Battling some jet lag as we got back from Japan on Friday night, but pushing through and also wanted to share some of my thoughts while the memories are fresh.
In case you missed it, make sure you read my post from last week on how and why we ended up in Japan here.
Overall I have to say that I loved the trip. It’s a great country with a very unique culture, people and plenty to do/see/eat.
Here are some of my key takeaways:
We were treated really well throughout the entire trip. I found everyone to be very polite and in general, it’s a very quiet and polite place to be. I definitely stuck out as a 6’3 white male, but it’s a very respectful culture and other than our first dinner at a restaurant that didn’t have an english menu (most do), we never felt out-of-place.
The entire country is extremely clean. Whether it be in the streets, hotels, subway, shops, restaurants, everywhere. Even most public bathrooms were cleaner than a lot of private places elsewhere.
Public transportation is great in Japan. Now that I think about it, we never stepped foot in a single car - we spent the entire two weeks walking or taking the subway. The subway system there is insane (in a good way), trains are all on time and it makes getting around cities a breeze. We took the train between 3 cities too, and these things fly at 200-300km per hour. Made getting around the country a breeze.
It’s dense as hell. In fact, I think I read that Tokyo is the most densely populated city in the world (at around 13 million people). While there were some parks and greenery in cities, everything else was either a restaurant, shop, building or subway track. Very little open space.
The food was damn good, and also very reasonable. We ate a fair amount of Japanese-style stuff, including ramen, other noodle/rice dishes, skewered meat, sushi, and a lot of their coffee and tea. To put pricing into perspective, most sitdown lunch dishes cost about $7-8 (Canadian) and probably the most expensive dinner we had (1 appetizer, 2 mains and a dessert) cost about $40. Keep in mind that tipping isn’t a thing in Japan as it’s consiered highly offensive - fine by me!
They start later in the day than we do in Canada. For example, many shops or stores don’t open until 10 or 11am, including some coffee shops.
Vending machines. Everywhere. You can’t walk 2 minutes without bumping into one, and while most are for drinks, you will also find vending machines for almost anything in Japan.
The shopping is pretty great. We’re not big shoppers overall but if you like designer stuff, vintage clothing, anime, action figures or really any kind of clothing or stuff for your house, you will find it there and pretty reasonably priced.
We saw a lot of really cool shrines and temples. It was really interesting getting to see and learn about more of the Japanese culture, architecture and more. A few pics here:
If you have any questions or thoughts, just hit reply and let me know - I’m happy to share more.
And now we get back to work, so you can expect more business-focused posts in the near future!
Have a great day,
- Josh Schachnow
Canadian immigration lawyer, CEO at Visto.ai
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