Some Japan things I did:
--Tokyo really does look great at night.
--Heated toilet seats. Built-in bidets. One setting for manparts, one for ladyparts.
--Employees bow when they enter the main floor of the department store from the back room.
--Foot-wide grooved pathways on every city sidewalk/crosswalk and in every subway for the blind.
--Grocery stores in the basements of malls. The chocolate & sweets section oh my jesus.
--Machines in front of ramen restaurants where you choose and pay for a meal ticket.
--Conveyor belt sushi.
--Makoto Aida at the Mori Museum and the 360 degree observation deck on the 53rd floor.
--Amuse Museum, touching hundred-year-old clothes.
--Traditional dances at the National Theater.
--The 1945 articles of surrender at the Edo-Tokyo Museum.
--Akihabara electric town.
--Harajuku on Sunday.
--More historical shopping streets than you can shake a stick at, seriously.
--Kawasaki showroom at the Maritime Museum.
--Shinjuku, Shibuya (and its giant 8-ways-at-once intersection!), all known brands plus
all others.
--Ginza (& spotted the Kabuki-za).
--Tempura made in front of me by a guy who knew tempura.
--Tsukiji fish market before dawn and a sushi breakfast.
--Circumambulating the Imperial palace moat.
--Kyoto temples and shrines.
--Mister Donut.
--Pachinko.
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Kobe Osaka Aquarium and the whale shark.
--"One Piece" special manga exhibition with Nori.
--Flights of Japanese craft beers Keep trying, Japan.
--Himeji Castle and a historical town afterward.
--Chinese food.
--Kobe beef.
--Endless oysters caught the same day.
--Yasukuni Shrine and the flea market outside.
--Asakusa and Sensoji Temple.
--Bean jam buns. One for each hand. The lady scoped me out and didn't bother with a bag.
--Yokoamichi Park and the Tokyo Air Raid Memorial.
--Roppongi Kingyo and the new half show.
--Roppongi Hills, where I saw "Tokyo Family" at the movie theater and got popcorn in a seat tray!
--Japanese-style curry at Bondy. And then Japanese-style curry at Bondy.
--Drink machines every few blocks that dispense cold *and hot* bottled or canned beverages.
--$3 for a small coffee. $1.75 for a Starbucks-style convenience store chilled latte drink.
--Street signs in English, subway signs in English, subway announcements in English . . . I am lucky to speak English.
--Hiking in Kobe.
--Stuffed dessert crepe on the street.
--In the passenger seat of a Prius on the wrong side.
--Explaining the Bell monopoly via stick figures to Nori's tolerant, non-fluent mother.
