Japan

Overview

We had the chance to explore this country for 12 days in May 2025. You could easily spend much longer; even a few months wouldn't be enough to exhaust its tourist attractions. In that sense, it's very similar to Turkey. Even if you visit what we'd consider a no-name city, you'll inevitably stumble upon thousand-year-old historical structures; the same is true in Japan. A different culture, magnificent historical sites, and an incredibly comfortable country to travel through.

My travel notes aside, this country opened my mind by showing how a society can live in such peace, safety, and prosperity. I'll skip Turkey altogether; for a long time I'd been thinking that the world in general was heading in a bad direction, especially with the security problems growing across Europe due to immigration. I thought there were fewer and fewer places worth relocating to. But in Japan, despite the enormous crowds, seeing people live in such a safe, mutually respectful society genuinely shocked me. Turns out these problems aren't inherent to humans after all; it can be done. These people are literally living in a utopia they've built.

Now, plenty of people will jump in and list Japan's various problems. They're right; it's impossible to say the Japanese are 100% happy. They have deeply chronic issues too, especially around gender relations, insane working hours, and societal pressure. But then I look at our own chronic problems: try getting from point A to point B during rush hour in any major Turkish city and you're looking at least an hour in traffic. I'm not even counting personal safety; the concept of property security barely exists. Go ahead, try leaving your bike unlocked at the busiest spot in Istanbul and see how many minutes it takes before it's stolen. Hell, even in Europe, the place everyone's dying to move to, people smash locked bikes with rocks and sticks and walk off with the wheels.

Go to their most touristy spot (Fushimi Inari Taisha, think of it as our Hagia Sophia); there's a bicycle parking area with hundreds of unlocked bikes. Next to it there's a stroller parking area where people have left their bags sitting on top of the strollers. No security guards, no public order issues. I get it for the Japanese, they've grown up with this culture since childhood and literally don't know what theft is. But how do the tourists visiting not damage this system? Apparently, people adapt to wherever they go.

The world has a lot to learn from the Japanese. And it's even possible to start on an individual level. In the coming years, I'd like to live there for at least a year or two to genuinely experience their peaceful, human-respecting philosophy and way of life. If possible, I'd like my child to partly grow up in this culture as well. What happens after that, well, who knows.

Getting There

We entered the country through Osaka, and the first thing we encountered was pure chaos. QR machines everywhere, nonsensical directions, letters appearing for your destination with no clear meaning. At the very end, they do another QR check at customs exit. Every step has been made needlessly complex. I couldn't decide whether filling out forms in advance was an advantage or disadvantage, because everyone had filled them out and the form queues were insanely crowded. I think the Japanese tendency toward overcomplication shows here too. This could all be much simpler.
The best exchange rate was at the airport. Make sure to convert plenty of cash there because you'll need a lot of it in the country. Even 10 yen can make a noticeable difference on the amount you're exchanging.
People said Google Maps works great, but we struggled a bit with metros and trains. You need to look up your destination, pick a line, and stick with it, because if you refresh a few minutes later, tons of options pop up and all the routes change. When several people checked simultaneously on different devices, some showed short routes that didn't appear on others at all. I can't say it works very reliably. Same thing when searching for restaurants; when we typed "breakfast," for example, we got completely irrelevant results. Finding the kind of places we wanted required very detailed searching.
Hotels automatically organize luggage forwarding. We sent our bags from Kyoto to Tokyo for 15 USD per suitcase; super practical.

Country and City Structure

They've built an airport on the sea and laid solar panels on the water. No wasting productive farmland with concrete or bad investments like we do.
City architecture is generally horizontal. While there are some taller buildings in the centers, there are still many small structures. Definitely no Hong Kong vibes.
There is literally no litter; they're incredibly disciplined about this.
They're extraordinarily good in traffic; everyone follows the rules 100% and traffic simply isn't a problem.
The exposed electrical poles don't suit such a tidy and clean society.
The compact little cars specially produced for Japan are quite charming; they'd work perfectly fine in some areas back home too.

