Let me preface this blog with, I love Japan, I think it’s a great country. It’s safe, clean overall, and beautiful, and I have met a lot of great people here. I mean, I even made a blog about it. I think that I’m privileged to be able to have the experience of living overseas. While being in Japan for a few months, there were things that gave me confusion and still do. Many countries have opportunity of growth and Japan is no exception. The garbage sorting method, the packaging and paper usage, the eerie quietness, the shallow but polite customer service, technology gaps, and the lack of Hot Cheetos are all things that bug me from time to time. Before moving to Japan from America, I already knew there would be things that would feel like an inconvenience or a general concern. However, at the end of the day, I prefer dealing with these minor annoyances to the issues faced back at home.
The garbage sorting method
At first I was a bit annoyed with the trash sorting method. However after doing further research for this blog, I’ve set my beef aside for the garbage sorting method here. But for the sake of explaining my experience I'll continue to explain my initial confusion. You must divide your garbage up in a specific manner. Some places may not care about where you put your trash, but those places are few. If you don’t assort it properly, the trash folk will not collect it. If you do not use the plastic bags that they give you, the trash folk will not collect them. You may get multiple notices on your door addressing the fact that you or whoever is in your building have a hard time following directions. They will bag all the poorly assorted trash in one bag and expect you to open it up and assort it properly. Of course, I was not going to divide random trash for the whole building. Since then I’ve learned to be a lot more cautious about my trash. After conducting further research into the sorting method, there are positives of it of course. These trash assortment rules will help you reconsider the types of things you purchase throughout the months. This could also prevent waste, and it’s more environmentally friendly! Let this portion of the blog be a lesson that research is for the greater good. You can view the video below for an overall look at trash shorting in Japan from the Youtuber colourmycamera:
The extreme packaging and paper usage
I’ve visited Japan about 3 times before, however, I was not able to understand the insane amount of packaging and paper that gets used in Japan. When shopping for food at the grocery, some things are packaged a lot. For example, 3 pieces of (small) chicken are individually wrapped, then wrapped altogether again, then taped, then a few stickers are laid on it, then someone might bag it again at the register. Bananas are individually wrapped sometimes as well but I’ve mainly seen this in convenience stores. I wouldn’t be surprised if I ended up seeing an individual grape wrapped. You can read this article to get an idea of what I’m talking about. In America, fresh fruits are normally unwrapped and you have the option of picking up the fruit you like and bagging them yourself. Eventually, you take those things home and clean them yourself. But, at the end of the day America produces a ton of waste.
Sometimes, I wonder why some shops can not just organize the things I’ve bought into one large bag. The more bags I get, the more trash that I have to sort at home. To be fair, many places have started to ask whether or not you want to buy a bag and have been utilizing paper bags over plastic. But the fact still remains that Japanese packaging, while extremely adorable, can be a pain and a big waste. While working in Japan, especially at a school (and maybe even an office setting), you will come back to a lot of paper on your desk. Agendas, newsletters, pay stubs, and even sticky notes will be left there. I have asked a coworker if they could email me something, but they stared at me blankly and said something like, “...denshi meru de? tabun dekinai,” (An e-mail? Maybe I can’t.)
Quiet sometimes... a lot of times
I know that this is a pro for a lot of people who absolutely hate the noise of any kind. But I come from a ridiculously loud and obnoxious city, so this is just a me issue. It’s not really a Japan issue. Moving to Japan and not hearing much going on makes me feel a little uneasy. When I hear a person singing while walking down the street at night here (which happens few and far in between in my rich little town) I get a sudden rush of relief. Hearing the bosozoku at night is like a lullaby for me. The bosozoku can be compared to your local Philadelphia motorcycle and four-wheeler riders jetting down the street. Recently, I was shocked by even the movie watching experience. There was rarely any reaction to anything happening in the movie theater. No small gasps, no giggles, just silence and the movie audio. I’ve come to miss the obnoxious movie-watching experience back at home. However, I can appreciate the fact that others in the theater are trying to be mindful and focus on the movie. But when going to a movie theater with a bunch of strangers to enjoy something, wouldn’t you be open to just a little bit of interaction?
The manual is king
Despite the saying “Customer is king,” I don’t think the customer is king all the time. And that saying simply gives some customers an excuse to be complete asshats. But when it comes to customer service here in Japan, there’s an annoying side, and it’s that damned manual/protocol.
Although Japan has great surface level customer service compared to many other places, if you stay long enough, you may realize that there’s moments of inflexibility and the inability of a worker to think for themselves. For example, take a visit to McDonald’s. Let’s say you want to add or remove something simple like cheese or pickles. They’ll look at you, hesitate, and say “Let me go ask my manager,” then they will return and say it’s impossible. Most likely it was impossible to remove those pickles or lettuces because there was nothing like that in the work manual. In Japan, the rules are rules, 9 times out of 10 the employees are working strictly by the book. All autonomy is out of the window. You can read this post for more regarding the type of customer service provided. The manual is king! Is that necessarily a bad thing? Not entirely, as it can be for the safety and peace of mind for the employees and the companies to avoid issues on the consumer end. But, for the simplest things such as asking for no ice or removing the lettuce from your burger, it can get a little annoying. I also feel that the inability to make a decision yourself for the convenience of a respectful customer removes that personal touch that forms genuine relationships between establishments and consumers. It also can remove the opportunity for workers in Japan to develop their own problem solving skills. The customer service here is text book politeness, literally. But at the end of the day, it is a job, and these people don’t owe us anything more than a burger and fries, and to provide a service that works even at the bare minimum.
Technology gaps
Japan is still ruled by cash, digital payment methods are a lot more common nowadays though. But if you want to pay bills online, view your pay stubs online, or even medical records and beyond? Good luck. Most of that stuff is still done through the usage of paper as stated before. And for me, it’s not really convenient. But you may find yourself in a great situation to where that stuff is able to be done digitally and if it is, the website’s experience might be a little difficult to what you were used to. Don’t worry, a lot of your Japanese homies probably won’t get it either. To pull a quote from HapaJapan’s article on technology in Japan which is an insightful read:
“In the 1970s Japan was already in the 1990s. But now in the 2020s, Japan is still in the 1990s”
I honestly think a separate blog post should be made about Japan’s practical technology, the country's view on the value of software and its technology workers, and of course lack of accessibility to said technology. This is an issue that everyone everywhere is constantly facing. I don’t want to go on too much of a tangent here. But for context, at the start of the pandemic, it was realized that many people in Japan was not technologically equipped for certain transitions compared to others. Many were unaware of alternate options to get things done or not prepared. After moving here and working here, I understand a little bit more as to what those articles were referencing. My coworkers don’t utilize emails as much as they could or instant chats for work. Some of them, although younger, don’t understand how to send files via the computer. Japan rocks when it comes to technological advances in general, but when it comes to practical uses of technology and software... Improvements can be made and gaps can be closed, as with anywhere. I think I pay attention to these particular issues more because I’ve worked in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics) for a while and will continue to do so. So for other people, this may not be front of their mind.
When moving to a different country, there are going to be things that you absolutely love or you dislike. I’m often comparing my situation in Japan to back at home. That’s something anyone would do. And that’s okay. There are a lot of things that America can learn from Japan, and vice versa. The point of this blog is just to provide some perspective. At the end of the day, I choose to deal with the inaccessibility of Hot Cheetos.
