Japan, What’s Missing?

Five things spring to mind:

1. Cinemas.
There are very few, and even if you find them the ‘late show’ begins about 6pm. Very impractical and very expensive.

2. Bins.
Big on recycling, if you put the wrong rubbish out on the wrong day it’ll be rejected. However, there are few public bins. Maybe because it’s rude to eat on the street and fewer bins act as deterrence? Maybe because a gang were leaving poison in them to harm passers-by? Either way, it’s annoying. Okay, so poisoned bins would suck too.

3. Road names.
Apart from a select number of main roads in Tokyo, it’s very difficult to know where you are or what road you’re walking down. Taxi drivers here know very little about road names, so it’s expected you either tell them a main sight they’ll have heard of, or direct them if it’s a personal address. To confirm this, if anyone has my address, you’ll realise there’s no line for the road name; it goes from area to apartment name and number. Postmen know the area by buildings, not by road names.

4. Squash.
It doesn’t matter where I go. The International Food Store, the local convenience store (called ‘convinis’ here), no-one has squash. The tap-water’s safe but it tastes foul, so it’s costing a fortune just to stay hydrated. Damn them and their lack of undiluted goodness.

5. Dryers
Everything is backwards here, be that good or bad. The lack of dryers means that everything dries hanging up. Fewer creases. More going ‘eww’ when you put a damp t-shirt on. And I can’t wait until the end of rainy season and start of Summer when everything is constantly damp no matter what.