My Japan trip...

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

It’s not over yet; I’ve got a total of three full days left. But still, I’d like to give my impressions while I still remember them, especially considering it’s been thirty years since I was last here…

  1. One of the biggest is my amazement at the kinds of differences between America and Japan facilitated by the (especially urban) population density: bike parking lots as big as many car lots over here, the extent of the public transportation network (and the things that go with it, like decent box lunches), the number of 24 hour businesses, the retention of the dying-in-America phone booths and arcades (and what games - networked trivia games, baseball games that use trading cards for the players for both the Japanese and American leagues, fantasy RPG-strategy style games using trading cards [Lords of Vermillion] - stuff that won’t be possible/popular with home consoles in America for years)… It’s all fascinating.

  2. One of the places my family and I stayed was the Hotel Suehiro in Matsumoto, owned by a relative of a business associate of my father’s. It’s a true mom-and-pop place, but it’s a dying breed for obvious familial-related reasons. I was told that there used to be 13 in the area, and now it’s down to three. It’s kind of sad, especially given the level of service we were given (we came about a month before the real busy season starts, so we were the only ones there). My nephews got a lot of attention and play, and we got some incredible homecooked meals. It’s not an experience you can get at any larger hotel.

  3. Speaking of hotels, the traditional style rooms I got there and in another, larger place in Kofu were pretty interesting. T’was a first for me.

  4. Ahh, onsens/furos… Soaking in the hot water is sooooo good. Makes you want to stay in forever, yet I know I can’t. How sad!

More as it happens and/or as I think of it… Any reflections based on your personal experience (or not) would be great!

2

Hiya, and welcome! I live in Tokyo. I’m glad you’re enjoying your stay!

I’m surprised to hear you mention phone booths, though. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an American-style one here.

Hope you’ll get to enjoy some of the gorgeous fall colors while you’re here!

3

After way too long, part 2!

1.5) Something else allowed by the urban density: the extensiveness of accommodations for the blind. You know those “bumpy tiles” they have in some places to warn the blind of a curb? Tokyo has that, AND raised bump paths for them to navigate right through city streets. Pretty remarkable. Oh, and the vending machines, which were, of course, everywhere. (Sadly for my sister, none had Diet Coke, just Coke Zero.) We never saw any of the more… unusual machines you hear about, though. (I’m just imagining being a vending machine refiller, especially for those ones that offer both hot and cold drinks out of the same machine. Man, it must be more than a full-time job…)

Yet another: the number of outdoor buskers/yellers for all sorts of reasons, mostly commercial and political. They’re everywhere, man. If you think sign-wavers for businesses are annoying here in the US, do NOT go to Tokyo.

Other video games I forgot to mention: Bemani music rhythm games of all types, horse racing sim games (one featured a set of chairs with individual play screens, such as you’d find in a large casino’s sports betting parlor, in front of a huge screen with the simulated horse race - another had the chairs surrounding a felt “track” with “models” of the horses controlled by magnets; the horses would have a “victory lap” after the race in the order of their finish before resetting for the next race), coin-fall games with various bonus game twists, pachinko and mah-jongg (of course), multiplayer mecha fighting games, and, naturally, claw machines of all sorts.

2.5) I since discovered that the owners’ son and daughter in law are “training” to take over the small hotel we stayed at, which is good - that is, of course, by far reason #1 why the area is down to 3 from 13. There’s just something charming about it, and the attention we got.

  1. The hotel we were staying at was also home base for an international women’s volleyball tournament. Man, some of those women were TALL! The Chinese and Russian teams especially (the latter won the entire tournament, IIRC). Our last day there, an apparent VIP was checking out, because he (I assume the “head” of the party was the old man) was getting photos taken with the staff, who formed two lines on either side of the doors. I have no idea who he was, but his treatment definitely screamed “rich and/or famous.”

  2. The food was pretty remarkable. First time I’d ever had tonkatsu from anything but the “standard” cuts of pig. The special cuts… Mmmmm. (Though I finally found out what the cabbage was for, for which I :smack:.) And the portions were just right, as was the sweetness, even in the (fine, fine) pastries! It was something I already “knew” about American food, but it was still a culinary eye-opener to experience once more.

I also had ice cream with special soy sauce on it. It was… an interesting mix of salty and sweet.

