7 Surprising Things About Japan

When I was planning our trip to Japan, I knew that it would be a country unlike any other I had visited before–that’s why I wanted to experience it. Ancient temples mixed with cutting-edge technology are scattered throughout Tokyo. History and beauty are plentiful in Kyoto. And the people of Japan are amazingly nice and helpful. These are the things I expected about Japan and found.

Here are the things that surprised me most about traveling to Japan.

1. Kawaii

Kawaii is the Japanese word for cute and you see it everywhere. You see Kawaii everywhere it’s supposed to be–on little girl’s clothing and toys–but you’ll also find kawaii in unexpected places. We saw it on many restaurant signs, and other business signs and many forms of advertisement. We even noticed a Kawaii sticker on a piece of construction equipment, and on a “construction–keep out” sign.

2. Cleanliness

Cleanliness is woven into Japanese culture. School children are required to clean their classrooms and even bathrooms as part of their schooling (which I think would go a long way here in the States to ingrain a culture of responsibility in kids.) In Japan, you’d be much more likely to see someone pick up a piece of trash rather than throw it on the ground.

The surprising thing is that you don’t see many trash cans around, yet the cities are ultra-clean. Women carry a small trash bag in their purse for their trash. In public bathrooms, there is no paper towel to dry your hands (and often, no electric air dryer). So how do you dry your hands? Many Japanese people carry a small washcloth-sized towel with them, and you see them pull it out of their purse after washing their hands. I love this tradition, so I bought one of these towels and now, carry it in my purse. I use it here often when the paper towel is out, or it seems unsanitary to use.

3. Not a lot of wifi

When I think of Japan, what comes to mind is being on the cutting-edge of technology. So, it was surprising to find out that, even in large cities like Tokyo and Kyoto, free wifi was not widely available. Luckily, you can rent a portable wifi unit (or pocket wifi). We rented ours at the airport when we landed and returned it when we flew back home. Some services also deliver it to your hotel room and you drop it off in a mailbox when you’re finished.

4. Kit Kats and Tokyo Banana

Kit Kats, the classic chocolate-covered wafer. How can you improve on that? In Japan, the answer is a variety of flavors. You can find a seemingly endless variety of Kit Kat flavors in stores throughout Japan, each with its own unique packaging that corresponds to the flavor. It became a mission of ours to find as many different flavors as we could. Each time we’d see a store selling Kit Kats, we’d run in and see if we could find any new flavors.

We had not heard of Tokyo Bananas before visiting Tokyo, but once we were there, we saw them advertised all over. We found a store in the Tokyo Train Station devoted entirely to this dessert. Think of the sponginess of a Twinkie in the shape of a small banana. The banana-flavored filling is pleasant and not as sweet as you’d imagine (compared to American desserts, most desserts in Japan are not very sweet).

People gather to TOKYO from here and there with memories of their home. And then, TOKYO gets everyone’s home town. TOKYO BANANA
-From the packaging of the Tokyo Banana box.

If you can’t decide between the two, compromise and buy Tokyo Banana flavored Kit Kats.

5. Pajamas and Slippers at hotels

This is one thing that really surprised me. In all of the hotels we’ve stayed in, neatly folded pajamas lay on the bed as we walked into the room. A set of pajamas for each of us included either cropped pants and a button down the front long sleeve shirt, or a long button down the front nightshirt. It was such a change from any hotel we have stayed in before (US, Europe, Australia, South America or even Thailand). This is something that is unique to Japan and we embraced the difference. Slippers were also given to us at every hotel, and there were slippers available for our use in the Airbnb.

6. Toilets

You knew this was coming, right? Whether in a hotel room, apartment rental or in a public bathroom, toilets in Japan are special.

Most toilets (even in public spaces) have electronic seats with a control panel. The seats are all warming and have a “shower” and “bidet” function. The shower and bidet have the option to change the water pressure weaker or stronger. Sometimes, there is a button on the panel that gives you privacy sounds.

For women, most of the toilets that you encounter will be sit down toilets, but every once in a while you will come across a “squat” toilet. But don’t worry, there are instructions posted to tell you how to use them.

7. Vending machines

Vending machines in Japan are amazing. Most vending machines we saw had hot tea, hot corn soup, soda’s, sports drinks and something called “Pocari Sweat.” Every once in a while (especially in train stations), you will find a vending machine with other food items.  You can tell which items are hot and cold by the blue or red stripe under it.

Unfortunately, we didn’t see some of the unusual things like umbrella’s, ties, hot pizza, surgical masks or sushi socks (I would have loved to see this).  But, what we did see was fun and functional.

Have you been to Japan? What was the most surprising thing you found?

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