10 things I loved about Japan

From November to December 2017, I spent 11 days visiting numerous cities and towns in Japan. Here are 10 things I loved about Japan’s culture and lifestyle.

1. First and foremost – Japanese people are so kind. They’re always willing to help or give directions, shopkeepers would go out of their way to ensure an item is neatly wrapped (and bubble-wrapped for the plane!), locals would patiently wait beside the train doors for people to depart the train before boarding, would speak quietly or not at all during a train trip, would move out of your way if they see you’re dragging luggage, would keep to the left on escalators and I also loved how, this may sound strange but, no one stares at you for looking different – I’m a very tall, slim Westerner with brown/blonde hair. I stuck out of the crowd my entire time here, but no one seemed to notice, or care. I could go on and on about how thoughtful and well-brought up Japanese people are but that could take a while! It’s easy to notice these perks when things are so different in Australia.

2. When travelling, it’s difficult to control how much you’re spending when you need to buy three meals a day. Japan is great though as a quick bowl of takeaway ramen is only 120¥ ($1.40) from the corner store or a large bowl is on average about 700¥ ($8) at a standard ramen restaurant/Ichiran. I found myself having ramen for lunch or dinner about half the time, you never get sick of the taste! Other quick and cheap meals can be found at any 7-Eleven (there is one literally every 100m) which also heats the meal up for you in a microwave.

3. Shinkansen (AKA bullet trains). I reckon they’re the most efficient method of transport here. Getting up to speeds of 300km/h, I caught three bullet trains over my eight days in Japan. The longest distance I travelled on one was from Tokyo to Osaka – a distance of 515km was completed in only two and a half hours. The trip was very smooth and you can’t even tell when the train is slowing down or stopping (I’m on a bullet train from Hiroshima to Osaka as I write this :P). There’s heaps of leg room and a very spacious interior.

4. Shinkansen also gives you a great view of Japan’s amazing landscape. No city is the same and houses in between cities are beautifully designed and structured, making the most of their land. I got quite excited when I saw some traditional Japanese houses with Bonsai trees planted in front!! The pic below was taken on my bullet train ride from Osaka to Hiroshima. I just had to snap a quick pic of a magnificent mountain, sprinkled with snow.

5. Most restaurants have examples of their meals constructed with plastic out the front of their store (pictured). It really helps foreigners in knowing what things like ‘ラーメン’ means.

6. This may sound strange to Westerners but Japanese toilets flush automatically and have have warmed seats! Now you may think the latter is unnecessary but when you’ve spent the day in below 5°C weather, you’d be super glad to park your bum on a ring of warmth and have the toilet flush on its own while you’re pulling up your pants!!

7. Local trains: Tokyo’s train system is so unlike that of Sydney’s and I quite admire it. Everything makes sense so it was super easy to find our way to the right station. Most trains have a screen that displays a simple map of the upcoming stations and an arrow showing where the train currently is. The map would switch between Japanese and English momentarily, greatly assisting us in knowing which stations were coming up. The perk I found the most intriguing was the departure melody which was played at all the major train stations. Rather than Sydney’s ‘doors closing, please stand clear’, here, an enjoyable and entertaining tune played, alerting commuters that the train doors were closing shortly.

8. Locals love to ride bicycles everywhere and they’re not a nuisance! Everywhere I’ve been, there has been hundreds of cyclists. Main cities such as Tokyo formed special paths to separate pedestrians and bicycles and drivers seem to be comfortable sharing the road with bicycles. It’s super environmentally friendly and it seems to be a much easier way to get around no matter the weather!

9. Japanese culture is incredible. My favourite part of visiting religious and historical sites were the temples, castles and shrines. I fell in love with the gold detailing, the effort and time put into building the magnificent structures and the fact that some were over a thousand years old.

You don’t get designs like this in Australia.

10. Last, but definitely not least, there is no shortage of free wifi. High-speed and free wifi not only can be found on every train station, but also in streets, shopping malls, trains and buses! It was super convenient considering the cost of buying a SIM card and loading it up!