46 Things That Surprise Foreigners in Japan

[greg]

Since people started linking the Rocketnews24.com website, I found this interesting article on things that surprise foreigners about Japan. My students ask this rather often, and the first thing that comes to my mind is #35: the women-only train cars. I should print this list out and use it for one of my English lessons sometime!

[usamimi]

4. Taxi doors open automatically

I was actually surprised when we were in Dallas last weekend that we had a Taxi with automatic doors.

[Heero]

17. The buttons to summon a waiter at family-style restaurants
HAHAHA, I'm embarassed to admit it took us several presses to figure out the purpose of the button.

21. The quality and selection at 100 yen shops
SERIOUSLY!

38. It’s so safe you can go walking around in the middle of the night with no problem
My wife and I have yet to have a bad experience (we've only been as tourists, but been several times) so we laugh at the discussions of "bad parts of town". I'm sure there are really bad things that happen in some places, but I just cannot fathon that it's at all comparable to American "bad parts of town".

45. The rooms at business hotels are tiny.
I consistently tell people that if they look at pictures online before going that they need to mentally "readjust" their perceptions because the beds shown are singles. My first time I looked at hotel pics and the room looked comparable to an American hotel room with 2 beds, but in the American hotel room the two beds are DOUBLES and everything else scales with that as a point of reference. US and Japanese hotels might have half a bed width of space between them, but since the Japanese bed is HALF as wide, that is not the same amount of space.

[usamimi]

21. The quality and selection at 100 yen shops
SERIOUSLY!

YES!! Man, every time I go to Seattle, I ALWAYS hit up Daiso. I can easily spend $50 in that place every time I go...

[greg]

My wife and I have yet to have a bad experience (we've only been as tourists, but been several times) so we laugh at the discussions of "bad parts of town". I'm sure there are really bad things that happen in some places, but I just cannot fathom that it's at all comparable to American "bad parts of town".

I recently learned that there are some bad parts of Osaka, but I used to go there all the time when I lived in Himeji, and I had no idea about this. You have to intentionally seek them out, it seems. When our former member on here started mentioning of how terribly unsafe Akihabara and Ueno's Ameyoko areas are, I was laughing. I've heard of at least one con artist in Akihabara who targets well-meaning foreigners, but that's about it. I've walked the streets of Tokyo in the wee hours of the morning, after the trains stop moving, and I've had no problems whatsoever.

Of course, Japan does have some crime. I've read about some foreigners getting mugged in Roppongi, but I have no idea how often that is. It's an everyday occurrence in Los Angeles and other huge American cities. The PA loudspeakers in my neighborhood warn of people who disguise themselves as utility workers to push their way into your apartment and such. We were told by neighbors when we first moved in that there was a cat burglar that has hit a few homes in our neighborhood. My Blade Runner-style umbrella was stolen at city hall a month or so ago. I just learned my lesson to not leave nice umbrellas in the box by the entrance, unless it's a cheap one. After having our home broken into and having my wife's diamonds and such stolen three years ago in Phoenix, living in Japan is like paradise in comparison. We just lock the door at night, although it's probably not necessary.