making a melody. I really thought I was losing my mind. Was the radio on? Was Joseph already singing songs? Was some other car blaring music? No, it was from the rumble strips. And then it happened AGAIN as we left the park. Same area of rumble strips, same type of melody. I have tried, in earnest, to google this phenomenon, and I couldn't come up with anything. I finally asked our dinner companions last night. I started to explain what happened, and they knew exactly what was happening -- and they started singing the song!! So it turns out, the JDOT (or whatever group does this) thought it would be neat to add the Mt Fuji song to the rumble strips. I have no idea how they do this, but it was really cool. I mean, think of the possibilities for the US. Before I-pass, the rumble strips at the tollbooths in Chicago could have had some cool songs like "Sweet Home, Chicago" or "Na Na Na Na, Hey Hey Hey, Good-bye." People might have been more willing to pay their tolls!! Or add a melody to the rumble strips at airports, and then people might chill out more, thus making for more effective airport screenings. Clearly, this is worth exploring.