Dear Steemians!

I recently spent two weeks zipping around Japan on the Shinkansen and I would love to share my experiences with you. Obviously a picture tells a 1000 words so I'll include loads of images :)

The Toilets: Futuristic Porcelain

Here in Australia I usually sit down on primitive porcelain without multiple buttons to press. However, as many already know, most Japanese toilets are things to marvel. Buttons shoot water, deironise the surrounding air, and heat the seat. It must be expensive to install these toilets because you would probably need to hire both an electrician and a plumber to set everything up to code. Feeling adventurous, as you do, I set about to press all the buttons on the thing. However, one toilet, for some strange reason, gave me a concentrated burst of sharp water straight to my bum.

Needless to say, ouch! I was more careful in the future instances of button-pressing.

Transportation from Heaven

Everything in Japan works. Unlike Australia, which has intermittent services that are usually late, Japan's transportation system runs smoothly. We didn't experience rush hour in Tokyo and being pushed onto the metro like fish in a can because my wife is pregnant, but we enjoyed close to rush hour while still keeping our personal space. It makes me wonder that some Social Justice Warriors complain about lack of personal space on trains, trams, and buses here in Australia, to the extent that they create wooden boxes to stop people from getting too close. In Japan people are respectfully close without "traumatising" others. It's a ridiculous response to crowding to assume you can just simply take up more space through bringing a box strapped to your body and think you've solved the issue by being selfish.

The Shinkansen are definitely the way to travel. Visitors can get a JR Pass which covers you for all Sinkansen (except the fastest Nozomi trains) and some local JR services. If you do your research you will probably save money with the JR Pass. It must be booked and paid for in advance. I think the 14 days for two people for us was about $1100AUD. Totally worth it because you don't have to be probed by the alien-wannabes at airport security and the services are all running quite regular. Fair warning, most Japanese public transport finishes at around midnight or 25:00 (1am). Japanese also have this weird time called 2500 which is 1am (probably to cut down on confusion between 1pm and 1am which is not a bad idea). Plan your trip and book seats in advance, get to the platform and find your train car because some of the trains do not wait around for very long. Once my bag was caught in the door and became stuck. There're people on the platform watching out for these sorts of issues so they were able to fix it fast.

Check out the station masters signalling each other to cut down on time spent at each station - this is how the trains are able to continually be on time. Also etiquette regarding passing through a car dictates that the conductors should bow to the passengers when leaving each train car and transitioning to the next. Also the buses have completely opposite entry and exit processes. In Australia you get on the bus and walk past the driver paying if needed or swiping your electronic pass. In Japan you get on at the back and pay when you leave if you don't have a pass.

Foreign Bathing Rituals

Japanese Onsen present a challenge to those who don't have a clue (like me!). It's a tiered or layered approach to bathing. First you get completely naked. Second you wash yourself free of the day's grim making sure to get rid of all soap. Third you go into the communal bath and sit for awhile. Finally you rinse and scrub yourself off with the showers. The water from the communal bath is considered clean so usually it only gets changed once a day or so regardless if multiple people use it. While I probably wouldn't enjoy my time in communal bathhouses with strangers, we were lucky to spend time in hotels that had couple's baths which featured the magical invention of a lock on the door. Incredible! Would definitely bath again.

Two Hachiko statues: the famous one outside of Shibuya station and the newer one reuniting Hachiko with Prof. Ueno outside of Tokyo University's Agricultural Department.

Thanks for reading :)