First Time Visiting Japan: Expectations vs. Reality

Hello world once again, I forcibly detained my family. Look at me, sure, look at me, sure, I'm the captain now. What I wanted to know was how your

expectations

were different from the

reality

of being in Tokyo, being in Japan. It starts yes, but actually before. Let's get started, let's get a baseline. Obviously. We've seen a lot of videos of the life I come from so we have an idea of ​​what to expect, so it turns out that my brother watches an impressive 9% of our videos and my sister-in-law maybe around 10%. You already know. I think it was a little strange.

That's it, friends. That's the video. Japan is a little strange to an American's eyes. As fun as it is constantly interrupted. Let's get into it. I was very nervous because there were going to be a lot of people. You know, people shoulder to shoulder at the airport and on the train. And it wasn't at all that Vancouver airport was worse, longer queues, less organized. Less efficient in Vancouver. Yes, when we got here. That's how it was organized. It wasn't very busy. Ironically, the day they arrived was the busiest I had ever seen in my life. Narita Airport usually looks more like this.

Well, we got on the train. We were actually the only people in the compartment to begin with and it never really filled up. Not at all, I also think I imagined even the outskirts of Tokyo as if they were very tall skyscrapers and everyone lives in small apartments, and it's not like that at all, all the buildings. Do you know that they have three levels and have patios? And you know the bikes parked outside? It's a lot more comfortable than I thought it was going to be when we flew, we even saw some agricultural areas, some fields and that was a little surprising just because I thought it would be a lot more urbanized.

You know, based on the size of the island and the population. But I guess we're 36 hours away and we're in central Tokyo. I think the density will change radically from where we are now, so yes, we did some things in the big city, like

visiting

Shinjuku. We also passed through a shield. Oh man, I made a stop at Sky Tree, but overall it was a very smooth experience. Not so rushed compared to what I thought we would have when we arrived. I also hoped you knew that the streets would be very busy. Walking, I got worried. about busy trains and feeling claustrophobic.

Overall, it was actually pretty quiet. Yes, we did things like ride bikes, visit parks, and visit shrines. I think when you watch something on video it's framed from the producers' perspective, true, but when you go out into the real world situation, the scale can be completely different through our own eyes and a great example is I'm at the restaurant that on video It really felt much bigger. I didn't understand how efficient, how small and compact there were nine seats in the restaurant, it was delicious. You can't see that on video That smells the heat the humidity Just the sounds and obviously the food at the end of the day I knew they had bet that you know toilets have all kinds of special button functions that toilets actually are.

It's cool and the seats are heated, and I vaguely knew that the Japanese bathe every night and that everyone shares the water. But it was a really great experience. I really like it, in fact I wish I had a Japanese bath now. I was also very surprised by the lights. I've had some problems. In fact, I'm trying to figure out which buttons turn the lights on and off for future reference. The switches work like this when they are off. So there were a few

time

s when I turned on the light really bright in our room while Shawn was sleeping because he was trying to turn on a dim one so he could see the room.

I wasn't expecting remote controls for everything. To be totally fair, the remote controls are in Japanese, from the light switch to the air conditioning, the bathroom fan and the room fan, even the control panel to turn on the hot water and fill the bathtub is in Japanese. Also, I was also afraid to use the microwave because I can't read any of the buttons. I wanted to reheat my coffee the other day. But I wasn't sure and I didn't want to risk something exploding. So I didn't bother. I think there is a heavy reliance on technology and everyday life that exceeds my

expectations

of what you experience in Japan?

And my expectations were that there would be a lot of technology. But it's really cool on a residential scale how much of it is used on a day-to-day basis and still. There's no dishwasher like So for me I'm like a dishwasher is like you know it's a very important appliance and you don't have that, but I think if I were to make the switch to the automatic heating tub. I don't know, it would be difficult to negotiate. I've also noticed there's Kleenex everywhere or tissue paper, oh? I don't know, it seems like no one has napkins, but even in the restaurant they don't have napkins, they don't have paper towels.

But there are tissue boxes everywhere. I didn't expect trains and train stations to be quiet places where people don't talk or talk loudly? almost like a library. I didn't expect so much on the streets as there is so much pedestrian and especially cyclist traffic on the streets. I mean, we've all seen the iconic images of the crosswalk, but it goes way beyond that in residential areas, the main one. Motorized transportation is walking or biking, those are the two main ones. Car traffic is almost non-existent on the local commute and then walk or bike to the train.

I found it interesting even on the streets, especially in residential areas, where there was so much bike traffic that drivers got used to it and actually slowed down, expecting to see bikes around the corner and pedestrians. So it wasn't the fast speed like we have in our North American car culture. People go 50 to 60. I mean, speeds are limited to about 30 km/h in residential areas for drivers. So you really noticed a big Prinze and the roads are very narrow on some of them. It didn't really fit the cars coming the other way with a lot of extra space there.