  1. Engrish, of course, popped up. My prescriptivist instincts were setting off alarm bells practically everywhere we went. It was particularly bad at a cafe at a major museum we visited - sadly, I forgot the exact wording.

  2. For some reason, Stitch seemed to be a very popular Disney character, as far as merchandising goes. I’m not sure why.

  3. We were at a major department store, and a typical-sounding upbeat instrumental was playing on Muzak. My sister stops, and asks my brother-in-law and me if we recognize the music. We stop and listen, and both say “no.” What was it?

Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab.”

  1. We picked apples in Kofu. The orchard even has a website, though I’m afraid I forgot the URL. Very nice, very sweet, first time I’d ever done something like that, and something which both nephews (yes, even the one year old) enjoyed. We left just as a busload of tourists came in. Whew.

  2. Speaking of younger nephew, the kid is a bottomless pit. I was amazed how much he eats. My dad says said nephew has more recognition of edible items than any baby he’s ever known. Man, the kid can pack it away. He’d better be active when he grows up.

  3. Speaking of food, ever owned a USB stick designed to look like sushi or shrimp tempura? You can get them in Akihabara. :slight_smile:

  4. Visited Matsumoto-jo, a castle. Very interesting place. Huge, with VERY tall steps. Ports for both bows and rifles. Was saved from being torn down years ago by basically two men, during a time when old stuff was thought of as useless.

  5. This trip triggered some bilingual “regrets” as mentioned in other threads of mine. We’ll see if I get the inclination/time/money to do something about it. Maybe when my situation is more stable.

  6. The plane ride was actually pretty awesome. First time I’d been international in years, so JAL had personal screens with a huge variety of movies, TV shows, and games. Played some, watched some, had their special orange juice, slept on the way back… Heck, Narita even had a pretty large shopping kiosk AT our gate. Nice. We flew into Haneda, which was pretty much still brand new. Didn’t see a lot of it, though.

(Speaking of Narita, one of their shops, an electronics place, had rice cookers for sale. Who the heck buys rice cookers at the airport? Yes, I’m pretty sure this section was accessible to the public, but still!)

Hmm, I think that’s it for now. If any of you out there want to ask questions and/or otherwise prod memories, please do. :slight_smile:

4

one thing that struck me when I was in Iwaki, was that there doesn’t seem to be any concept of “zoning” at all. The hotel I was staying in (Creston) was I think a 6- or 7- story building, behind it was a multi-story parking garage or something, and stuck in between the two was someone’s tiny house.

The beer vending machines were weird, but came in handy when I had an unplanned stay at a tiny (by American standards) hotel outside of Ueno station after missing the last train to Iwaki.

the last thing that stuck with me is what it felt like being basically deaf and illiterate.

5

Just got back from Japan two weeks ago; look for my thread on customer service here.

Other thoughts:
I am an avid motorcyclist, so I had my eyes on the two-wheelers there. Was surprised to discover that true motorcycles (where you straddle a saddle and have a hand-operated clutch and foot-operated manual transmission) were very rare. Far more popular were scooters (legs together in front, fully automatic transmission) - small scooters, and very large (600 cc engine) ones. Rather surprising.

Was pleased to see that first-year drivers have to to affix a sticker indicating so to their car as a warning to others. In the US we have “STUDENT DRIVER” markers, but these are only applied to cars actively being used for instructional purposes, and I don’t think they’re a legal requirement. Elderly drivers in Japan have to display a similar sticker to their cars.

Taxis have their side mirrors mounted above their front wheels instead of on their doors; this greatly helps to eliminate blind spots, which makes me wonder why they don’t do it in the US, or on all cars in Japan. A friend of mine said he saw the same feature on some high-end private vehicles there, but I didn’t.

Drivers are sedate. Traffic is heavy, but the mood is cooperative rather than competitive, even among taxi drivers. This is in stark contrast to visits I’ve had to New York city and Chicago, where the taxis are all driven by Mario Andretti.

Nearly lost my hearing in Ginza when a convoy of a half-dozen soundtrucks operated by uyoku dantai (extreme right-wing political groups) rolled by. If you’ve never seen these, you can’t believe how bloody loud they are. There’s nothing like this in the US. My understanding is that they’re just spewing pro-Japan rhetoric, rather than stumping for any particular politician.

