We just got back yesterday from an amazing family trip to Japan. We spent 5 days in Tokyo, 1 day near Atami at an Onsen, 3 days in Kyoto, 1 day in Nara and 1 day Kamakura. Thanks to many recommendations by friends ahead of time (including great foursquare lists) and wonderful hospitality by people living there we had many terrific experiences. Here are a few of impressions from the trip.

The importance of culture and norms in shaping human behavior is powerfully on display in Japan. There are many examples one could give but one that struck all of us was how clean everything is including in Tokyo, which is a metropolis that’s significantly bigger than New York City. There is not a piece of trash to be found and that despite the fact that trash cans are few and far between. People simply put their trash in a bag and carry it until there is a trash can. That is a striking contrast with New York which has a trash can at every street corner and yet has trash everywhere. Having grown up in Germany I recognized many similarities in some of the key norms such as deference to authority and an emphasis on order and punctuality (as an aside: in my US naturalization interview one of the questions was “which nations was the US at war with in World War II?”).

Contrasts between high tech automation and traditional rituals abound. Take the amazing Shinkansen train system for example. These trains are not only super fast, but run frequently, are completely on time and incredibly quiet (if you stand on a platform at a smaller station and have a train fly by you can continue your conversation without raising your voice). In order to board at many stations you have to pass through not one but two automated turnstiles that check your tickets. Yet once you are on the train a conductor still comes around, bows at the front of the car, then proceeds to check tickets and stamp them (having a conductor could be partly union based but the ritual aspects of it were striking).

We encountered a similar contrast between visiting both the famous Tsukiji fish market and the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE). The fish market is as traditional as they come with lots of small individual trading operations (although at an epic scale – you could easily get lost in it). The TSE by contrast is fully automated and where the trading floor used to be is just a space for visitors and press with a couple of big electronic display boards. Anything that’s automated in Japan is done incredibly well including the countless vending machines that provide not only a bewildering variety of soft drinks but also instantly hot coffees.

Susan, who had been to Japan once before two decades ago, pointed out that there was a huge increase in the number of people who spoke English as well as in English language signs and announcements. For instance, it was straightforward for us to navigate the amazingly extensive subway and rail system in Tokyo as all the lines we used had signage in English. When we used cabs, most of the cab drivers understood some English and the same was true for restaurants and hotels.

We were blown away by the variety and quality of Japanese food. During our stay we had Ramen, Soba, Tempura, Tonkatsu, Shabu Shabu, Sukiyaki, Yakitori, Sushi and Sashimi in settings as informal as an Izakaya or a Ramen shop and as formal as a multi course Kaiseki dinner at a Ryokan. I am pretty sure I gained several pounds in the process.

Finally there are experiences that are hard to classify because they seem so unique. Those include our visit to a Maid Cafe in Akihabra (on an excellent Otaku tour with Patrick Galbraith) and to a Geisha house in Kyoto. Both are performances of a kind but without obvious counterparts that we might be used to. By comparison seeing Sumo wrestlers practice was rather straightforward. Despite the rituals surrounding Sumo, the wrestlers are easily recognizable as athletes. We were also invited to a Japanese tea ceremony. This too felt like a unique experience that would be wrong to relate to say sacraments even though there is some commonality.

All in all it was a fantastic learning experience and we feel very fortunate to have had this opportunity. Many thanks again to our friends for helping us with preparations and to everyone we encountered for their hospitality.