Observations From Japan

It has been exactly a week since I returned home from an incredible trip to Japan and I am still sitting in the post-trip haze. I’ve been to my fair share of countries and I’d call myself fairly well-traveled, however, all of my previous travels have taken place in either North America or Western Europe. This was my first time in Japan and in Asia in general, so it was definitely a place different than those I had previously been to.

I spent about 10 days in Japan, traveling around and experiencing the country at a quick pace with my fellow travelers (I was in a group with 15 Italians, but more on that later). While my trip was purely a fast-paced explorative vacation, a few things stood out to me from the country.

Japan as a whole is an insanely clean and tidy country. Though it’s a bit strange how it can be this way, because, if you take a look around, there isn’t a single trash can to be found anywhere. I wasn’t the only one to notice this, as others in my traveling group also noticed the same thing. It’s insane how a country can be so clean and tidy, devoid of litter on the streets, but yet, there are no garbage cans.

Whether it be on the streets of Tokyo, in a park in Kyoto, or in the train stations of Osaka, there’s barely a single garbage can in sight. While this is fascinating, it’s also a minor annoyance, as you’re left carrying around your garbage until a mythical garbage can be found.

I don’t know how it’s seen elsewhere, but in the United States; Japan, and other Asian countries are seen as countries that have a very respectful population. This was proved trued immediately upon stepping foot off of the plane. I could sense the respect from the airport staff as they guided me around the airport. It wasn’t just employees giving good customer service, but rather a sense of respect picked up from their body language and actions.

This sense of respect carried over into every interaction had with a Japanese person. From the clerk at 7/11 bowing to you when giving you your change, to observing locals interact with each other on the subway, I could tell that the Japanese people have a different type of respect towards one another and discipline than my fellow Americans back at home. It was refreshing, to say the least.

This surprised me a bit, but from my interactions over the course of the week and a half, I will say that the Japanese people do not speak English well. I would even go as far to say that they don’t speak English well at all. I had expectations that at least people working in the tourism sector would speak even basic English, but by and large I didn’t find this true.

It’s possible I’m being an ignorant native-English speaker, but, you would think people working in highly touristy areas would be able to speak and understand even the most basic phrases. However, I found this to not be true. Thankfully, my group leader could get by with Japanese and our universal hand gestures were handy.

This is a bit of a minor thing but was a surprise to me nonetheless. Japan is possibly worse than Italy when it comes to accepting credit cards (this is saying a lot). Japan is without a doubt a country still heavily routed in paying with cash. Even though you’ll be potentially given a disappointed look if you pay for your 3 Euro breakfast with a card in Italy, it’s still possible. Not the case in Japan though.

This surprised me because Japan is such a highly technological and advanced country, I had assumed credit cards would be accepted everywhere. Though I suppose in the end it is the population of a country that dictates their payment methods. Thus, it makes sense that Japan would be a heavy cash country, with its older and more traditional population.

I suppose this was to be expected, but, it is without a doubt true that the Japanese love cuteness. Everything in Japan is “kawaii”, which means “lovely, cute, adorable” in Japanese. From Hellokitty teapots to the adorable penguin merch for the Suica metro cards, everything is designed with “cute” in mind. Kawaii can be found in both items and people, from fashion to food, clothing to entertainment, the culture of cute is everywhere in Japan. It’s actually kind of incredible at times, the items and things that the Japanese will make cute. This culture of cute is definitely not something you’d find in the United States.