Impressions about Japan

In the posts about Japan we have mentioned some of the quirks of the place that have surprised us. Two weeks is certainly not enough to get to know a country and its culture, but it still offers you a chance to notice some peculiarities and plainly weird traits of the place. With this post we will try to remember the ones that have caught our attention the most.

The first thing that we noticed was the respect for queues and in general of regulated behaviour. At the train and metro stations you see lines drawn on the floor to indicate where you should form the line and where the train's coach doors will be, and what is more impressive is that people actually respect these signs and lines. Everything is very well organized (at least in bigger cities) and it's easy to move around without knowing a word of Japanese and in spite of the terrible level of English of most people here. The public transport constitutes a big part of the people's daily life (they are so used to it that almost everyone falls asleep in metro and trains), and it has probably become a good mirror of society. Unfortunately we have observed that older people are rarely offered a seat when they come in. That makes you think, doesn't it?

We have always heard that this is a very competitive society, and it's the same impression that we had, especially in Tokyo where almost everyone wears a suit. A possible explanation that we have heard is that every working person here wears a suit or a uniform (janitors, street cleaning, etc.). You don't want to look unemployed, and wearing a suit is obviously much highly regarded than having to wear a uniform.

The respect for rules is apparently present at all ages. Kids use a sort of "rock, paper, scissor" game called 'janken' to settle all kind of arguments, and always stick to the outcome without further discussion or getting into a fight. Talking about kids we can't avoid to mention that all students here wear uniforms, and the younger ones look super cute with their colored hats and their short pants or skirts.

In general we tried to follow all recommendations and rules, actually liking a system so well organized and regulated. Even so we slipped more than once, especially with the unwritten (and unknown to us) rule stating that you are not supposed to eat nor drink on the street or in public places, unless it's right in front of a place that sells food or drinks. I guess that we could have imagined it, considering the almost complete lack of trash bins on the street. We usually ended up filling our pockets with trash and emptying them at the hotel.

We were uncertain whether we could blow our nose in public or not, and to play it safe refrained from doing it for the whole trip. It caused us quite a lot of distress.

One of the best and more famous things about Japan are the toilets, and rightly so. They are perfect works of design and engineering, and the aspect that we will probably miss the most, especially the heated seat: there is nothing like sitting on a warm toilet on a cold November morning. The most advanced ones have a sort of "bidet" built in, allowing you to rinse and wash without any effort. Some of the toilets even had a small faucet and a sink right above the tank. This way when you flush, the water can be used to wash your hands before ending in the tank, ready for the next use.

By the way, you all probably know that you are supposed to remove your shoes and wear slippers when you enter a house or a hotel in Japan. Did you know that there is a specific set of slippers to be used only in the toilet? You have to put them on when going in, and wear again your regular slippers when you come out. There are a few things that we could copy from Japanese toilets, I guess. And some that they could learn from the Western world: for example it's great to put a sink to wash your hands in public toilets, but it would be nice to add luxurious accessories such as soap and dryers too. Apparently everyone here carries around a small towel in their bag and use it on this occasion... everyone but us, of course.

Regarding the food, we can now dispel the myth about how expensive it is in Japan. There obviously are expensive places, and good sushi can easily become quite expensive too, but it's also very easy to find very good food for a moderate price. A discovery that helped us keep our budget at a reasonable level. Sometimes it's hard to understand how it works (as in those ramen places where you have to order from a juke-box looking machine all written in Japanese), but it's always nice to try to figure it out. The last resort is always the "konbini" (small supermarket such as 7-11) where you can buy a whole meal for a few hundred yens, and receive chopsticks and spoons for free.

On the diet side we have a few doubts, though. So many older women here appear to suffer from some bone problem, like a twisted spine or curved legs. Does anybody know if it could be caused by a generalized lack of calcium? They don't seem to use much milk or other milk-derived products in their meals, as far as we could see. My daily intake of milk was limited to the cans of cold coffee with milk that I drank daily. Oh that coffee... I could write a whole post about it! I'm so glad that I've been able to find it at supermarkets in Bangkok too.

From the religious point of view the Japanese are rather liberal. As a Buddhist monk told us, most Japanese are born Shinto, get married with Christian rite and get into Buddhism at older age. Apparently the Buddhist point of view allows them to "take the best" from every religion without worrying about possible incongruences or other silly theological issues. Seems a bit weird from a monotheistic point of view, but it's rather smart after all. This way you get the best ceremony for each phase of your life!

There would be many more things to say, like the communal "onsen" tradition, the food, the old clam-style cell phones that here are still extremely popular and some crazy religious beliefs... but this post is long enough as it is. You could always come to Japan and see it yourself. We're sure that you would love it too.