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

bbc.com

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

#181

Post by tasogare »

h1d wrote: post #89
tasogare wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

I don't like election cars with loud speakers but that's like twice a year? and clerks telling you welcome and you have problem living in Japan? You need to choose your place not to pick a cheap rent with paper thin walls...

A place that will also have good thermal insulation and central heating? One can dream... The building norms are cultural, you can’t find something that goes against the grain except by building it yourself.

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

#182

Post by bonestamp2 »

scarejunba wrote: post #130
bonestamp2 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if that's because so many other things are super quiet. The trains seem whisper quiet compared to our trains in the west. The elevators, when they're not talking, are silent. Everything seems to be perfectly lubricated and maintained to the point where things that seem loud maybe only seem loud because they're not silent?

No. Election megaphones are loud. You will definitely hear them. You'd hear them if they were at Union Square.

Fair enough, they're technically very loud. But, I guess I wonder if they're extra annoying because most things are nearly silent?

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

#183

Post by samus »

nnutter wrote: post #14
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…

Those surgical masks may not be doing much either due to improper use. As they get wet due to moisture in the breath they become less permeable causing more of the air to be vented out the sides rather than through the membrane. Perhaps this could still decrease the radius of infection even in this suboptimal state.

Just curious, are surgeons actually changing masks during long surgeries?

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

#184

Post by geden »

joeberon wrote: post #96
tlear wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Japan as well. Hiking.. have you actually hiked anywhere in else in the world? Most places you can fill a garbage bag in an hour just walking on a trail. Took my climbing friends from Canada on a long Hike in Kita Alps, they brought a garbage bag as they always do to gather other peoples trash. We managed to find 2 empty water bottles in 3 days having covered close to 50km. See the campsites near huts after…

Just want to say I’ve hiked significantly across the UK and there is extremely little litter

Agreed. There's very little litter in the UK countryside because (generalising) the people who litter don't go there and the people who do are included to pick it up.

British towns and cities aren't great, embarrassingly bad compared to the Japanese cities I've been to.

I spent a weekend in Lisbon recently and was fairly shocked at how bad the litter / rubbish was. The worst I've seen in Europe. Warm climate made it smelly too.

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

#185

Post by choonway »

clSTophEjUdRanu wrote: post #69
choonway wrote: post #39

Q:Why is Singapore so clean and tidy? A:Because there is a horde of foreign workers doing the cleaning up.

Aren't violators caned as well? Singapore was awesome when I visited. Incredibly clean. Even lower class areas like around Orchard Towers (four floors of _____) was well above board compared to a clean US City.

no they are not caned. instead they are made to put on the high visibility vests with the words 'Corrective Work Order' and made to pick rubbish. But they are a rare occurrence. Usually only a composition fine.

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

#186

Post by dmoy »

dilap wrote: post #180
dmoy wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My first reaction to learning this was also about the same, haha. The issue with the "everyone starts walking" is the same reason why stationary cars are closer together than moving cars. If people walked with military trained precision you could get the same density and vastly higher throughput by walking. But for civilian strangers, it turns out two lanes of standing gives high enough density to trump the increased…

Ah, I didn't consider density, that's a good point! Taking a look at the study you mention (linked in other comments), it seems like the escalators they studied were well to the "too few people want to walk" side of the curve to be efficient. I wonder how close the break-even point is to the simple metric, "do you have to wait to enter on the right?" Or thinking of the queue length for standers, clearly when the leng…

That makes a lot of sense to me.

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

#187

Post by chmod775 »

davidmurdoch wrote: post #49

American (US) in Tokyo for the first time here. About an hour ago (10:30 pm here) I saw two men with a bucket and washcloth scrubbing the floor right next to Shibuya Crossing ("the busiest crosswalk on the world"). Moments before that a man was sweeping a walkway between passer-bys). The clothing store withers swept each changing room in between guests. Though a block away was the smoking area, littered with thousand…

> Another fascinating thing is how escalators have two lanes, one for walking and one for standing. Why doesn't everyone so this?! It's so perfect!

I wish they'd just draw lines on escalators in Germany already. Keeping the left side of the escalator free and standing on the right is an unwritten rule here, but about one in twenty stand on the left anyways (tourists? people lost in thought?).

In the morning I often want to catch a connecting train that departs only about minute later, and pretty much every time I have to ask one or two people to step aside so I can pass. The fastest way to reach the other platform happens to be by means of two escalators. Other people who have been to Berlin Friedrichstraße station probably know which escalators I'm talking about.

The fastest way I have found of getting people to step aside is startling them with a firm "SORRY!" - works on tourists as well as Germans.

When I see more than three people on the left side I usually just give up though. By the time they'll have sorted themselves out the train will probably be gone anyways and I don't fancy breaking into a sprint just to make up for the lost seconds. I'd rather suck it up and wait a few minutes for the next train while getting a coffee on the platform.

I guess what I'm saying is that something as simple as two lines on escalators can make a difference of ten minutes or more in the commute of some people.

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