Japan Reflections
We spent nearly 3 weeks in Japan. It felt like such an amazingly long time, probably because of the crazy amount of new things we were experiencing every single day.
We spent time in four main areas; Tokyo, Sapporo, Osaka, & Mt Fuji. We spent roughly 4-5 days in each location, which gave us just enough time to start to become familiar with the area.
We thought we’d share some of our reflections from our experience:
Food
Noodles and rice! Most dishes feature one of them, and they are delicious. Most meals are designed to be eaten with chopsticks and maybe a spoon. If you have rice it isn’t like the loose rice back home that can only be eaten with a spoon and lots of patience, it is usually “sticky” as in it sticks together well enough that you can usually pick up little clumps of it up with chopsticks fairly easy. Noodles, cut vegetables, and smaller chunks of meat can all be picked up easily and slurped if needed. It’s a simple way to eat and we loved it.
Each region had its own specialties. Hokkaido had a lot of dairy and beef, Fuji had Hoto noodles, udon was more prevalent in Osaka, and Tokyo had more soba. We enjoyed it all.
Eating was very affordable in Japan compared to the US. For the two of us we could usually eat for well under 5000¥ (~$33) total, which would include enough food for us to be stuffed and 1-2 drinks each. Some places were much cheaper, like one ramen spot totaled 980¥ ($6) while some places like the Kobe beef restaurant feel closer to what we’re used to (to be fair, even that would be significantly more in the US).
The other thing that is great is that there is no tipping in Japan. People are paid a fair wage and they feel it is their duty to provide good service no matter what, so tipping doesn’t make sense. They’re like “you’ve already paid me for this service - so why would you pay more”. We love that - the cost of things feels transparent without these hidden questions about how much something will actually cost. It doesn’t soil the relationship between customer and service provider - they charge a fair price that you know up front and you pay that.. end of story. We like this so much better than the tipping structure in the US.
We can’t forget about the wet towels. Every single meal we sat down to in Japan we had some form of wet towel provided to us so we could wipe our hands. Such a nice touch. Whether you’re coming in from being on a train or even just from handling the menu, it’s so nice to be able to wipe down your hands without having to go to the bathroom. This should be standard everywhere!
Hotels
Hotels in Japan were overall a good experience. Tokyo’s was a bit small, but outside of that they all offered nice amenities that made the stay comfortable.
Energy efficiency seems to be a higher priority here. Several of the rooms had power disconnects that require you to insert your room key when in the room to turn on lights and sometimes A/C. Most of them encourage you to turn off lights and cooling regardless, and there are usually notes about things like conserving toilet paper, etc.
Hotels don’t make you provide a credit card when you check in. They just trust that you’ll be responsible for any additional charges that may arise rather than holding you hostage. We assume that stems from the overall much more responsible society of Japan compared to places like the US.
Most rooms have signs that suggest you remove your shoes before entering. This is common practice in Japan and is honestly a good sanitary decision anywhere you are. You never know what you’ve stepped in on the streets, in bathrooms, etc - so why drag that into the place you relax and sleep.
Orderly Society
When you walk around you witness how orderly the people of Japan are. The streets are clean and there is very little litter. When you get on an escalator, everyone moves to the left side in a single file. When the train doors open, people stand out of the way so others can get off the train before they get on. There is no jay-walking, people follow the rules and don’t rush. We don’t want to paint a fictitious picture that any of these things are 100%, there are always a few outliers but it felt very peaceful walking around.
Most people also showed so much respect for one another. When the conductor walked through the train, before moving on to the next car he would turn and bow. When walking into and out of a restaurant all of the staff would welcome you and thank you. We saw this everywhere and enjoyed it.
A Society That Cares
Along with the respect everyone showed each other, we also witnessed a society as a whole that cares for its people. This is an odd example, but something that stuck out to us was how there were free, public restrooms all over the place. In the US you usually need to go into a business in order to use the restroom, or in Europe they have some public ones but they charge a fee to use. Everyone uses the toilet so it feels supporting that they acknowledge that and provide it to everyone. Another example is most of the sidewalks in major cities had a ridged yellow strip running down them; we learned that these are so that people who are blind can more easily navigate the city.
We learned that they also have universal healthcare in Japan which means that no matter a person’s situation they had basic coverage to keep themselves healthy. The government uses the leverage it has to negotiate and set lower rates for most healthcare needs which means that it remains affordable for all citizens.
We also saw very few homeless people. We don’t have any stats on this, but spending time in multiple large cities we can say that it was night and day to what we’ve experienced in other large cities. We speculate that this is because both families and society as a whole does a good job of taking care of each other, which may ultimately lead to less of this. More affordable housing, food, and healthcare likely also contribute.
Humans Doing Work
Something we observed is that in Japan there were often more people doing jobs than we would be used to in places like the US. We walked past five guys working on trimming a medium sized tree. In a cafe there would be 3-4 people behind the counter rather than two frantically running around. In a small restaurant there would be double the people taking orders & cooking meals than we would expect. It may be less efficient, but what we didn’t see was people that were overstressed and made to feel like they were just a cost center. It also made for a more peaceful environment as a customer.
We also saw lots of people doing manual labor, like sweeping streets and gathering used glass bottles for recycling. These are the people that lead to the streets being so clean, and while it may not be absolutely necessary it makes for a much more enjoyable environment for everyone.
Income and cost of living is quite a bit lower in Japan compared to the US so that may be part of what enables them to utilize human capital more freely than we can. But it was a refreshing change of pace not feeling like everywhere we went was being squeezed to the absolute max on increasing profits and cutting expenditures.
Public Transportation
Trains, buses, and taxis are everywhere. Specifically trains and subways are so well built out that in most cases we never had to take any ground transportation. In fact for the first week we were there we only used trains and our feet to get around. It wasn’t until we got to some smaller towns in Hokkaido that we started using a couple buses and a small handful of taxis to get to places that were too far to walk.
The train system is amazing. It’s so well organized and with a small learning curve became very simple for us to navigate. Prices are also very affordable making it an economical way to get around.
We utilized a Suica IC card for the majority of our train travel. You can get a physical card or just add it to your Apple Wallet, add some funds, and then you just tap at the train gates. It automatically calculates your fare when you tap out after your ride and makes the entire process seamless.
On a few occasions we bought tickets ahead of time. In Hokkaido we bought a 5 day rail pass which allowed us to ride as much as we wanted with the ticket. We saved over $100 by doing this because of how many trains we took. There are also “limited express” trains that make fewer stops where you can reserve seats on ahead time which we did in a few cases.
We also took a Shinkansen (bullet train) from Osaka to Fuji which was a super cool experience. We always love traveling by train as you get to see so much more of the countryside than you would by plane. It’s even better when you are covering ground at nearly 200MPH.
While cars are still everywhere, it was so nice to have the option to use high quality public transportation. It made us feel independent and allowed us to explore places we wouldn’t have been able to otherwise.
—
To wrap up, Japan is amazing. The food is world class and the people are extremely kind. There are so many beautiful places like shrines, temples, mountains, lakes, and more. It’s an affordable place to travel compared to prices in the US. Public transportation is everywhere, making it incredibly easy to get around.
There’s a reason why so many people visit Japan and we can’t wait to go back!
