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Most first-time visitors to Japan are struck by how clean the country is

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Re: Most first-time visitors to Japan are struck by how clean the country is

#31

Post by mrmonkeyman »

jaynetics wrote: post #26

The cleanliness is impressive, but what impressed me even more was the efficiency. One morning in Tokyo, I saw construction workers starting to dig up a street. It was a large operation, they were exposing some massive pipes, and there were a few policemen, politely pointing pedestrians to a way around the site. In the evening I went the same way again, to see how far they had gotten with the digging. However, there…

You don't know if it was:

A) just an inspection B) regulated to the same degree as in Germany (i.e. digging a hole and covering it up is easy if don't have rules) C) succesful D) done properly

Re: Most first-time visitors to Japan are struck by how clean the country is

#32

Post by seanalltogether »

Reason077 wrote: post #4

Sadly, 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…

Oh man this is so true and one of the big things that really stuck out to me when I first moved here. In the states i was used to seeing trash along the highway, but walking down city streets are relatively clean. Here in the UK when i walk down the street I'm now used to seeing tons of plastic bottles and empty crisp packs in the hedges. And you completely nailed it, cleaning is someone elses job.

Re: Most first-time visitors to Japan are struck by how clean the country is

#33

Post by tasogare »

netsharc wrote: post #20
fiblye wrote: post #5

Undiluted 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 Tokyo and Osaka these last weeks, and China before Tokyo. Landing in Tokyo after China was magical. People didn't shout in public or have their phones blaring. They let people disembark trains instead of just barging in as soon as the train doors open, and they queue neatly for those doors. And yes everything was clean and tidy. But the touristy area of Osaka was back to being dreadful. People cutting you of…

> People didn't shout in public or have their phones blaring.

Yet Japan is a very noisy country. Store clerks shouting irasshaimase like robots, speaking elevators, politians in campaign and their cars with mega-phone, etc. added to paper thin (sometimes literally) walls make it sometime painful to live here.

Re: Most first-time visitors to Japan are struck by how clean the country is

#34

Post by kylorhall »

whiddershins wrote: post #19
fiblye wrote: post #5

Undiluted 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…

Maybe the explanation is a bit overwrought but it’s a fact that Tokyo is astonishingly clean, and I never once saw someone drop large trash in the street, even though there aren’t bins. That could be as simple as broken windows theory but the contrast with Brooklyn is striking. The cultural attitude difference is real to some degree. People tend to smoke while standing in one place, a designated smoking area outside…

There's no bins on the street because Japanese people rarely eat, drink, smoke, etc while moving, though Starbucks/etc has changed that a little bit, but I rarely see those discarded.

You just don't have any trash to drop, you'd keep it in your bag if you did, and there's bins at konbini or vending machines everywhere.

Today, like most days, on the news they had more videos of Rugby tourists passed out on the street, replaying the subway video, etc. This time they had a segment about gaijin putting out cigarette butts with their shoes and walking off for like 5 minutes.

Haven't seen it any worse than the Rugby World Cup.. I don't want to be around for the Olympics.

Re: Most first-time visitors to Japan are struck by how clean the country is

#35

Post by tasogare »

fiblye wrote: post #10
claudeganon wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

I have been on a beach in Shimane-ken, it was the dirtiest I ever seen. Lot of trash everywhere. Explanation from my Japanese companion: it is from Korea. Yeah sure, this bento box has been carried by the current...

Re: Most first-time visitors to Japan are struck by how clean the country is

#36

Post by christiansakai »

fiblye wrote: post #5

Undiluted 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 believe by people you mean tourists but not the locals

Re: Most first-time visitors to Japan are struck by how clean the country is

#37

Post by kylorhall »

tasogare wrote: post #33
netsharc wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was in Tokyo and Osaka these last weeks, and China before Tokyo. Landing in Tokyo after China was magical. People didn't shout in public or have their phones blaring. They let people disembark trains instead of just barging in as soon as the train doors open, and they queue neatly for those doors. And yes everything was clean and tidy. But the touristy area of Osaka was back to being dreadful. People cutting you of…

> People didn't shout in public or have their phones blaring. Yet Japan is a very noisy country. Store clerks shouting irasshaimase like robots, speaking elevators, politians in campaign and their cars with mega-phone, etc. added to paper thin (sometimes literally) walls make it sometime painful to live here.

Yeah, but you drown all of the automated noises out pretty quickly, it's just white noise. It's weird stepping into an elevator that doesn't talk to you sometimes; is it even working?

Re: Most first-time visitors to Japan are struck by how clean the country is

#38

Post by aikinai »

franciscop wrote: post #12

Except Shibuya, we walked there yesterday after the typhoon and had to avoid the big rats that normally live in the big trash piles, probably they were looking for food since yday there was no trash. I've seen similar situation with crows. This is a mostly invisible issue for tourists since trash collection happens in the morning and people take the trash out the night before, so the piles of trash and animals are vi…

I don’t think putting trash out at night and picking it up early in the morning is an exception to cleanliness. What else would they do? No one’s trying to say Japan produces no trash.

Re: Most first-time visitors to Japan are struck by how clean the country is

#40

Post by baxtr »

ekianjo wrote: post #27
fiblye wrote: post #5

Undiluted 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…

> because there are heavy cleanup operations Glad to see someone finally repeating what I have been saying forever about Japan. It's clean because there is an army of people cleaning the place every single day. Multiple times a day.

At least someone in their society cares
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