What’s the deal with ferris wheels? We rode the HEP-5 ferris wheel in Osaka, and the Cosmo Clock 21 in Yokohama, both of which were humungous. Also saw one in Kobe, and a couple more out in the boonies while traveling by bullet train. They seem to be as popular as karaoke.

Plane ride was…an experience. Don’t know where you flew from, but we went nonstop from Detroit to Narita, 13+ hours on the way there. I was seriously restless by the time we arrived. This was Delta Airlines; the cabin crew seemed to be a cranky bunch. Didn’t bother us much, in fact it was somewhat entertaining watching them be brusque with other passengers.

The Japan Rail Pass (available only to people who don’t live in Japan) was a great thing, but the process for obtaining it was convoluted. After buying an “exchange ticket” here in the US, you visit a Japan Rail office in Japan where you trade it in for the actual pass. Having arrived at Narita and needing the pass to ride the train into Tokyo, we had to get the pass right away, and the process was agonizingly slow. A long line, and when you get to the counter the clerk is doing everything by hand, including rubber-stamping the pass about 37 times. I can’t understand why this process isn’t more streamlined/computerized/automated. It was a good 30-40 minutes from when we got in line to when we were able to head to the train platform.

Not having been to Japan before - and having arrived after being awake for about 24 hours - the first evening was somewhat disorienting and anxiety-provoking. We got to our hotel at about 7:30 PM and knew we needed to go get some food before heading to bed. Wandered out into Ginza and found a tiny basement-level bar-food kind of place. Wife is Japanese, so despite her exhaustion, she was a little more at ease. Me, I was exhausted, I couldn’t understand what the people around me were saying, I couldn’t read the menu or signs, and I was crammed into a tiny chair at a tiny table in a place with no windows, and my brain was acting funny for having been awake so long. Things were fine the next day.

6

The side mirrors on the front end of the fender used to be standard in my Japan days (82-84). Not just for blind spots but for taking advantage of the “6-inch” rule: If you were 6 inches in front of the guy in the next lane, just flip on your turn signal and go - he/she has to back off.

Sedate drivers??? Not competitive?? Not in Hiroshima. If you were 8th in line at a stoplight and it turned green; you were expected to begin accelerating “immediately” - no gaps - you’d be honked at! By immediately I mean, “after the 5 taxicabs run the red light.”

Things must have changed. I remember taxis in Kyoto. I remarked to my wife that the cabs with the occupied indication were empty as well (I forget whether it was roof light on or off). Well one stopped at our hotel and a Japanese family poured out from the back seat. They had all been cowering below window level. We boarded and soon found ourselves shrunk down as well. It was better that you didn’t see exactly what was taking place as we roared about. And not just this one taxi experience. In Hiroshima, after the streetcars stopped running, the taxis would start making shortcuts through the shopping/bar district on the pedestrian walkways (10pm and later).

Thanks for the threads, brings up old and exciting times. We were always lost, illiterate, but totally safe feeling and somehow confident we would get where we were supposed to be.

7

Those used to park right by our house for hours at a time when we lived in Okinawa. It was so loud and annoying that I just went somewhere else when they were around. The concept of noise pollution does not seem to exist in Japan. I don’t miss that at all.

8

Which reminds me of another experience: electronics stores. Specific ones were Bic Camera in Kyoto, and Yodobashi Camera in Osaka. The lighting in these places is at least 50% brighter than an American Best Buy store. Positively blinding. Each department seems to have its own video or portable stereo blasting out its own presentation on a continuous loop. From any given position in the store, they all integrate into a continuous roar of background noise; the whole place is a zone of sensory overload that would put a Las Vegas casino to shame.

And what’s the deal with tiny beverage glasses? Visit a US restaurant, and you’re immediately provided with a 12-ounce glass of water. Sit down at a restaurant in Japan, and your glass is probably about five ounces, with four ounces of water in it. Seriously, it’s the size of a V8 can. At one restaurant I ordered a large Asahi beer - I think it was 22 ounces - and the waitress gave me the bottle, along with a five-ounce glass. I felt like I was drinking shots of beer.

It’s nice that littering is so rare, but why are public trash cans nearly impossible to find?

And for a society that’s considered by some to be germophobic, why do public restrooms rarely have soap in them, or even a means to dry one’s hands?