I really enjoyed cycling in Japan, in fact I'm NOT a big cyclist at home and I get nervous driving in fast traffic, but here. I don't know if Greg just took us on routes that were really quiet. But it was very nice every once in a while we had to cross a busy street, but we ended up cycling through almost empty streets. I loved riding a bicycle. the river. I'm still getting used to all the taboo you know with shoes. There really is a big obsession with floors in Japan and which floors you can wear shoes on, which floors you can't, and even in a fitting room.

The fitting rooms had like a small platform. So you took off your shoes in front of the platform and then you could try things on. But they don't leave the locker room in your socks because that's bad too, right? Your shoes do. You don't go to the locker room and your socks can't come out of the changing room. I found situations where it could be really uncomfortable if you don't fit the standard shoe size they brought you as your own. In the sense that they would have a pair of bathroom shoes that you would take off or put on in the bathroom if you were barefoot at the

time

.

I think a lot of Americans came here. They would have a very bad time. get their toes and you could put it on them through your own flip flops or something, if that allows you a little. It's nothing, don't bring your own slippers. Let's see if I was going to do this again. I am traveling with children. I would definitely buy some kind of antibacterial spray like our host had because most bathrooms didn't have soap, even some of the nice must restaurants, yeah, interesting. Yes, many had soap, but a lot. Of them I wouldn't say at least more than half And often they don't have some of them have paper towels or dryers But some of them don't and I noticed that a lot of women carried like a small cloth to dry their hands.

Japan isn't always known for its nature, but seventy-three percent of the island is mountainous and the only other developed nations with such high forest cover. percentage are Finland and Sweden. But even when we are not in nature, things like the following can happen when we arrived at No Shima Island, there we went, we had our picnic lunch and we went to the beach because that's what you do. That's where I had a father's name Yeah And then all of a sudden the hawk started coming down and one of them buzzed at me and then I didn't knock, I'm going to make muffins over here Yeah, she lost her muffin and then Tony you ran to hide underneath from underground what is happening The hawks are attacking us it was terrifying I mean these are not seagulls like the ones that bother you for your food on the beach these things were hawks with talons and They look like birds of prey they were maybe they were my I was really I was actually scared.

I avoided eating for hours, and then we went up and started up the mountain, but the big hill with all the shrines and monuments and towards the top people were eating ice cream and we witnessed a hawk come down and grab someone's ice cream and they were very precise, they didn't get the people, they got the ice cream. But aside from the Hawks, the hike there was incredible. For me it was great to go to a 7-eleven and get really good food. For me I prefer a sit down meal. That's part of the experience, so eating in convenience stores wasn't my favorite.

But the kids liked it and Shawn liked it and it was affordable and convenient, so if you're traveling with kids to Japan it will probably end up making the actual experience at the resort's own hot springs pretty unique for an American? Because you don't wear clothes, and it's kind of interesting and uncomfortable to just get over that initial discomfort and acceptance and a change that's completely different. You know, I mean in North America you were naked in a locker room briefly, but you tend to cover up and all that, but there's really no way to hide in an onsen, I mean, every so often, your little face towel that you carry with you and you can cover yourself. but at the end of the days you just have to fuck it up to let everything play out and just relax because everyone is in the same state as you.

Which is this? I highly recommend anyone in Japan to try it. It sounds very uncomfortable. Maybe even more so for women. But it really only took about 10 minutes to get comfortable. Anyway, it's not like everyone who goes to the onsen is a supermodel. It just feels like normal people want you to relax. Enjoy the hot water. And it really wasn't a problem. I realized. I felt like there was a lot of washing to do. I found that most onsens provide you with a shower cap, so if you go to a store that isn't the one and you don't want to completely, you know, wash your hair.

You can just put on a shower cap. Put your hair up. Communication was good. I think I was able to get by by shopping at a Japanese mall. Fairly good. I only needed help translating when one of the sellers asked if I wanted it gift wrapped, but otherwise If I wanted to try something on it was pretty clear where the fitting rooms were, it was a little unusual that you had to put on a mask like a mesh bag over your face so that your makeup or you know don't ruin your clothes. But then again, it's pretty easy to get used to their little things, but you figure it out.

There's actually a friendliness and we're not in that touristy area, but there was actually a little bit more English on the signs than I thought there would be and even for things like the bathroom and being very welcoming, saying, "You know, why favor". Enters. It's free and use the bathroom, but in North America. It would be that you know, no shoes, no shirt, no service, the bathrooms are only for customers, like the whole nose, instead of welcoming you, any last word, my feet hurt! They are asleep from sitting, crouching like this. I swear, I wasn't making them say I tortured them.

I just forgot how painful it can be to sit on the floor for an hour when you're not used to it, and hey guys, thank you so much for stopping by and putting up with my questions. It was great to see the kids again. For those of you who traveled to Japan, how did your expectations differ from your

reality

? Thanks for watching. Until next time goodbye