Buying things

So one interesting cultural nicety here is that there are little plastic rectangles and circles (in basic colors, usually blue) wherever you see a counter with a cash register.  It was very strange to go into a bank and try to set up an account, and the teller would place things like pens and forms on top of the small rectangle instead of passing them to me directly.  I learned from a friend that you don't just hand things (especially money) to people here.  When paying for groceries, you place the money in the small (and shallow) bin, and then the cashier will pick up the money and give you your change, though not necessarily in that order.
It was very strange at first, but it very easily became habit, and cuts out some potentially awkward human contact.  I hadn't really realized that I had gotten used to the system until I went into a small convenience store that didn't have the small bins, so I placed the money directly into the cashier's hand and felt very weird about it...  Odd, isn't it?  Just imagine what it'll be like when I get back to the US, lol.

Giant Crows and Moving Bookshelves

Hey, so I'm finally writing something.  ...Finally... 
I figured I could just write short blogs about various things of interest here in Japan.
For one thing, there are giant crows, with giant beaks that would make Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds into a horror movie.  A couple of those things could probably maim or kill a human, if it really wanted to.  They're kinda cool though. 
Oh, and the insects are giant as well.  Including cockroaches...  >.<

Earlier on, we had a tour of the Chiba University library during orientation, which was pretty normal.  Then they took us to a room that was unique in that all of the bookshelves were pushed up against each other, and to access a shelf you have to push the button on its side that slides all of the other bookshelves away from it to create a small aisle.  It was cool, and kinda scary.  Somewhat scary because one of the American guys thought it'd be funny to shift the shelves over while we were walking between two shelves.  At least we discovered that there are sensitive emergency shut-off bars lining the shelves to prevent accidental squishing of people.  :3

Advice

I am mostly posting this to see if you can comment on it, and perhaps to give me advice, which would much be appreciated. ^_^