After spending 4 glorious weeks in Europe (Denmark and the UK), Ian and I began a 23 hour journey from Heathrow to Haneda airport in Tokyo. It turns out flying from North America –> Europe –> Japan (over Eastern Europe) –> North America via the Pacific constitutes a trip around the world, and is priced insanely high. So when we found excellently priced flights that brought us to Japan from London via North America, we decided to do it, sucking up the fact that we would just have a terrible travel experience on that leg. Surprisingly, we made it without too much discomfort!
We landed in Japan on Saturday, October 3 for 2 weeks of work-free vacation. While we were both excited for our first trip to Asia, we left Europe somewhat wishing we’d stayed there for our final two weeks to avoid the cross-Atlantic, cross-Pacific single day journey. But after spending only a day in Tokyo, we knew we had made the right decision. We fell in love with Japan SO quickly, and hope we have a chance to go back one day to return to our fav spots, and see more of this beautiful country.
This first Japanese post summarizes 10 of my 20 most noteworthy observations. I hope you enjoy reading through!
- Tactile paving: Wheeling my luggage from the airport to our Airbnb apartment, I noticed yellow indentations on the sidewalks. Then I noticed them inside some subway stations. And their texture always changed around intersections. I had no idea what the purpose of this vast infrastructure was so I googled it and found out it’s essentially sidewalk brail, referred to as tactile paving, which is ubiquitous around Japan. The extent of this infrastructure is amazing.
Tactile paving, seen on almost all main streets in Tokyo and throughout Japan. - Vending machines: I’d heard that the Japanese love vending machines but I wasn’t expecting the sheer volume of vending machines along the streets. They are literally everywhere – on random side street corners, in parking lots, at entrances to residential buildings, etc. Unlike in North America, the vending machines predominantly sold drinks. I only saw a couple that sold food or other items.
Vending machine cluster. - Restaurant vending machines: Sadly, I didn’t take a photo of this, but click on the hyperlink to see some. Many noodle restaurants designed for quick turnover require customers to buy a ticket for their food choice at a vending machine outside the door. This would ensure that service staff did not have to spend time taking orders or accepting payment. Patrons would come in with prepaid tickets for their order, which would get sent to the kitchen immediately upon being seated.
- Fake food replicas: Again, I didn’t actually take any photos of this, but click the hyperlink to see some. Most restaurants had plastic food replicas in their windows to showcase their offerings. There is a whole area in Tokyo with warehouses and manufacturers that produce this fake food.
- Cash on trays: Japan is still a heavily cash based society, which surprised me as I assumed they would be using smartphones to pay for almost everything. While Japan is in some ways hypermodern, it is also quite traditional. I noticed quite a few people still using flip phones so mobile payment wasn’t very common. The passing of cash to cashiers was often rather ceremonial. You would place your cash on a tray and push it toward the cashier. They would pass back change in the same way, often accompanied by a bow.
Silver cash tray at Starbucks. - Bowing: I knew that it was common for Japanese to bow during formal introductions, such as in business meetings. What I didn’t expect was that service sector employees also bow to their customers. The first time I received a bow I had gone into a 7/11 to ask where the nearest Starbucks or McDonald’s was (we needed WiFi and didn’t yet have our Portable WiFi units). The staff didn’t speak English but finally understood my question and drew me a map with directions. They handed the map to me and then both bowed to me. I thought it was cute but quickly noticed that all service staff bows, including waiters, retail workers, cashiers, etc. Such a friendly society that takes the time to acknowledge each individual, despite the large population and sometimes long lineups.
- Queuing: The Greater Tokyo Area is the world’s largest metro area and yet it is somehow miraculously orderly. This is in part due to the fact that queuing is a way of life. People line up for everything, and in many cases train platforms are marked with designated waiting areas to ensure that passengers have room to exit trains before boarding begins. Such a civilized society!
Many train platforms had queuing areas marked. And people followed them. - Warm towlettes (O-shibori): Most restaurants and bars handed these out to patrons so they could clean their hands before eating. I loved these! It was nice not having to go to the washroom to clean my hands before eating.
Disposable O-shibori. Sometimes they were disposable, sometimes they were washable. - Toilet seats (Washlets): I’d heard about Japanese toilet seats, with their breadth of functionality, before going, but it nevertheless took me by surprise. They can do so much! In addition to bidet features, you can also warm the seat, turn on water sounds to disguise the sound of peeing, etc. It was pretty fun to play with the multiple features and buttons. I meant to take photos of washlets but it turns out I actually didn’t take any. It’s worth checking out the wikipedia page here! Quite interesting! Washlets are said to consume 5% of electricity in an average Japanese home.
- Lack of public garbage cans: For whatever reason, the Japanese don’t have many public garbage cans. We found ourselves always keeping a grocery bag on us in case we had to wrap up garbage and carry it around for the day. Train stations often had garbage cans so we could dispose of things there. However, we found ourselves carrying garbage around Takayama for hours on end and were so glad to find the little household garbage can below on a hike up a mountain!
Takayama’s lone public garbage can, so far as we could tell.
Come back for my other 10 observations about Japan, to be posted later this week!
Jenn's Thoughts 