How much do you know about Japan? If the first thing that comes to mind is Toyota, Hello Kitty and geishas, that's not so bad. Here's editor Prian's view of life in the country: from utility bills and medicine to cultural features and ways to move. The article is written based on personal experience.
About the author: Olga Logovskaya
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How I ended up in Japan
I am an orientalist by education, specializing in Japanese. One teacher once told us a phrase that was imprinted on my subcortex: “Every fool, having gone to Japan for a week, returns ready to write a book. Those who have lived there for years usually think that they still don’t know enough about it.” Therefore, I think it is important to clarify: this text reflects only my personal experience, and for some, getting to know Japan will be different.
I first came to Japan back in 2016. Then it was a one-year internship under the student exchange program. I was immediately lucky – a good status university in Tokyo. There were a lot of plans: to improve the level of knowledge of the language, to get acquainted with the country and culture. And of course, to understand what Japan is like, which before the trip I knew only from the pages of textbooks and anime.
Before the trip, the thought of cherry blossoms did not cause me much delight – well, it blooms and blooms. But when I attended my first hanami – admiring the cherry blossoms – my opinion changed dramatically. Magic and inspiration in one bottle
First impressions
First impression then, in 2016: why is it so clean here?
Second: not a single pothole on the roads, although this is normal residential area, does this even happen?
Before the Land of the Rising Sun, I had a chance to visit Europe, but it was the Japanese level of universal cleanliness and order that caused a real culture shock.
And of course, public toilets. They are everywhere, even in seemingly incomprehensible and unexpected (by Russian standards) places – somewhere in the middle of a small park, on the top of a mountain, at a gas station in a godforsaken village. And most importantly, these are clean, civilized toilets, and not a parody of the toilet from Shrek.