I love traveling and seeing all the different ways people live. The core is always the same: eat, play, work, love, learn… but the nuance. The nuance is where things get interesting.
Unlike most trips we go on, we do not have a packed agenda. There’s maybe 1 thing planned per day, and sometimes that thing is traveling from Point A to Point B.
Yesterday, day 2, the planned event was an evening food tour. Today’s activity is traveling to Osaka. This means we had a decent amount of time to aimlessly wander around and observe the city two mornings in a row. Below is a hodgepodge of observations of how things are similar to the States but also kinda different.
Transit
I’m writing this blog post from a super comfy seat on a super-fast train. I know Japan has bullet trains and I’m not sure if this is one. I do know that this baby travels around 170 mph and faster so it’s bullet enough for me.
America has prioritized car travel over trains. Really unfortunate given our history of pioneering the great American railroad. Unfortunately, all the rail lines are now owned by private entities, so public transit has to wait for goods. This means that if you want to take a train somewhere, you will likely have a slow experience and few options. Yay capitalism.
This isn’t the case in Japan. Trains here are incredibly frequent, on time, and, in some select cases, incredibly fast.
School Children
Kids walk by themselves too school here. Now this was absolutely a thing when I was growing up but these days? In the States? Parents get arrested for kids walking by themselves and getting hit by a car. I wish I was joking.
Kids in the States have bulletproof backpacks. Kids in Japan might have a high visibility cover over theirs. Totally the same thing.
Toilets
Americans need to embrace real stalls. One’s with actual doors and no gaps above and below the so-called walls. Japan has this as well as fancy toilets. In the airport, the toilet automatically started making a water noise when I sat down. In our hotel room, it ran actual water. Both had all sorts of bells and whistles for bidets.
Our hotel room toilet also had a heated seat. I’m neutral on all the bells and whistles of these toilets, but I am not a fan of heated seats. Now it sounds nice, no cool porcelain on your bum in the middle of the night, but if you are going to be there for any length of time, and you happen to have a prior condition with overheating? Yeah. No. This is not a difference I’m here to embrace. I wish I had been capable of turning it off, but I wasn’t that smart either.
The toilet on the train not only has all the bidet-style bells and whistles, but it also has a button to raise the lid and another to raise the seat!
Cleanliness
Tokyo and Singapore have got to be the cleanest megacities I’ve ever visited. Plus, in Tokyo, there are barely any trash cans. People simply bring their trash with them and dispose of it properly at their destination. Amazing!
I didn’t pay attention in Singapore, but in Tokyo, there is a veritable army of people going out every morning to pick up trash on the sidewalks. When this happens in the States, our army uses grabbers. Here, they’re using long tongs. I feel like this is the better option. Less complicated tools are probably less prone to breaking.
I wish we could incorporate this in the States. Depending on where you are, there might be trash cans everywhere, and yet there’s still always trash in the streets. I’ve literally seen people throw their trash on the ground while standing 10 feet from a trash can. It’s no wonder our planet is so polluted when we can’t handle something so basic. I feel bad for Mother Earth.
Hotel Elevators
The card reader in the elevator in our hotel had the ability to know which floor we were on! Such a cool magic trick. In badge-controlled elevators in the states, you badge in to say yeah, I’ve got a key to this property and select what floor you want to visit. You also get to play a fun game of beat the timer – swipe the card and then find your floor before the badge swipe times out. It’s so much fun. Once you win the game, you can select any or even all floors. This is great if you and your friends/family are on different floors.
In our first Tokyo hotel, when you swipe your hotel key, it preselects the floor your room is on. You don’t have to play any fun timing games and there’s no reason to push the button (sad day for all the button pushing lovers). Of course, there’s also no way to visit others on another floor. You only get access to the floor on which you’re staying. Pretty cool from a security standpoint
Dining
I’m ignoring food in this post. There’s simply no comparing food from different countries. Just eat all of the things and enjoy the ride!
