Entry 23 || Japan (Part. 1)

Finally.

After four long months, I've finally gained the motivation to write about my July trip to Japan, and I've got a feeling that this blog's gonna be my longest one ever.

It's been a while since I reminisced on some of the stuff that happened on the trip, but after rewatching Jaiden Animation's Japan video for who-knows-how-many-times at this point, I figured why not reminisce by actually writing about it?

This blog might go all over the place since I didn't exactly think about how I was gonna structure this, so let's just see how this goes.

It was back in mid 2023 on a drive when my parents asked if I hypothetically ever wanted to go to Japan, to which I said "if it's fine, then yeah". A few months later and my family's got a huge Japan Itinerary on a google sheet with the three main locations being Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo-- a Japan Itinerary that felt a little over-complicated than it should be considering how my dad put specific timestamps and durations of how long we should stay in a place, say, a restaurant, and the time we'd take to travel to another place (timestamps that felt way too underestimated).

But before heading to Japan, we had to travel back to our home country to pick up my older sister since we were overseas and while we were there, we visited some relatives and little cousins who requested to bring home a lot of toys and souvenirs. One in particular asked for Japanese pokemon cards, but I made sure to get them one of those boring pre-made packs instead of those booster boxes since as a collector, I wouldn't have been able to handle the idea of my little cousin possibly getting their greasy little fingers on a $100 pokemon card.

My sister and I are also complete nerds, so we both gave ourselves a promise that we wouldn't leave Japan without bringing home at least a single Popmart or figure of some kind. While she was after one of those Smiskis and Chainsaw Man figures, I just wanted any kind of Hatsune Miku figure that I could get my hands on.

I'm sure my parents loved hearing the financial plans we both had.

And finally, it was the day of the flight. 

We were booked pretty early in the morning (the sun hasn't even come up yet), but I was already suffering from a really bad cold caused by an allergic reaction from the change of weather. Colds are a common occurrence to me when I travel from place to place so my parents always make sure to pack a bunch of meds, but this one was so bad to the point where it almost lasted the entire Japan trip.

We arrived at the Osaka Airport and the first small wave of culture shock I got was from the facility's bathrooms.

You know that one scene from Cars 2 where Mator goes in a bathroom stall and makes a huge mess because of how high tech the toilets were? Yeah they're real

Though I will say that Cars 2 may have heavily exaggerated the complications of the toilet technology and all. It's honestly just buttons on the side of the stall that you could press but it was still so cool (some toilets are different though, it depends).

We left the airport, hopped on a train, and it was at that moment where it finally occurred to me that Japan was a real place and that we were in it. We were in the place I thought I'd never be able to go to but dreamt about 24/7. We were in the place where everything I've been so passionate about resides in and originates from. 

We were in Japan.

... and it was a bit underwhelming.

I've been to a lot of countries like America or France, and my experiences there were just tsunamis of culture shock after culture shock because of how drastically different the environment and people were.

But my home country's from Southeast Asia. I'm familiar with roaming a typical Asian environment while navigating around its sea of sharp-eyed Asians. So it's safe to say that Japan is a pretty close country relative that didn't really offer a drastic change of environment (except the streets were less busy and much cleaner).

I also expected the heat to be a lot worse since I've heard a lot of people complain about it online, but I'm gonna be honest, it really wasn't anything that a mini-fan couldn't remedy. If there's anything that living in Southeast Asia does to you, it's that it makes sure to grill you alive for your whole life until your body grows numb to the extreme temperature. If anything, the heat was a relief to us.

We arrived at our hotel and decided to roam around a bit.

A lot of people seem to like big talk about their visits in popular tourists attractions like the Toyko Skytower or Disneyland, but I wanna talk more about the little things I noticed from Japan's culture and environment that made Japan feel like Japan, you know?

So here's a summary of all the little things I've observed from my entire trip (I'll get into more specific experiences after).

First things first:

1.) Streets are quiet and empty. 

I think this would depend on the time of year you visit, but since we visited during the summer, there weren't enough tourists to crowd the streets. Plus, we were at a pretty reserved and peaceful area in Osaka, so you could pretty much safely walk in the middle of a small street and no one would bat an eye, nor would a car ever pass for a long duration of time.

2.) Stores open pretty late at the day. 

But I don't mean this as a bad thing. In fact, it's believed that the brain only operates at its best late in the morning, hence why many choose to open stores around 8AM - 10AM. However, that would mean stores close pretty early too. From my experience, most stores are usually closed by 10PM.

3.) Manhole covers on the streets are intricately designed...?