Ostensibly healthy people wearing surgical masks in public made me sad. Part of it is that being an American, surgical masks over here have a semiotic association almost exclusively with serious illness, but a bigger part is that we are very visual creatures, and so covering one’s face like that seems very dehumanizing.

9

Classes for a motorcycle license are about $1000 and take several months. They have separate classification for greater than 50cc up to 800cc and 800cc and over. I don’t have a bike in the states, so maybe that’s how they do it there, as well. Scooters (50cc and under) can be driven with a regular car license. That’s why I have one, despite wanting a motorcycle license. Plus, you can find a used one for ~$200.

All the websites I’ve found say you need to reserve it ahead of time, but I seem to recall some friends walking into the office and picking it up their first day there. As long as your passport says “tourist visa,” you’re good. Plus, they have an office for it in Tokyo Station as well as Narita. I wouldn’t be surprised if they put one in at Haneda as well, now they it’s accepting int’l flights.

A lot of Japanese people that I’ve seen don’t drink a lot of water with their meals. They’ll order beer or tea or something. Especially if they’re the typical workers: they sit at their desks and wolf down their bentos, then maybe have something to drink afterwards.

10

I’d forgotten about the masks! Yeah, they were everywhere, even on kids. Another effect of the urban density, I assume - illnesses of all sorts, even just the common cold, can spread like wildfire, I’m sure.

Speaking of hygiene, there was also the bathrooms! Tried a bidet for the first time (all the places we went to at least had a seat warmer, which was nice). Very… interesting experience. Also noted the lack of soap, but only in some places. Others even had their soap dispensers sensor-activated, built into the faucet. And, of course, there were the hand dryers where you stuck your hands into a huge U-shaped device and raised your hands up the U, through a couple of blowers. I think I first tried them here in the States; I don’t remember where, though.

Also, the hotel in Kofu even had a style of bathroom I’d not seen before: one small room for the toilet and another for a onsen-style shower setup with small bathtub. Interesting…

11

I was at the grocery store one time, and nearly abandoned my cart because I couldn’t take it anymore. (note: I swear I’m not generally a high-strung or easily annoyed person.) There were approximately five different conflicting radios/jingles going on at once; some coming from boom boxes resting on top of the shelves, some from loud speakers. One of them repeated every six seconds. All were loud and jangly in that sing-song-y Japanese kiddie way. I can’t quite describe it, but I can still hear in my head the central, six second jingle that played continuously in that store all the time. Gah!

One thing I loved there was that most restaurants also brought you a small pitcher of water with your itty-bitty drink glasses.

This was irritating. If you picked up litter on the beaches, you’d better be prepared to bring it all the way home with you.

Maybe this is a mens’ room thing? I never saw it in a womens’ room. The turbo dryers were standard.

I was told the masks were worn more by people who were sick and didn’t want to spread germs rather than those who were worried about illness. I frequently saw people alone in cars wearing them, though, which seemed strange to me. Wearing one of those things all day would drive me nuts.

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You’re welcome!

13

What’s the deal with Japanese toilets? I know somebody that lives in Japan, and on his blog (here: http://warmothstrat.wordpress.com/) he has a funny tale of using these Japanese toilets.

Why are they like that? It seems so…inferior to a true sit-down model.

14

I think humans are really “supposed” to squat when dropping a deuce.

15

Squatters are popular in Asia. They suck.

16

I’ve been to Japan and many other countries over the years. It really is fascinating.

Travel makes you realize that no matter how obvious it might seem that your “home” way is the only right way to do something, there’s another way to do it that’s just as good, or even better. Whatever that thing might be.

That’s actually been very useful in my career from time to time.

17

In the US, classes are not required in order to obtain a motorcycle endorsement (though some states will let you skip the road test if you present a certificate of completion from an MSF course). You can just show up cold and take the road test, and if you pass, you get the endorsement. The level of skill required in order to pass the test is sadly low, and there are no gradations to it: once you have your endorsement, you are authorized to pilot anything from the lowliest 250cc bike up to the most terrifying world-class superbike.

As in Japan, only an ordinary driver’s license is needed to pilot a scooter.

That may help explain why motorcycles are so popular in the US.

18

I enjoyed receiving a washcloth or disposable wipe before every restaurant meal. Here in the states I’ll often head for the bathroom just after ordering so I can wash my hands, but that wasn’t needed in Japan. I liked it, and wish it was a more popular practice around here.