Japan - the observations

The fascinating part of visiting Japan where all the cultural observations to be had - from the impressive to the comical, and sometimes both at the same time. I thought I would just list them:

• This place is impressively clean. In our two weeks I can not remember seeing a piece of litter anyway. No rubbish, no food scraps, no graffiti. Why? Well, for starters I think that 'respect' is an inherent part of their cultural, and that extends to the environment around them. Littering just isn’t the done thing. Plus, we did see some signs warning of pretty high fines for littering - approximately $500! But they also have a lot of old men everywhere cleaning up the streets.
• Which brings me to another observation - Japan makes good use of its old people. With a horrifically aging population (apparently in the next 40 years or so, Japan's population will fall from 120m to just 60m!), rather than just pay the elderly a pension, it appears that they instead pay them to totter around the streets and parks raking, sweeping and cleaning. I don’t know if they like it, but I sure did like the cleanliness.
• The reducing population was also not surprising in that we hardly saw a pregnant women the whole trip.
• Clean and safe - taxis sit at the side of the road with their door wide open waiting for a customer.
• But apart from being clean and safe there was a real buzz to the Japanese cities and they looked like a cool place to live.
• The Japanese people themselves were surprisingly Western looking to me. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but walking around the cities, sometimes you could forget you were in Asia at all. Clothing and haircuts are very much in styles we are familiar with at home, and many times I would think I had spotted fellow tourists, only to see on closer inspection they were locals.
• Obviously style is very important. There is a lot of care taken in appearance and plenty of preening in front of any reflective surface, male or female, and just about everyone seems to have their own small mirror on them. I think it is all about trying to be individual, but sometimes this style is way OTT.
• Guys with school girl fetishes would be happy here - lots of short skirts and long white socks. It's not just a cliché.
• None of the clothes were going to fit us though. If I could manage to get just my foot through the leg, then the trouser would wrap around my thigh like a boa constrictor. The shoes were so narrow that there was hardly room for my big toe, let alone my whole foot. There isn't much to the Japanese, that's for sure.
• The small feet thing posed problems for me at temples and our accommodation, as I always struggled to find a pair of slippers that fit me and my heels were always hanging out the back.
• There is an obvious dislike for being short - which the majority of them are. Girls will wear the most ridiculous heels in the most ridiculous places (forest walk to heels anyone?).
• It is also strange how we are always trying to get a tan, when the Japanese seem to do everything they can to avoid it. Shade is very precious, we even saw people biking along with an umbrella attached.
• Generally a good looking people, but they nearly all have bad teeth. Anti-dentites obviously!
• Very friendly people - especially to a couple of mute foreigners.
• Scary experience walking into stores. One of the staff spots you are yells out some greeting, which then ripples through every other staff member who also yells the same greeting at you. They didn’t seem to expect any reply from you, so we just kept our heads down and charged through. Though was very disconcerting when you we in the shop, as every 2 seconds the same chanting starts up and you never know where to look.
• Surprisingly, it is a cash society. It was very rare that we could pay by credit card. The smallest sized note was also 1,000 yen, which as you went on became dangerously frivolous with, as it was nearly the equivalent of $20.
• There are powerlines everywhere. These people are obviously 'electricitiholics'.
• They all had these weird massively long flip top phones. They look about as long as a TV remote. I guess it is because their writing is vertical? Hardly saw an iPhone the whole trip, which I thought strange for such a technology driven country. But strangely, I can hardly recall one person actually talking on their mobile, it must be all texting.
• A Starbucks literally on every corner. And if it wasn't a Starbucks, it was a café trying to make itself look like a Starbucks.
• No one J-walks. Everybody waits for the green man, even on the smallest, unbusiest of streets.
• People biking everywhere, particularly down pedestrian malls.
• Everyone sleeps when travelling in on the train or bus. No matter what the time of day, we would look around and see everyone with their eyes closed, head slouched forwarded, and body swaying. And just when you started thinking that there must be a lot of missed stops, they would suddenly look up, nod to themselves, step up and walk off.
• Flannels - what is the obsession with these. Every old women must have a plethora of flannels at her disposal, and each seems to have their own purpose. There is: the wipe the sweat off your forehead and neck flannel; the drape around your neck to catch the sweat flannel; the pat the rain off you flannel; the drape across your lap to protect your trousers from the bottom of your bag when you sit flannel; there is probably the flannel to wrap your flannels!
• Old Japanese women will also, rather than just having one bag, will have a number of small bags drape all around their person.
• The whole time we were there we never saw a large group of women out together. A few couples, but most women out a bar would be part of a large male-dominated group. But plenty of large groups of men out together, all in their uniform dark suits.
• While very quiet most of the time, the Japanese excel at being excessive loud at other times. Particularly slurping, sniffing, or any other noises you can make with your throat or nose. Iris would hate it!
• We are clearly much bigger drinkers than the Japanese. Our hotels would often make a point of telling us which restaurants served alcohol. And if you watched Japanese drinking at a bar, you noticed that you would finish two pints to their one, if that (though they would seem more drunk).
• All the workmen wear jumpsuits just like out of the Bond movies.
• New Zealand seems to equal either "All Blacks" or "Bungy", as that is what we got every time we mentioned where we were from.
• Despite there not being much English spoke at all, there was much strange use of it. The baseball teams all had English names - like "Marlins". Many stores also had English names - like "Lawsons". And the one that topped it for me, watching the news which was completely in Japanese - spoken, subtitles, headings - until sports news came along with a great big "Sports" heading, and then continued completely in Japanese again.
• Yes, there is lots of bowing. Even the train conductor bows as he enters the carriage, then stops, turns and bows again before he leaves.