Ten Ways to Know When You Are in Japan

photo: Tania Amochaev

Ten Ways to Know When You Are in Japan

By Tania Amochaev

• If the beds are hard and cold, and the toilet seats are soft and warm, you are in Japan.

• If breakfast looks like pickled cocktail party snacks that would go well with sake, you are in Japan.

• If everyone bows 15° when they approach you, or 30° if you seem important, you are in Japan.

• If there’s a vending machine every hundred meters with both cold and hot bottled drinks, you are in Japan.

• If the public restroom has many indented holes and only one recognizable toilet, and the toilet is the only thing with instructions on use posted above it, you are in Japan.

• If the gardeners trim the lawn with manicure scissors, you are in Japan.

• If everyone on the escalator hugs the left side, you are in Japan … unless you are in Kyoto where everyone hugs the right side.

• If the busy shops along the street are full of beige and green small round pasty-looking things, you are in Japan.

• If there’s a 7-Eleven on every corner but you recognize none of the goods inside, you are in Japan.

• If toilet lids raise in welcome as you approach, you are definitely still in Japan.

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