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Surprising Things about Japan
Sep. 7th, 2010 02:44 pmWe're back. Here are some things that surprised me:
1. Free wifi is almost impossible to find. I did a few things lurking in a stairwell outside the Wired Cafe in Tokyo's Shinjuku district, but they wanted $5.00 for coffees so I didn't go in.
2. Japan is a very cash-oriented society. Credit and debit cards are used less frequently in most day-to-day transactions. Vending machines and human-run businesses alike are well-equipped to offer change, which they do willingly, even for 10,000 Yen notes.
3. The Japanese are far more racially diverse than I thought. Some look more like Indonesians, some like Koreans, some like Chinese. There are bodies and faces of different shapes: big noses, tiny ones. There are big round eyes and tiny slit eyes. This diversity is funny in a people who, even 100 years ago, were erecting monuments to the superiority of their "race". (The major shrine at Meiji Jingu is built to that end.)
4. People in Tokyo dress up for each other, but don't look at each other.
5. While Tokyo may be the most expensive city in the world to live, it's not hard to find a good sit-down meal under $10, and the subway costs 66% of Toronto's to use. And has a million lines. And the trains arrive on time every three minutes. And if you need assistance, the employees are not surly.
6. Japan is more mountainous than I realized. I guess I sort of imagined something flat with Mount Fuji sticking up in the middle. We hiked and enjoyed mountainous regions near Nikko and in the Kiso Valley south of Nagano.
1. Free wifi is almost impossible to find. I did a few things lurking in a stairwell outside the Wired Cafe in Tokyo's Shinjuku district, but they wanted $5.00 for coffees so I didn't go in.
2. Japan is a very cash-oriented society. Credit and debit cards are used less frequently in most day-to-day transactions. Vending machines and human-run businesses alike are well-equipped to offer change, which they do willingly, even for 10,000 Yen notes.
3. The Japanese are far more racially diverse than I thought. Some look more like Indonesians, some like Koreans, some like Chinese. There are bodies and faces of different shapes: big noses, tiny ones. There are big round eyes and tiny slit eyes. This diversity is funny in a people who, even 100 years ago, were erecting monuments to the superiority of their "race". (The major shrine at Meiji Jingu is built to that end.)
4. People in Tokyo dress up for each other, but don't look at each other.
5. While Tokyo may be the most expensive city in the world to live, it's not hard to find a good sit-down meal under $10, and the subway costs 66% of Toronto's to use. And has a million lines. And the trains arrive on time every three minutes. And if you need assistance, the employees are not surly.
6. Japan is more mountainous than I realized. I guess I sort of imagined something flat with Mount Fuji sticking up in the middle. We hiked and enjoyed mountainous regions near Nikko and in the Kiso Valley south of Nagano.
