Japan: First Impressions

Japan! We arrived in the land of the rising sun and spent our first three days in Tokyo. Of all the countries we have visited so far, we were most familiar with Japanese culture – or so we thought. San Francisco has a large Japantown, and a couple of years ago I took a class studying “The Way of Tea” (more commonly known as Japanese tea ceremony). Turns out Japan was the most foreign place to us in many ways. Our first impressions:

1. Tokyo is clean. There is no litter on the streets, a fact made even more surprising as there are no trash bins on the streets either. Not even in the subway stations. We later learn from our new friend Lucie that trash is sorted into something like six different types of bins, and people throw their trash away at work or at home. Or in our case, our hotel room.

Spotless, bin-less Tokyo sidewalk

2. Nobody locks up their bikes. Rows of beautiful, new-looking bicycles are outside, unattended, unlocked. What does it say about a country that in its largest city (12 million residents!), people don’t worry about their bikes getting stolen? In parts of Oakland, you wouldn’t be able to park your bike and walk across the street without someone taking off with it. We even had a bike stolen from within our locked garage in Berkeley.

3. Japan is the home of magic toilets. It is common for Western-style toilets to have pre-heated seats, and buttons that generate a spray, bidet, or fountain experience for your nether regions. Some toilets even had a “flush” button, which did not actually flush the toilet, but produced a sound as if the toilet was flushing…

Wash, spray or bidet? You choose!

4. Lack of English speakers and signage. In all of the other countries we have visited so far, English was never the first language, but was widely spoken and most street and business signs were also translated into English. Not so in Japan. Signs were usually in kanji, with maybe 10% translated into English. We finally busted out our electronic translator and put it to good use.

A rare bilingual street sign

5. Cigarette vending machines are common. Neither Mark or I could recall the last time we saw these in the States…maybe in the 80’s? Apparently Japan isn’t worried about underage smokers.

We expected Japan to be expensive, and it exceeded expectations. A McDonald’s Big Mac cost the equivalent of $6 US, excluding drink and fries. A Starbucks grande latte was $5. Yeouch! Our nine days in Japan cost as much as the previous month in Laos and Vietnam.

See more of our Tokyo photos…