This blog post has no photos except the primary one.

It just has reflections of my visit to Japan, what I observed and what I learned and how that left me feeling.

I personally found the Japanese culture and people to be very outstanding in so many ways. Ways that I never expected to see in any country and I’ve traveled to a lot of countries.

I’ve traveled enough to know that Japan has so much to teach and share with the rest of the world and that truthfully I was flawed.

But instead of rambling on, I’m just going to list all the things that I observed that were like, “Whhhat?” and then thought Wow!!!

1. Everyone waits to cross the street until the light turns Green. Everyone. Now as a New Yorker, I was just like speechless.
2. There are no crazy bikes on the roads or streets and all traffic rules are obeyed.
3. You can not eat or drink on the street. I bought some food from a stand and the woman came running after me for taking the food out of bag and eating on the street. And I mean she was mad. Imagine if New Yorkers weren’t able to eat or drink on the street.
4. You can not eat or drink on a bus and you can not speak above a whisper.
5. You can not eat or drink on the trains or the actual stations. Imagine that in New York!
6. You can not eat or drink in a hotel other than in the dining room or your room.
7. You can only speak below a whisper on the trains and if you speak too loudly you will be totally stared down.
8. There is also barely any speaking on the street or in a department store above a whisper.
9. Fascinating.There are also no garbage cans on the street in Japan. Here is what I found out!
10. “How is Japan so clean even though there are so few trash bins?!” This is something commonly heard by tourists visiting Japan. For many, it’s one of the first things they notice! So just how can such a large city stay clean without many places to throw away your rubbish?The rules and manners revolving around waste disposal here are quite strict, so most Japanese people usually will just keep their garbage with them until they find a place to throw it away. But that leads to the question: where do you throw away your trash when there are no bins in sight? Don’t worry – when you’re done reading this article, you won’t have to wonder anymore! There is a reason for the lack of public trash cans in Japan. On March 20th, 1995 during the morning rush hour, the Tokyo subway system fell victim to a deadly terrorist attack using extremely lethal sarin gas. This attack was organized by cult members of Aum Shinrikyo and injured over 5,000 people. Because sarin gas has no scent and is also colorless, many affected by the attack did not realize until they began having symptoms later on. Although the cult members were eventually arrested, many were scared of further attacks. To ease these fears, trash cans were taken out of many public areas (especially train stations) because they could potentially hold terrorist weapons. Fast forwarding to now, over 30 years later, Tokyo still has very few trash cans and train stations are still always on alert for suspicious items or anything that could be possibly linked to further incidents.”
11. The toilets all have a warm seat and many of them flush automatically.
12. For those toilets that don’t flush automatically there are several buttons or handles that you can choose from to flush it. Amazing!
13. When you’re waiting for a bus there is a white line that you have to stand on the right or left side of while waiting to get on the bus and there is a policewoman who is there to enforce that. Amazing.
14. Everyone bows to one another. It doesn’t matter whether you’re on an elevator, the train, a department store-everyone bows.
15. Everyone in “all” places look nice. Everyone is well groomed and there is no sloppy or dirty or last minute thrown on dressing. Their appearance is “very” prime to them.
16. I only saw one homeless person in the week that I was there and there are absolutely no papers on the street or graffiti on the buildings.

So what am I getting at?

Respect reigns supreme. Respect of the individual for himself. Respect of the individual for his or her environment and respect for the person that is being addressed.

I can tell you that as a New Yorker respect is not something that I see that often if at all and having experienced 10 days of it, I will honestly say that I’m hungry for more.

However, I’m enough of a realistic to know that it’s not in New York City’s culture to create that type of respectful environment. First by the people running the city and secondly by the people themselves. I’m not saying that there are no signs of respect in New York City. But what I am saying is that take a trip to Japan and then let’s have the discussion.

It would be interesting.