However, here are 2 interesting observations in restaurants. In the States, we sometimes have hooks to hang our bags. They might be under the table or at the end of a booth but it isn’t consistent. In Tokyo, every restaurant seems to have a bag to put your bag into. No more putting it onto the dirty floor and there’s always a spot!
Breakfast at our hotel was a buffet. When you were seated, the host flipped this card over to indicate the table was occupied. When the guest left, it was their job to flip it back over to indicate they’re done and not just getting more food. Absolutely brilliant!
Crosswalks
Crosswalks in the states have relatively recently started to incorporate a countdown timer to indicate how long you have to cross the intersection. The walk sign turns on, you get X amount of time with just a walk symbol and then a countdown begins. Or you just get the countdown and no walk sign. Either way, when the countdown reaches zero, the do not cross sign comes on.
Here, there is a countdown for both cross and do not cross! You get to know how much longer you have to wait before you can continue on your merry way. I will say these fancy countdowns aren’t available at every crosswalk, just like we don’t have the countdown at every crosswalk in the States.
Scooters and Bicycles
Rent a scooter seem to be less of a thing in Tokyo. I didn’t see any in use but Chris did. The only time I saw them was when they were parked in their designated corrals next to a building. This means sidewalks here aren’t cluttered up with abandoned equipment and no one is intentionally or accidentally using them to block access to paths of travel. I’m looking at you every major city in the US. I really don’t understand how someone with mobility issues is able to navigate these trip hazards.
Bicycles are very much in use and, just like in the States there’s a wide variety of bike lane vs no bike lane and ride on the sidewalk vs ride in the street. No major differences here. It can make walking down the sidewalk fun because of the chaos of which side everyone is walking on with the added complication of bikes in both directs as well.
Walking in an orderly fashion
Speaking of sidewalks, I’ve decided that humans are largely incapable of walking in an orderly fashion. There are signs everywhere to walk on the left, go up the stairs on the left, down the stairs on the left. Left. Left. Left. Left. But then, this morning. The flipped it to be on the right! What the heck.
Fine. They needed to do it that way for whatever logistical reason in the train station we were in. That said, when you’re walking around the city in all the chaos of a city, Tokyo and the States are the same. No one pays attention to what side you’re supposed to walk on. It’s a free-for-all. Plus there are still the main characters who just randomly stop in the middle of the sidewalk and it’s your job to pay attention to them and now go around.
Just watch where you’re walking kay?
Use of Space
America has an overabundance of land. Urban sprawl is very much a thing. We build out because land is cheap.
I was actually surprised that Tokyo didn’t have more high rises. For some reason, I expected it to be very dense and very tall. It is dense! I suspect it isn’t as tall because of the expense in building earthquake-resistant skyscrapers, but I didn’t fact-check this.
What I can confirm is that there are very few empty spaces in Tokyo. Nearly everything seems to have a designated purpose designed to minimize wasted space. For example, under neath train tracks, there might be small shops. Underneath an underpass was a basketball court. There are tiny parks in empty lots. Fancy car spinners so less space is needed to park/remove a car from a parking garage. And yes, even small, single-stall parking spots.
City Sounds
Seattle is a very quiet city in comparison to NYC or Chicago. Drivers in the later tend to talk with their horns even if it’s just to say “Hey!” Seattle is not a horn city but every now and then it happens.
Americans are also loud talkers. When you get a bunch of us together the decible level rises signficantly. No city in the States is quiet because of this unless it’s maybe early hours in Seattle before the coffee shops have opened. There’s coffee 24/7 in NYC so the decibel levels remain kinda constant. Kinda kidding. Kinda not.
In Tokyo, everything is insanely quiet. I mean, it’s still a city and you’ll hear traffic and occasional sirens but the cars are mostly electric and the noise is dimmer because of it. People talk but they talk at much lower volume that tends to happen in the States. It’s just an incredibly quiet city.
Summary
I’m sure there are exceptions to any and all of the above. Y’all, I’ve been here 2 days. You can’t expect me to be an expert but these are my observations and thoughts at this stage of the game. Take them with the grain of salt they deserve.
