The common perception of Japanese culture is that it’s safe, the people are polite, quite, and helpful. That’s absolutely true.  The people on the trains are silent so they won’t bother each other.  They have a low crime rate, you can walk anywhere and never feel in danger, and schoolchildren, as young as 5, ride the train system by themselves.  Anytime I’ve asked for help finding my way, the Japanese have been very accommodating.

One thing I’ve noticed, is that Japanese value space over just about everything.  Everything is small here and rightfully so.  The houses, shops, cars, everything.  Most American furniture won’t fit in the apartments here because it’s too big to get through the doors.

There are 130 million people in Japan in a country about the size of California, and the kicker is, they can only build on 25% of the land.  The rest is mountains.  So imagine everyone living west of the Mississippi, condensed into southern California.  It’s dense.  The weird thing is that even though it’s densely populated, it doesn’t feel too crowded.  Mass transit moves people around quickly and efficiently.  Many people don’t have cars, which fundamentally reduces road traffic and saves the space you would need to park the cars.  I think that close proximity to each other is a reason why they’re so quite, polite and helpful.  If they weren’t, it would be absolute chaos.  It’s something that everyone accepts and follows not because it’s a law, but because it makes their country better.

The biggest thing I realized after the first week in Japan, is that I HAVE  to learn basic Japanese.  I can’t point, smile and nod  my way through the dozens, hundreds (probably not hundreds) of weeks that I’m going to be here.  I feel like an idiot and I probably look like one.  Greetings, numbers, foods, directions, basic conversation is a must.  No one speaks English, but at least all of the menus at restaurants have pictures of every food item they serve, otherwise I’d be really screwed.   The second biggest thing I realized is that there are a lot of Japanese people here.  Obviously, right?  But, I mean A LOT.  I can walk around the city of Yokohama, a city with millions of people, for hours, and not see another non-Japanese person.  What other major cities in the world can you walk around and see only one nationality?  New York, London, Rio de Janiero, Hong Kong, I don’t think so.  Japan is not a melting pot like the US, it has less than 1% non-Japanese people inside the country, and it’s obvious.  I’m certainly not blending in, but I had no delusions that I ever would.