Most first-time visitors to Japan are struck by how clean the country is
1–10 of 187 posts
Re: Most first-time visitors to Japan are struck by how clean the country is
#2I really admire the cleanliness, I wish the US had more of this. (It should stop short of the face masks, though. That's a step too far for me.)
Re: Most first-time visitors to Japan are struck by how clean the country is
#3I really admire the cleanliness, I wish the US had more of this. (It should stop short of the face masks, though. That's a step too far for me.)
I don't know, during flu season I wish the folks who won't stay home would wear some masks. They don't always guess right with the flu shot.
Re: Most first-time visitors to Japan are struck by how clean the country is
#4Sadly, this is the opposite of the UK cultural attitude. Kids here learn that cleaning up is someone else’s responsibility. Littering becomes a habit from an early age.
Even compared to Americans, we are terrible litterers. You can see this in people’s behaviours in fast food restaurants: in the US (as in many other countries), customers will bin their food wrappers and return their tray when they leave. Even groups of kids will typically do this: it’s just habit. In the UK, typical customers will just leave their mess at the table when they leave. Cleaning is someone else’s job.
Re: Most first-time visitors to Japan are struck by how clean the country is
#5Undiluted orientalism.
I was in Osaka this weekend and litter is everywhere. By far one of the dirtiest major cities I’ve seen in East Asia. In the city I live in in Japan, the rice fields are full of coffee cans, plastic bottles, and bento packaging thrown out from cars. Streets are covered in cigarette butts and somehow I see natto containers in the middle of nowhere. Going hiking, I see tea bottles and plastic bags from convenience stores all over the damn place.
Most parts of Tokyo and cities with tourism are generally clean because there are heavy cleanup operations. People are still littering just like everywhere else.
> Invisible dirt – germs and bacteria – are another source of concern. When people catch colds or flu, they wear surgical masks to avoid infecting other people.
But you’ll never catch people washing their hands and grandpas always pull down their mask to cough so as to not dirty it. I caught a news program during flu season last year telling people how to avoid the flu. Their recommendations? Keep your stomach wrapped and extra warm, and drink green tea since it cures influenza.
Re: Most first-time visitors to Japan are struck by how clean the country is
#6As a Dane travelling abouts I have been stuck how clean the following three countries seemed compared to my home country: Australia, Singapore, and Japan.
Re: Most first-time visitors to Japan are struck by how clean the country is
#7Lack of immigrants and Japanese culture.
Re: Most first-time visitors to Japan are struck by how clean the country is
#8I think it's worth noting that all of Japan isn't as clean as many of the cities are. A lot of people's homes are still rather dusty and when I visited in 2012 the outskirts of Osaka and the countryside looked pretty similar to Europe in terms of how much trash there was in the ditches next to the road.
The cities were noticeably cleaner than Swedish cities though, a lot fewer chewing gums and cigarette butts from what I remember.
Re: Most first-time visitors to Japan are struck by how clean the country is
#9Undiluted orientalism. I was in Osaka this weekend and litter is everywhere. By far one of the dirtiest major cities I’ve seen in East Asia. In the city I live in in Japan, the rice fields are full of coffee cans, plastic bottles, and bento packaging thrown out from cars. Streets are covered in cigarette butts and somehow I see natto containers in the middle of nowhere. Going hiking, I see tea bottles and plastic bag…
> I was in Osaka this weekend and litter is everywhere
While I generally agree, the funny part about this is that it’s not uncommon in Japan for people to refer to people from Osaka as being “not Japanese.”
Re: Most first-time visitors to Japan are struck by how clean the country is
#10Undiluted orientalism. I was in Osaka this weekend and litter is everywhere. By far one of the dirtiest major cities I’ve seen in East Asia. In the city I live in in Japan, the rice fields are full of coffee cans, plastic bottles, and bento packaging thrown out from cars. Streets are covered in cigarette butts and somehow I see natto containers in the middle of nowhere. Going hiking, I see tea bottles and plastic bag…
> I was in Osaka this weekend and litter is everywhere While I generally agree, the funny part about this is that it’s not uncommon in Japan for people to refer to people from Osaka as being “not Japanese.”
True. Japanese people outside of Osaka generally disown Osaka.
They also completely disown their litter. It’s always foreigners, even if it’s natto boxes.