kimberly ah

In Japan, it is customary to buy gifts for your colleagues, friends and family when you travel. Whether you are going to another city or another country, omiyage is an expected part of travel. Usually, the gift is some sort of specialty from the area you visited (known as meibutsu), either a little souvenir or a snack made in the area. For example, when I used to work for a Japanese company, whenever someone would go to Canada, he or she would come back with little maple syrup candies for the office to share. (Sigh, I miss traveling to Canada…)

Omiyage is a big business in Japan. Everywhere you go, there are beautifully wrapped packages of sweets and snacks. We picked up the snacks shown above purely because they were wrapped so beautifully. (They were delicious, too!) I have to believe that the omiyage expectations keep Japan’s economy going…
As a foreigner, it is especially fun to pick out omiyage. There are so many fun things to buy in Japan that we don’t have in the states. I bought a lot of washi tapes, stationery and handkerchiefs for friends. (And KitKats…which deserve their own JDIB post for sure.) The best part is, most stores will gift wrap just about anything. I bought a couple of these cutie cat handkerchiefs it Mitsukoshi and the sales clerk brought out an array of colored envelopes and gift stickers for me to choose from. She even pointed out that there is a tiny window in the back of the gift envelope so I could see which handkerchief was packaged inside. That way I could make sure I gave the right gift to the right person. Clever! I usually enjoy wrapping gifts myself, but I loved that a store would take the time to care for my tiny, inexpensive gift.

Omiyage and gift-wrapping small treasures…another simple reason Japan Does It Better!

(For more JDIB posts, click here.)

Okay, it isn’t necessarily that the pocket tissues are better…actually they are pretty scratchy. But if you go to any train station in Tokyo, someone is there ready to hand you a little pack of pocket tissues. Now, they aren’t handing you tissues out of the goodness of their hearts. The tissues are a form of advertising for local businesses. (The tissues above are from a drug store chain and a gym.)

Normally, I’m not a fan of walk-by advertising. Sometimes in Chicago, restaurants hand out menus on the street. Menus are not useful (unless I’m sitting in the restaurant ready to order), but tissues are. We accepted the tissues each time and used them to wipe the sweat off our brows (It was so hot during our stay!) or to blow our noses or to dry our hands (some washrooms didn’t have air dryers or paper towels).

A few years ago, Naoto went to Japan without me and came home with the Hello Kitty tissue holder pictured above. The Japanese tissues fit perfectly inside, so I have a little collection of refills to use this winter. Nothing makes me feel grown up like being able to find a nice clean tissue in my purse when I need one (even if it’s coming out of a Hello Kitty tissue holder!)

Something as simple as useful advertising…Japan Does It Better! (For more JDIB posts, click here!)

If you know me at all, you know that I haaaaaaaaaate public bathrooms. They are always dirty, the toilet paper is often 1-ply, there is no privacy (Why are the cracks between the stall big enough for people to see in?!), washing your hands becomes futile because you still have to touch the faucet and the door unless there is a fancy automatic shut-off and unless you wait for someone to come along and open the door for you!

Yep, it’s all gross. It’s the stuff nightmares are made of.

So imagine my bathroom-phobic surprise when I walked into my first public Japanese bathroom (in Kyoto back in 2008) and saw this:I almost had a panic attack.

I mean, what do you even do???

Why didn’t someone warn me???

Thankfully, in Tokyo, most of the toilets are “Western style” (the kind that I am used to here in the States). Many even have a bank of fancy and confusing buttons…so many buttons, in fact, that sometimes flushing the toilet can be challenging. (Which button is it?) 

The buttons are all part of the washlet–a bidet-like contraption fitted into the toilet seat. Washlets are in most of the public bathrooms and private homes in modern Tokyo. Most of the washlets include a seat warmer and a deodorizer, too. Some, like the one at the top of this post, have a music button you can push and it plays a little tune or water noises to give you a little privacy and drown out any…ahem…bathroom noises. In some public washrooms, the music/water noises start automatically. I’m a big fan of the music…I don’t want to know what’s going on in the stalls around me.

And you know the little paper seat covers that are in some (nicer) American public bathrooms? Many Tokyo bathrooms have these, too. And if they don’t, they have this:

It’s sanitizer for the seat! You just squirt some on a piece of toilet paper, wipe down the seat and it’s clean and ready to use. Genius, no?

Clearly, when it comes to public bathrooms, Japan Does It Better!

(In case you missed the beginning of this series, click here.)