If you don't know what manholes are, they're basically the round metal things in the middle of streets that cover an underground sewer. It was just surprising for me to find these things intricately designed with Japanese imagery like cherry blossoms and temples. Plus, I figured I should mention this since my mother asked me to take a picture of her standing on top of one.

4.) Items and souvenirs are ten times cheaper.

It caught me so off-guard when we stumbled upon so many goodies and souvenirs worth 500 yen or less which were pretty much equivalent to less than $3 dollars. These goodies would range from socks, keychains, and those little gachapon things that were surprisingly so high quality (I'll get to more about the gachapons later). 

And there was one store in particular that offered goodies in such cheap prices...

5.) Donki Hote.

During our walk, my family stumbled upon a huge Donki Hote mall that completely shot bullets through our wallets.

Not only was it a haven for souvenirs, but it also offered pretty much everything you'd need to live: food, makeup, accessories, medicines, essentials, some really suspicious 18+ stuff blocked by a warning curtain that some random 11 year old kid casually bolted into, and more. If there was some sort of global apocalypse, Donki Hote is the go-to for years of survival.

Mind you that this Donki Hote mall that we stumbled upon spanned up to more than 5 floors, and Donki Hote isn't even a mall-- it's just a store brand, yet it occupied an entire building.

Since our family prepared to have separate built-in wifis for each person, my sister and I were allowed to separate from the group, even as far enough to travel blocks away (we'll get to that later). But separating in a Donki Hote store was honestly a bad idea since it was like a whole labyrinth in there. You'd be roaming the 2nd floor and next thing you know, you're in the 5th.

I actually found a lot of souvenirs in Donki Hote that slowly turned into a huge obsessive problem for me, which I'll get into the specific experiences later.

6.) Almost every single restaurant has realistic diorama display of food.

I'm not kidding when I say that almost every single restaurant has realistic diorama display of their food. I thought they were real when I first saw a shelf of them, only for me to realize that the blocks of chopped bread were made of PVC foam up close. It's honestly fascinating to think about how much effort Japanese restaurant owners put into setting up their restaurants to showcase them beautifully like this.

7.) Japanese food does not disappoint, even the store-bought ones.

Japanese food always had my mouth watering, but I have heard of Japanese people complaining about how sick they get with their own food. Nonetheless, you could order anything on a menu and the food would be more than satisfactory. 

There've been many times where my family had to takeout or buy food from small convenient stores such as FamilyMart, and let me tell you: store-bought food are just as good as restaurant food.

Maybe my standards are just low, but you won't believe just how many times I asked my parents to buy pork curry or cheese bread from FamilyMart to microwave at a hotel. It's just that good.

Store-bought onigiri are another great treat I'd recommend getting as a travel snack. My family packed a bunch of tuna and beef onigiri during a trip to the Tokyo Skytree and it was so worth it.

But there are a couple etiquette rules when it comes to eating anywhere and everywhere.

8.) You can't eat while walking.

It's not like a written law, more of just a social norm and etiquette; you rarely see anyone munching on a snack while walking around, hence why a lot of tourists choose to find a spot to sit down just to eat. Walking around with drinks are fine though.

9.) You can't sneeze or cough loudly in a restaurant-- or anywhere.

Sneezing, especially in a restaurant, is kind of an awkward thing to do, and if you don't recall, I stated earlier that I had a really bad cold for the duration of this trip, which only made things a lot more difficult for me.

If you wanna cough or sneeze, it's best to keep it at a minimal or to just gently dab your nose with tissue.

10.) Don't play with your chopsticks.

Think of chopsticks just like metallic spoon and forks. If someone sees you playing with spoons and forks, it'd of course seem annoying, but it's especially disrespectful since chopsticks are a huge part of Japanese culture. Never rub them together nor poke them standing into your rice bowl since those are symbolic gestures related to death and funerals.

11.) Some restaurants are self-cleaning.

We've had instances wherein our family leaves a restaurant only to realize after that it was self-cleaning, and we'd be the only customers who left our table in a complete mess. It can be a little embarrassing, so it's best to keep an eye out for those little bins where you can put your tray.

12.) Trains.

The nitty gritty of any Japan trip, honestly.

Japanese trains are known to be extremely difficult to navigate mainly because of how complicated the train lines and systems are. Thankfully, my sister was pretty much a train-navigating expert who somehow understood every route due to her past experience visiting Singapore, so we only ever took two wrong trains throughout the duration of our trip.

I actually have a pretty interesting story to tell regarding our experience on the Shinkansen train, so I'll get to that later.

