I've been living here in Itami, Japan (right next to Kobe, 20 minutes from Osaka) for about 3 weeks now, and it isn't mind blowing anymore. For the first week, I was awed, now it's all normal.

Don't believe anyone who tells you the Kansai region in summer and until mid September isn't that bad- It is like 300% humidity everyday, and while everyone has air conditioners in their homes, in my experience, they don't use them (utilities like electricity are outrageously expensive here). It is now the last week in September here, and its finally livable. I no longer fall asleep in a pool of my own sweat, as my home is solid concrete.

Since coming here, I've seen many things. I arrived in a tsunami! I've drank myself stupid twice, and been to the world's biggest Gundam and Airsoft Gun shops (both in Osaka). I've even boughten beer from vending machines, and drank beer on the trains (it's ok here). I've gotten lost a few times too, as NO STREETS HAVE NAMES! Only in large cities are even main roads even named.

If you like to drink hard liquor, and are poor, Japan is not for you. In Sannomiya, (right next to Kobe), a shot of good stuff, ie: Jack Daniels, costs 7$. That's cheap. Bacardi 151 is 9$, and Spinners (192 proof, knock you on your ass, tastes like rubbing alcohol) is 10$. That's PER SHOT. If you want to drink cheap in Japan, go to the bars when they have happy hour, and then beer ONLY (usually) is 50% off. An average beer like Sapporo is $6 a bottle, a Guinness draft is 10$, but go during happy hours and it's half off. If you are really lucky, and a heavy drinker, you can find bars that have a happy hour special of a set price (usually around 30$) and then its ALL YOU CAN DRINK! (beer only, of course).
My first night of drinking cost me alone around 65$ for just about 3 hours. I had a shot of Bacardi 151 rum, A shot of Spinners, 2 shots of Chivas Regal vodka, a pint Guinness draft, and 2 (probably 3, I lost count at that point) HUGE bottles of Sapporo beer. I figured it was a special occasion, so I didn't mind. But I'm not rich, so I drink frugally here now. In America, it would have cost at most half of that amount!

A final word of advice- Everything here really is more expensive than in America, but after a while, it doesn't seem so- you see, Japan does NOT have $1 and $5 bill equivalents (ie: there are no 100 or 500 yen bills), they are coins, so while things are expensive, you get used to paying for many smaller things with multiples of these coins. After a while, you can forget you are carrying over 20$ in coins on you- spending coins is easy, and you can blow through 10$ worth of coins like nothing. If you are used to carrying bills, you notice every dollar you spend, it's a whole bill- but here, spending a dollar (about 100 yen) feels like spending a US quarter (they are about the same size, and same color). By the same token, you collect 10 yen coins in change rather quickly, only Japan's 10 yen coins are ALSO the size of a US quarter, and actually slightly bigger and heavier than the 100 yen coins! After 1 day, my wallet ends up weighing close to 5 pounds, and bulgingly big, from all the 10 yen coins. So be careful if you visit or live here- it is extremely easy to spend large sums of money without noticing it.