There are lots of things about Japan which make it a uniquely quirky, and lovely, place to live in. (PS – I’ve made a Google Maps list of all my favourite places in Japan from my 6 months, which you can access here.)
One of these is the courtesy and respect everyone shows each other, particularly to strangers.
A few instances of this:
- When in an elevator, the person nearest the buttons will hold the doors open until everyone else has left, before leaving themselves.
- People are very conscious of not stepping in front of others’ photographs and also will normally walk behind so as not to obstruct someone’s view.
- People tend to be very attentive when someone asks them for help, taking great pains to make sure that they give the correct advice
- Service with a smile: Japan is rightly famous for this. Servers in the various places in the foodcourt in the basement of my building remembered my name to me, even when I hadn’t visited them for months.
- Train conductors bow when entering and leaving every carriage of the train.
Vending machines – to start with you will probably think it’s very strange that there are vending machines not only literally on every street corner, but also in the most unlikely places (like a bamboo forest, or the top of Mt Fuji). However, before you know it I bet you find yourself using them all the time. They’re fantastic – you can get everything from piping hot green tea to ice cream, and even the fabled Yakult1000 (Azabujuban, by the Oedo line. Thank me later).
This might be a Nagoya thing, but the Japanese seem to have a mild obsession with motivational t shirts. The slogans are always massively over-the-top Here are some of my favourite ones:
- “Cease to struggle and you cease to live just the way you are”
- “No rain no rainbow”
- One rather serious looking lady with a shirt which just said “Dreams are necessary to life.”
- Another rather serious man with “Bombshell” down one sleeve, as well as various other incomprehensible slogans elsewhere.
Some are simply wacky: “Bread never falls but on its buttered side.”
The question I want want to know the answer to is do these people know what the writing says. As Churchill had it, “it’s not an aphorism if you don’t know what it means.”
Finally, I love that Auld Lang Syne plays towards closing time at many stores and events.
Rupert Swallow 
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