10/20 - Day 16

 October 16, 2026

Going home. Today is a full day (and a half) of travel. 

Our flight leaves Tokyo at 6:30-ish (pm), so we have all morning before getting picked up at 2:00. We're taking no chances with Tokyo traffic.

At breakfast, there was a robot bussing tables. (The robots that Red Chili used to use delivered food to tables.)

Later, we decided to make a run out to the 7-Eleven for snacks. Walter was on the hunt for frozen margarita pizza. He read a review from someone who said it was the best margarita pizza, so he had to give it a try.

There are no microwaves in the room, but there was one off the main lobby. So here we are tearing it open with dozens of people walking by.

Walter's verdict: "not bad, definitely better than the mystery meat at dinner last night."

Last week I started writing some thoughts about Japan and couldn't finish them as the trip got into full swing. This seems like a good time to finish them off. I was going to call this blog post: "pop anthropology". Apologies to those who know better. And there are many of you reading this blog do. I should probably spend a year doing fieldwork before pronouncing anything, but here goes.

Japan is an orderly society. People cross streets at crosswalks and wait for the lights. Motor vehicles yield to pedestrians and wait for stragglers. Commuting cyclists use bike lanes, if they are available (but don't wear helmets!). People enter busses at the middle of the bus and exit at the front, having to squeeze their way to the front when they could easily step off the back.

Public areas are clean. There is not much litter in the cities and there are a lot of public service people who pick up what there is. (There was some in rural areas that had been blown around.) There are no public trash cans. People are expected to take care of that themselves. Like Sweden and unlike Sicily, cars are clean. There are no cars with dings, scrapes, on broken lights. There is no graffiti anywhere, on walls, subway cars, anywhere. (On the last day in Tokyo we finally saw some on highway pillars.)

I like to ask tour guides about poverty and social services. I did not see evidence of homelessness or poverty. On the last two days in Tokyo, I saw two people on the street. Out Tokyo tour guide said that she didn't think he was homeless, just hoping to pick up some extra cash.

There are public bathrooms everywhere, but they are clean and there is no evidence that street people rely on them.

People are expected to be considerate of other people. People don't walk and talk on the phone. (They are looking at their phones, however.) They don't walk and eat. At many food stalls in the market, vendors posted these reminders.

Blowing your nose in public is considered rude. The day we had our first train ride, Walter went to the drug store to find an anti-histamine. I know that throwing used gum or spitting is an arrestable offense in Singapore. I haven't seen evidence of either so far here in Japan. While spitting or blowing snot rockets while on a bike is an acceptable technique, I don't know if Japanese riders do that.

A lot of people wear masks compared to the US where almost no one wears a mask. Almost all store employees wear masks. Before we left Syracuse, the news was reporting that the flu was running through Japan. I was prepared to wear a mask, but I was surprised that maybe 10% of people in the street were wearing masks. Our Chinese tour guide in Kyoto wore a mask while she was with us but she said she did that because she said she was too lazy to do her make-up.

The labor market seems highly stratified. Anything that can be automated is handled by a machine. I never saw a brick-and-mortar bank but there are ATMs everywhere. Check-in and check-out at our hotels is handled by kiosks. Payment on busses and rail are handled by screen readers.

Gender roles seem highly stratified, especially among young people. The typical look among female teenagers and 20-somethings is a little girl look: short skirt, stockings or leggings at or just above the knee, unbraided pigtails. There's no rigid uniform for boys and there are very few young people with an alternative look such as piercings, goth and baggy clothes and visible tattoos. (This may not be important to young native Japanese, but you can't enter an onsen if you have a tattoo.)

Daily rituals including acknowledging the person in front of you, even if they are a stranger. (Walking in a crowd does not count.)  Public-facing jobs like hotel workers and retail include stepping aside, making eye contact and often including a short bow. It's very nice.

We received some dos and don'ts from our bike tour company and from the travel agency that put together our pre- and post trips. So while my observations are clearly NOT from a representative sample - we have, after all, only been in the country for a few days and only in areas that are used by tourists - the lists of dos and don'ts suggest that these observations are consistent with reality.