517: Japanese fanboy thoughts, Toyota's code of honor, and Burner action figures
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Konnichiwa from Japan! I’m here for a week and traveling for two months, so expect more travel tips coming soon. Kyoto and Tokyo next week after I leave.
Meanwhile, I will fanboy about all the things that make Japan special:
Delightful pedestrian streets - The combination of no street parking, dense walkable cities, and overall cleanliness gives rise to something great than the sum of its parts. It’s simply a delight to exist as a pedestrian - which is to say, a person.
Unique stores that somehow make rent - Sure, I’m in the commercial districts of the biggest cities, but in Europe and the US, that’s a recipe for the same global clothing brands you’d find anywhere. Here there are entire stores devoted solely to trading cards, animal cafes, even die cut stickers! I heard this may be due to combination commercial/residential lots where the landlord lives above and cares more about the vibe of the area than profit, but even in pure mall areas, I see this.
Presumed respect - I’m still dissecting what about Japanese history gave rise to this, but I can sense it in every interaction and aspect of society. The Japanese respect the rules (eg - no jaywalking even if no cars!) which means no littering, safe traffic, and a delightful retail experience, greeted in every store. Even the samurai would disembowel themselves ritualistically after making mistakes to restore their honor, for chrissakes.
Use of space - from tiny boxy cars to capsule hotels, everything is space efficient, which makes for denser and more attractive cities. I suppose there’s no reason to economize on this in places where there’s more space to go around and you may as well use up your entire lot. But it’s refeshing.
Vending machines - For drinks, tickets, for fresh coffee, even to order at restaurants, they’re everywhere. Sure makes it easy to get around as they all have english settings.
Convenience stores - 7 Eleven is here but has way more than stateside, from decent microwave ready food to office supplies. Fun fact - a Japanese holding company bought the American company in the 90s and has had a majority stake ever since.
Heated toilets with bidet functions as a matter of course - what an simple quality of life improvement!
And reflect on the large chunks of my nerdy American life I owe to Japan:
Toyota - which is the largest automotive manufacturer in the world and pioneered lean manufacturing with the Toyota Way, which boils down to investing in people and continuous improvement (kaizen).
Franchises like Pokemon and Nintendo, which look much like they do elsewhere but have devoted stores here with merchandise and airport level lines. Heck, the train station chimes remind me of the Wii noises.
Otaku nerd culture - anime and manga are mainstays of Western fiction nowadays, from movies to comics to video games. Here everyone reads manga no matter the age or inclination, such that there are libraries in the hotels.
Vocaloid, autotunes predecessor, which is a an open source software for robot pop star voices. Hatsune Miku is the most popular - listen to her cover the Weeknd here.
Ninja and Samurai - who are distinct in reality from their fictional counterparts. Ninja essentially existed to do the Samurai ruling class’s dirty work, as their bushido code of honor (predating the Toyota Way) prevented subterfuge.
Obtuse holding companies like Hitachi and Mitsubishi - these are some of the largest companies in Japan and the world, yet have no single industry they dominates, spanning consumer electronics to heavy mining. Apparently these stem from Zaibatsu integrated holding companies from the Meiji era.
High BPM EDM music like my beloved eurodance, which is so fast you can only dance with your upper body, (the para para dance), which even Disneyland Tokyo does. Watching Goofy wave his arms around is a novelty!
Technology, Ideologies
Since I’ve been traveling I don’t have much for you here. But the Japanese reflections above sort of fit into these categories, don’t they?
Memes
I watched MI: Dead Reckoning, Avatar the Way of Water, and Oppenheimer on the plane over here. All were close to 3 hours long and thus perfect for the airplane, but honestly generic Hollywood otherwise. Avatar was better than I expected.
Last week I was in Tahoe with the fam and so enjoyed these incredibly well produced ski videos of absolutely cinematic ski descents from Red Bull.
These AI generated Burning Man action figures are spot on clues to who you’ll meet on playa. My favorite is ‘guy who brought his mom’ lol.