8 Observations about Japan as a Tourist
It's been a few days since I returned from my holiday with my sister in Japan and I'm still happily recovering from the sights, sounds and smells of that literally fantastic country.
1) Amazing sanitation systems
Japanese cleanliness is simply unbeatable. Their toilets are the most elaborate you'll ever see. Self flushing? Check. Self cleaning? Yes. Self opening?! YUP.
They even have toilets where you can turn on recorded water flowing sounds for those who are self conscious about having too noisy a pee. My mind is most blown by the sheer options of ways your poop taking experience can be enriched.
I'm so tempted to start a retail business of Toto/Panasonic washlets!
2) Stations, JR Lines, Subways & Shinkansen
To a tourist, the public transport systems in Japan can be quite challenging to figure out just because of the complexity of various service providers and lines. Compared to the London Underground, which I found to be large, Japan's railway and subway system is easily a lot bigger, more intricate and complicated. As a JR pass holder, most routes are easy to figure out using a city map about public transport. We also found that the NAVITIME app made things easier. The Shinkansen bullet train experience is definitely recommended. The best way to describe the speed would be to say that it's like when an aircraft is preparing for take-off. It goes so fast, my ears would pop!
People watching is fun, and most of the crowd in the cities on public transport are office goers with iPhones and cute old people with Sudoku and other activity books in their frail hands.
As I work for a company that sells headphones and I've heard that in Japan it's considered disrespectful to leave before your boss does, I could tell the abject difference in quality of headphones with a 7 PM crowd and a 9 PM crowd.
3) Vending machines everywhere
I have to say, no man can ever be thirsty while in Japan's cities because there are vending machines for the most interesting drinks everywhere imaginable. Japanese people love their coffee and cold teas. I think they prefer coffee to tea, surprisingly as I saw in lots of cafes where the wording was "Coffee & Tea" and practically all their vending machine drinks are cold coffees from 100+ brands.
4) Unbelievably sheer stockings... or just great skin?
It's very hard to tell if a Japanese woman has stockings on or if her legs are just that perfect. This is not really a Japanism but this happened to me way too much to not strike out in my memory. I also admired everyone's hair there: so sleek, black and straight!
5) Iced water served at every restaurant
Every restaurant experience we had, the first thing we would get served is a nice glass or water filled with like 6 ice cubes. Now that I think of it, even the glasses looked the same.
6) Packets of tissues as handouts
Outside most busy stations, we'd inevitably get handed out some kind of ad campaign in the form of a packet of tissues. A pretty nice idea, I would think, as most people just chuck handouts, and with tissues, psychologically there's a lot of utility and safekeeping.
7) Cutesy advertising
There is nothing sexual or sensual about any of the female ad posters in Japan. It was very interesting to see how so many ads showed grown ass women in a childlike, innocent and dewy form. I don't recall seeing any ads with men in them either. I found this strange.
8) Sliding doors
It seems to me that the concept of sliding doors probably emerged from Japan seeing how its space saving and how much wood and glass is used. Very Japanese, indeed. We stayed at a 150 year old traditional house which had wooden flooring and sliding doors everywhere. I loved it!
9) Pachinko gaming buildings
We chanced upon a lot of deafeningly loud Pachinko gaming rooms full of middle-aged people (mostly men) playing arcade or first person shooter type of games in buildings where you're greeted by a well-dressed young woman. I saw a lot of people in their work clothing just sitting in front of a game with big mugs of beer and lots of cigarette smoking.
1) Amazing sanitation systems
Japanese cleanliness is simply unbeatable. Their toilets are the most elaborate you'll ever see. Self flushing? Check. Self cleaning? Yes. Self opening?! YUP.They even have toilets where you can turn on recorded water flowing sounds for those who are self conscious about having too noisy a pee. My mind is most blown by the sheer options of ways your poop taking experience can be enriched.
I'm so tempted to start a retail business of Toto/Panasonic washlets!
2) Stations, JR Lines, Subways & Shinkansen
People watching is fun, and most of the crowd in the cities on public transport are office goers with iPhones and cute old people with Sudoku and other activity books in their frail hands.
As I work for a company that sells headphones and I've heard that in Japan it's considered disrespectful to leave before your boss does, I could tell the abject difference in quality of headphones with a 7 PM crowd and a 9 PM crowd.
3) Vending machines everywhere
I have to say, no man can ever be thirsty while in Japan's cities because there are vending machines for the most interesting drinks everywhere imaginable. Japanese people love their coffee and cold teas. I think they prefer coffee to tea, surprisingly as I saw in lots of cafes where the wording was "Coffee & Tea" and practically all their vending machine drinks are cold coffees from 100+ brands.
4) Unbelievably sheer stockings... or just great skin?
It's very hard to tell if a Japanese woman has stockings on or if her legs are just that perfect. This is not really a Japanism but this happened to me way too much to not strike out in my memory. I also admired everyone's hair there: so sleek, black and straight!
5) Iced water served at every restaurant
Every restaurant experience we had, the first thing we would get served is a nice glass or water filled with like 6 ice cubes. Now that I think of it, even the glasses looked the same.
6) Packets of tissues as handouts
Outside most busy stations, we'd inevitably get handed out some kind of ad campaign in the form of a packet of tissues. A pretty nice idea, I would think, as most people just chuck handouts, and with tissues, psychologically there's a lot of utility and safekeeping.
7) Cutesy advertising
There is nothing sexual or sensual about any of the female ad posters in Japan. It was very interesting to see how so many ads showed grown ass women in a childlike, innocent and dewy form. I don't recall seeing any ads with men in them either. I found this strange.
8) Sliding doors
It seems to me that the concept of sliding doors probably emerged from Japan seeing how its space saving and how much wood and glass is used. Very Japanese, indeed. We stayed at a 150 year old traditional house which had wooden flooring and sliding doors everywhere. I loved it!
9) Pachinko gaming buildings
We chanced upon a lot of deafeningly loud Pachinko gaming rooms full of middle-aged people (mostly men) playing arcade or first person shooter type of games in buildings where you're greeted by a well-dressed young woman. I saw a lot of people in their work clothing just sitting in front of a game with big mugs of beer and lots of cigarette smoking.
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