abroad

japan

• haneda airport bathrooms were massive, spotless, and the toilet stalls had showers as well
• everyone is very polite!
• you have to take your shoes off as soon as you enter a household
• shorter average height, lower doorways
• in a house/apartment, the toilet has its own room, bathtub/shower and sink are in a separate area
• bathrooms in public places don’t have paper towels or hand dryers, i saw many women carrying around their own hand towels to dry their hands in the bathroom
• extremely narrow roads, pedestrians walk on the same road people drive on
• not much land space, so they build up, not out
• very clean cities
• clean train stations, clean trains, clean streets
• everyone minds their own business on the train and it’s largely silent, no one talks to each other
• they will pack train cars like sardines, i once witnessed no less than 3 people jumping into an already packed train car backwards in order to fit rather than wait for the next train
• trains are always exactly on time, the arrival time on the schedule is always accurate
• no blowing your nose in public, it’s impolite
• having a runny nose in public is impolite (you’d wear a face mask if you had one)
• 7-11s sell real food that could be an entire meal (chicken skewers, rice, various sandwiches, and ramen bowls) and are extremely clean
• we went in the winter and discovered that some 7-11 toilets had seat warmers built in
• the rice is stickier than the rice i usually eat in america (presumably because it’s easier to eat with chopsticks)
• if you buy food at a 7-11 or corner store they will ask if you want it warmed up, and if you do they do it on the spot and give it to you warm
• portions at chains like mcdonald’s are much smaller, the nugget meal options were a 5 piece and a 15 piece, and the large soda is the size of a small soda from an american mcdonald’s
• kfc is considered holiday food, and is eaten around christmas time (our christmas eve meal was kfc)
• although they don’t celebrate christmas, tokyo disney does set up christmas decorations, and many people spend their christmas there
• tokyo disney has a lot of big hero 6 merch, and featured some of the characters (baymax and hiro) in their 2019 christmas day parade