People, Society, and Daily Life

People's reactions are generally very intense; their joy and sadness are like anime characters. The loud voices and exaggerated reactions in anime aren't made up after all; turns out they're reflecting themselves. I found this super fun; the way they experience emotions at such a high level lifts you up too.
On the other hand, society is quite antisocial; everyone's buried in their phones, lots of people doing their own thing.
They're a society of details. You scan your hotel card, the elevator automatically takes you to your floor. You take a shower, and a section of the bathroom mirror doesn't fog up so you can see yourself. They've really obsessed over these fine details. I think this is exactly why Japanese society has such high IQs but lacks street smarts at the same time. Using even the simplest thing is so complicated that they've had an intelligence explosion just to figure it out, leaving no brainpower for anything else.
The toilets are genuinely fantastic. We should have switched to a cleaner toilet philosophy like this long ago. You can handle everything with zero physical contact.
It's quite interesting that a country this technologically advanced still uses so much cash. On buses especially, elderly people use nothing but cash, and it's so common that every vehicle has a change-making machine. Presumably the elderly can't adapt to new tech, so cash use remains widespread.
There are no electronic displays at bus stops. For a place that's embraced so much technology, the absence of this basic tech is surprising.
Mask usage is still very common in the country. Drivers and other public-facing workers all wear masks. Some people even wear them while walking outdoors.
Elevators don't have a 0 floor; floors start at 1.
People constantly want to hold the baby and take photos if there's one around. I never figured out the exact reason. Whether it's because there are few children or it's a cultural thing, I'm not sure, but we got asked very frequently.
At restaurants, they give you special areas to put your bags. If there's no space, they bring an extra bag-like thing to put on the floor so your bag doesn't get dirty. Another very thoughtful touch.
Strangely, there are people who sprint toward pedestrian green lights. I think because the traffic lights take so long, people who hear the green light sound from far away start running so they don't waste time. Even quite elderly people run; it's really bizarre.
Lots of people also sprint to make metro connections, even though the next train is only 5-10 minutes away. They're way worse than us when it comes to the rush-to-catch-it culture.
The further south you go, the warmer and friendlier the people get.
They're one of the rare peoples who understand when you round up your change to make it even. In America, nobody can figure that out. One of those situations that shows how similar our thinking is to the Japanese. In general, when a non-Japanese person does this, they react with "ooo nice" and it pleases them.
It's a society where people are genuinely very respectful, thoughtful, and gentle. I'd never been anywhere this safe before. An incredible place.
People leave umbrellas in umbrella stands, then pick up a free one from another stand, grab someone else's and keep going. Such a relaxed society. In Turkey, someone would collect them all and sell them on the street.

Food & Drink

Matcha: No matter how many times we tried it, we just couldn't like it. The tea, ice cream, desserts, all bad. It literally tastes like green seaweed. How it's become so widespread and so beloved is beyond me.
Sake: Apparently it's divided into two types: with added alcohol and without. The version without added alcohol is just like wine, aromatic. Despite being 16% ABV, it's remarkably light, a unique drink. Most of what gets imported to Turkey is the alcohol-added kind. I found the original version quite impressive; a great food pairing companion.
Tofu: Much lighter and creamier compared to what we eat at home. The ones that come to Turkey are much heavier; the ones here are far more edible and higher quality.
Yakitori restaurants: A really enjoyable concept, like our mangal/ocakbasi-style skewer grill restaurants. The chicken skewers were quite good.
Obanzai: We tried this for a local experience; it's like our meze-style dining but the mezes are incredibly different. We liked some, didn't like others. Overall it didn't satisfy us, but eating on the floor in the traditional style was still a nice experience.
Kobe beef: Quite hyped, both expensive and extremely fatty. Someone who doesn't like meat this fatty will really struggle eating it. The flavor is good, but you can eat better meat for much less in Turkey. So I'm not sure I'd have it again.
Sushi and noodles: Finding the style of sushi and noodles we like back home is impossible in Japan. Most sushi is nigiri-style. Noodles are sold either as soba or ramen in broth. The style we eat in Turkey is called fried noodles there. Soba, their mildly sweet noodle soup, didn't appeal to us at all either.
Sakura (cherry blossom): We had the ice cream; it tasted like sour cherry/bitter almond. Not good at all; we barely finished it. Don't recommend it.
Yaki-musubi: A big sushi sandwich concept, very delicious. Definitely try it.
At some places there's a button to call the waiter, but there's no sign anywhere indicating that's the only way to call them. When the waiter doesn't show up for a long time, you need to be alert, or you'll be waiting for nothing.
Wagyu: Now that's a legendary dish; no need to dump all that money on Kobe. Eating it at a place where you cook it yourself makes way more sense.
They sell boiled eggs at convenience stores. Normally I hate pre-cooked eggs, but these guys nail the jammy yolk perfectly. Great flavor. I'd recommend it for anyone struggling with breakfast options.
Don't bother chasing social media-hyped spots. You'll face insane queues. Unless you're the type to show up at 7 AM and wait 3 hours, don't even try. There are plenty of great alternatives. That said, some good restaurants do fill up their reservations early, so don't forget to book ahead for places you definitely want to visit.

Myths and Overhyped Claims

We were told that in Japan they absolutely never charge you if you don't like the food. We returned a dish at one place and were still charged. Maybe this holds in rural areas, but in tourist zones it doesn't seem to apply anymore.
We were told there's absolutely no tipping culture in Japan. Again, maybe true in rural areas (even back home tipping isn't common in rural areas; everyone pays their bill), but in touristy spots I saw tip-addition prompts a few times. So this is changing too.
Some things get needlessly glorified on social media. One or two examples get generalized to the entire country or presented as if everyone's like that. But I don't think so, and I'm saying this as someone who really loves this country.
To be eco-friendly, toilet paper and napkins are extremely thin, but they're so flimsy that handling things with just one is impossible. They took "be green" way too literally.
"The Japanese are never late for anything," they said, but our bus was about 6 minutes late. We almost didn't bother going to the stop trusting Japanese punctuality. Turns out you shouldn't rely on it completely.
Their rule-following is great, but sometimes they get rigid for no reason. For example, when we asked if they could cook the baby's egg in the oil we provided, they said no for absolutely no reason. Even though it wouldn't harm them in any way, they just refuse to deviate from the pattern. They won't budge on the simplest things just to stay within the lines. If keeping society this way has a price, I think it's one worth paying.