What the...?

Since I have a rare moment of Internet access, I thought I'd write a quick post on all the little things that make Japanese society unique.  I'm not going to ramble on about their Confucian-based values, or their special brands of religion, but those little things they do that are just, well....weird.

So, first of all, apparently the Japanese do not believe in public trashcans.  Admittedly, this is a very clean country, for the most part, so one would think that public trashcans aren't necessary outside of major train stations where food is sold.  That seems to be what the Japanese think.  However, I am here to tell you that more trashcans are needed!  Yesterday I picked up so much trash on our excursion to Fushimi Inari shrine (which was amazing, by the way, and there will be talk of that at a later date) that I just have to stuff in my backpack and is now residing in my room.

Second of all, they have interesting customs when one goes to buy something.  I first really noticed this in a sweet shop in Kyoto Station, so I thought it might have been just something a nicer store would do to exhibit the world-renown Japanese customer service.  But I have since encountered it in stores that I would call...total dives.  They have a tray up at the cash register.  You set your purchases up for them to scan, they talk to you in very formal language that you can't understand--or need to understand, for that matter, since they don't expect answers, as far as I can tell--and they give you the total cost.  You count out your money and set it on the tray so that they can just pick it back up again.  It's probably a way to ensure that both the customer and the employee can see the money all spread out, so if there's not enough, the customer might see it before the employee has to say something.  Some stores, like the sweet shop, even have a second tray for you to place your purchases.  Very fancy pants, but a still a little hard to get used to.  I always try to hand the money to them.  They take it, but they look a little confused sometimes.

To get to school, I take the bus from my home, and one of the stops is an underground terminal that connects to the subway.  Once or twice, I've had to change buses there (because I was totally lost), and I found it interesting that instead of just totally crowding the door that leads to the bus line you want like we would in America, the Japanese line up, just like we're kindergarteners waiting for our turn to get a drink. When the bus you want comes, you step out of formation to get into another line of the people doing the same thing, and board the bus.  The rest just scoot up in the line to continue waiting.  Very effective, I think.

Also on the buses, they have a recording of a woman announcing the next stop.  Pretty usual.  But for the stops where there is a temple or a shrine, the stop name is repeated in English, either by a frumpy-sounding American woman's voice, or a pretentious-sounding British woman's voice.  I guess in Kyoto, they realized they'd really be able to help facilitate American tourism by adding that to their regular public transportation.

I haven't seen any tourist transportation.  You know how in D.C. you'll see the tour buses go by that stop at all the sites, you can get a day pass for it, and just ride it all day?  Kyoto doesn't seem to have that.  All tourists just use the regular public transit, which means train, subway, bus, or taxi.  Or if you're ambitious, a bike.  Everybody here bikes everywhere.  And there are some aggressive bikers here.  I'll be walking down the street, and on the correct side, I might add, which is the left side, and suddenly a teenager on a bike will come zooming up behind me on his way to school, and come within a foot of me.  Quite frightening the first time.  But oddly enough, you get used to it pretty quickly.

The school kids here are super cute.  Of course, if you've ever read a manga or seen an anime, even in passing, you've seen the stereotypical Japanese school children.

Classic uniform: Guys, basically suits; Girls, short skirts and Navy-esque blouses.  Uniforms vary from school to school.

Anyway, you see itty bitty little kids in their tiny uniforms walking to school all by themselves.  They ride the public transit alone, too.  It's nuts!  But I've seen signs in train stations and subway stations that are marked as "child-friendly" or "child-safe" stations.  So I guess it's okay...  It's funny, though, that these uniforms are all at once stereotypical, and yet totally typical.  I suppose that shouldn't surprise me, since in American shows, we are usually portrayed wearing things a normal kid would wear.  Well, maybe a little nicer.