But more about Japan's trains.

13. People prefer to be quiet on a train.

I've warned my family about being quiet in Japanese trains since it's somewhat part of their etiquette and social norm. Being loud in a train can cause a bit of discomfort for the people around, especially if it's not a crowded train. It's best to keep your voice down and to avoid making phone calls in a train if you don't wanna cause any discomfort.

13.) Always be early on a train to avoid rush hour.

Rush hours in Japan aren't that bad, but they can be if you're in a rush to go somewhere or if you don't like a crowded train. If you stumble upon rush hour, trains are gonna be hella crowded to the point where you'd pretty much be squished into one corner if you don't make it to an available seat.

So at times like that, make sure your family makes a little hand-chain when getting off a rush hour train to avoid being left behind.

People also won't hesitate to intentionally or unintentionally push and shove, so proceed with caution.

Now that we've mentioned the people, let's make it an abrupt segue to the topic.

14.) People in Japan are incredibly fast walkers.

People in Japan walk fast, and I mean fast fast. Maybe my family's just slow walkers, but you've always gotta pick up the pace when walking.

15.) People in Japan are usually independent.

It's strangely perceived as a sad and depressing thing in my home country to be walking alone. If someone were to find out that you've been walking around alone, they'd ask, "why are you alone? I'll walk with you," and that gets irritating at times.

But in Japan, no one really gives a damn because they rarely walk in groups. Japanese people often walk on their own, even little children that I once stumbled upon waiting for a train to arrive.

16.) There are a lot of elderly in Japan.

Japan's currently known to have a big population problem-- which is a bit of a contradicting way to describe it since the problem itself is that 25% of Japan consists of elderly people. I've stumbled upon a few Japanese children, but they were actually much rarer to see than elderly people. 

It's honestly a heartwarming sight to see elderly men and women go about their day. I once spotted a few elderly women shopping for makeup and they looked like they were having the time of their lives.

I also loved admiring their strength and resilience too, since you'd rarely see any of them in wheelchairs. Some work in restaurant and street jobs while some would be walking perfectly upright.

I actually had an encounter with an elderly lady in a bus. Both my sister and I realized we were sitting on priority seats, so we offered the seat up to the lady. I can't express just how much warmth I felt when her eyes beamed as she said "arigato," giving us a smile right after.

17.) People don't care about you overdressing.

I knew that being in Japan meant that I'd see a lot of people in overdressed clothing, but I didn't expect it to be that much of a common occurrence.

Jirai Kei, Fairy Kei, Lolita, Gurokawa, you name it.

I once saw a bunch of Japanese girls dressed in bloody kawaii clothing and no one batted an eye. And honestly, seeing those girls made me realize just how normal it is here to overdress.

Overdressing in my home country made you a social outcast; an edgy, grungy, nerdy cave-dweller that had "no sense of human decency." But in Japan, you can dress up in cute lolita clothing with a vintage bonnet headband and no one would mind.

I plan on returning to Japan with full-fledged Yami Kawaii outfit one day.

18.) Character mascots are EVERYWHERE.

I'm not exaggerating when I say this: character mascots are everywhere. From big kawaii brands like Sanrio to small convenient stores, they all have a representing character mascot. Hell, even news programs and channels have cute character mascots-- one in particular being this red and yellow clock with arms and legs.

Some convenient stores sell and display merch of their mascot too, mostly plushies. We once ordered takeout of some deserts from a restaurant and beside their display was this plushie of a worm mascot with googly-eyes.

God, I haven't even gotten to the part where I explain a few of my notable experiences... and the blog's already this long. Oops

I might actually divide this blog into two parts since I'm honestly losing so much energy typing this all down.

The experiences I plan on explaining alone would probably be a bit shorter than this one, but it's safe to say that this wasn't really a normal trip that went as smoothly that we thought it would.

I honestly can't wait to explain those experiences such as the Universal Studios cashier outage and the Shinkansen train Naguya incident. Those were experiences that made the trip feel a little more special.

Another thing I can't wait to talk about was my sudden Chiikawa addiction-- basically another equivalent of Sanrio that's been rising up to fame lately. I never understood the hype behind Chiikawa at first until I discovered a character in particular from the series that completely got me on a chokehold and pulled me into an obsession.

Anyway, that'd be all for part 1. If there are any Japanese people reading this, I'd just like to apologize in case I may have said anything offensive since these were all based on my observation and experiences. But I also hope this helps anyone planning to visit Japan in some way, haha. ^^