There’ll be many a post on my two weeks in Japan, but I thought I would start with the big difference I noticed and didn’t expect (like, obviously the language and alphabet is different!)
- They are SO tidy – even though there aren’t many bins, you just don’t see rubbish lying around. I saw someone *clean* the pavers of an ice cream drop or two
- There’s no paper hand towel in bathrooms, almost across the board. My eco conscious REALLY like this! Instead, men and women carry handkerchiefs or what we’d call ‘face washers’ (terry toweling) and use it to dry their hands, or wipe their brow…
- Japan is HOT! Wow, there was 95% humidity some days
- They are such obedient people – they line up either sides of the train carriages in pairs. Just such restraint.
- Everywhere seems very visually cluttered – some many words in your face! Negative space in print isn’t something that’s used as much as it could be
- They certainly love a cute uniform with a hat!
Just a short post for now, but I thought I should break my two week posting drought!
Welcome back, Sarah! Hope you saw lots and learned lots! I probably would have been baffled by the hand-drying thing.
Thanks – I did see way more than I ever would have independently, and learnt heaps too!
Happy homecoming! I hope you're not suffering jet-lag too badly. I love hearing about the differences – how amazing (and great) that there is such an orderly approach to lining up for trains. Really looking forward to hearing more once you recover from the trip!
I think I'm right with jet lag – there's only 1 hr time difference, so it's pretty easy to move between the two. I got a good night's sleep last night, but was groggy most of yesterday fater only some interrupted sleep on the overnight flight!
The biggest dramas I have is what to share of my holidays – a day by day, or themed, or repeat myself by 'a bit of column a and b'. We'll see – there's been suggestions I re use the daily emails I sent, but they are a little… punchy? What if all my readers think I'm horrible :S
I can't wait for your posts. When I visited a long time ago, it was an amazing country. I really wanted to go back!!!!
It is totally different to anywhere else, that's for sure!
Sounds like the humidity here! And most of our bathrooms don't have paper towels either – it's all hand blowers/dryers. I like the terry cloth idea though. I might consider copying it . .
I support the reuse of punchy emails 🙂
There were blow hand dryers in some places, but certainly not all! The only places that had paper towels were two hotels' lobby bathrooms.
What do you think would happen if someone didn't join the queue for the train? Just walked between the queues and jumped on first? I'd be so tempted, just to see. And with my blonde hair, I'd definitely stand out as an outsider!
I did some people not abide by the 'rules' and the Japanese were as polite as always! Said nothing… (i established they were likely Korean based on them sounding out Japanese words, it was rather amusing!)