When ever I go to a foreign to me country I like to record my random observations of the country.
1. Japanese are short for the most part. Nicole hung over their futon and beds.
2. They eat food I have never heard of before and some I hope I never see again.
3. They have lots and lots and lots of restaurants everywhere you go.
4. For being such quiet people their TV is loud and crazy.
5. Train stations are like bee hives where it is super quiet but everyone knows what they are doing and where they are going.
6. It must be considered rude to talk in public. It is so quiet even when there are lots of people. The exception was the airport today.
7. A bow can mean hi, bye, thank you, I see you. It made me think of Namaste. It felt like a bow was an acknowledgment that they saw me.
8. Japan has a well-developed public transportation system that runs on time and is very clean.
9. Cleanliness must be very important to this culture.
10. In general they are very kind and humble. I see a bit of a difference in the teens.
11. Nicole felt some judgement about her tattoos at times, especially from the elderly.
12. We saw lots of babies and toddlers but not many school aged children.
13. Many of them speak at least some English.
14. Their sign translations were funny at times. I.e. Danger Walk Smart Phone.
15. They love stairs. As Nicole puts it there was a lot of fucking stairs everywhere!
16. Slippers and shoes! Slippers for in the room, different slippers for the toilet room, and yet different slippers for the laundry room. And no, the slippers were not cleaned between uses and everyone used the same ones. We had to go barefoot to go into the temples.
17. Many of them fell asleep on the buses and trains. They seem tired.
18. They don’t like to show they are sweating. They carry sweat cloths to wipe their sweat away.
19. We didn’t see many over weight Japanese people. Most are very thin.
20. All ages ride bicycles. Everywhere. Lots of small motorcycles too.
21. Some wear blue jeans but not many. They dress up when they are out and about.
22. The ladies wear elbow length gloves so they don’t get sun tanned.
23. Most cover their mouths when they laugh.
24. If I spoke to them, they responded and we could have a fun conversation. However, I only remember one of them initiating a conversation.
25. No top sheet on the beds. Just a duvet.
26. They recycle most things. There are not many trash cans available, just recycling cans by the vending machines. When you dump your trash at a restaurant you dump the liquids and then there is a paper and a plastic bin.
27. There are vending machines everywhere. You can get juice, cold teas, and water from them.
28. They must like green tea flavor they call Matcha. We tried it. Not a fan. They put it on everything – ice cream, cookies, candy, cakes, jams,
29. There were seldom any hand dryers or paper towels in the bathrooms.
30. Very few wore sun glasses.
31. Most men carried a handbag of some sort.
31. Their paper money comes in 10,000, 5,000 and 1,000 yen. They use coins for 500 and 100 and less. If you take two zero’s off that is about what our money is. So they don’t have paper for less than a $10.
32. We saw some of them wearing their traditional Kimono – both men and women.
33. Squat toilets. Enough said!
34. The cars on the roads looked new and all were very clean.
35. The stores seemed to have lots more staff than we are used too at home. All the staff we dealt with were very pleasant and helpful.
36. The country is very clean. We rarely saw any litter on the streets.
37. They seem to be a very passive people. I didn’t hear any arguments or loud voices. When we dealt with the typhoon and trying to decide what to do they wouldn’t give us their opinion of what we should do.
38. The cost of eating, shopping and hotels seems to be pretty comparable to prices at home. Just like at home the bigger cities cost more.
39. I had no idea how old people were. I had trouble at times determining if they were female or male.
40. I wonder how many tons of rice is consumed daily here? It is served with every meal. We saw lots of rice fields.
41. Smoking is limited to select areas. Every once in a while their would be a smoking place on the sidewalks. It is prohibited inside most buildings and on the buses and trains.
42. Japan can teach us a lot about space and utility conservation.
43. One can buy a cup of ice at the 7/11 stores. It is called party ice and comes with a little expandable straw. Perfect for ice loving folks like me!