just got back from japan. omg wow.

[TheBlueHoney]

What a country! I saw much right there compared to Britain. 100x better infrastructure, friendlier people, safer street, luxury amazing looking roads, most well behaved children I've ever seen, modesty, people dress well, public transport etiquette, quality of food and healthy population, fantastic healthcare, longest life expectancy, lowest infant mortality, prices/affordability about same as London but get way more for your money everything better quality and no tipping culture, public bathrooms accessible everywhere and so clean and modern with built in tech. I could go on and on.

As a tourist there I loved it.
People were beyond helpful.
The country side is beautiful, the towns are interesting. There's lots of quirky thinks to see.
The pound is strong at the moment so everything is extremely good value.
The convience stories are fabulous.
There was nothing I didn't like and I'm planning on going back. I only did the tourist route and want to explore more.

My DD went earlier this year, had her new phone and wallet stolen on her first night in Tokyo.

Some bars refused to serve them as they wouldn't serve foreigners.

But, she had a great time and would happily go back.

@TheBlueHoney
What were your favourite tours/sightseeing activities? Did you find Japan to be child-friendly for travelling?

TIA

I’ve always wanted to visit Japan and I mentioned this before to my DM. She said my grandad would “turn in his grave” to hear me say that as he fought the Japanese in WWII. My DM said he was always haunted by it and refused to have anything Japanese made

War is very cruel and the Japanese were known gor their cruelty during ww2. My grandad was anti German and refused to go there until near his death and he found he was welcomed with open arms by German people. He regretted that he viewed all Germans, especially those that hadn't been born during the war the same.
Don't be held back by the past if you want to go. We went to the Peace Park in Hiroshima and the videos of the now ( and probably dead) people talking about their experiences when the bomb was dropped is horrific. Time has moved on.

That's what many people do when they visit a place on holiday. It's only when you spend an extended period of time in a country that you get in-depth insights into the culture and way of life. That's just not possible in a few weeks.

But then it wouldn't be Japan and you wouldn't want to live there

Rapidly falling birth rate because young men prefer AI avatar women and actual young women don't want to marry men who prefer avatar women.
There was a thread on here a few months ago by a woman who was married to a Japanese man ,lived in Japan and was pregnant. She was terrified of having a baby there and bringing the baby up there afterwards.

@Screamingabdabz ·

Rigid misogynistic social attitudes and school girl fetishes…

They also have a homeless problem that they manage to keep out of sight of tourists (and there is a yukuzuza club down the street!) and a whole area for impoverished older people.Some people live in their cars or use those cheap cubicle motels where they at least get free food. Plus there are some restaurants and clubs they won't let foreigners into.

What was the weather like? I really want to go but I’m a teacher so can only really go in August and have heard it’s very very humid.

I know a couple of people who live there and absolutely love it, but it has never been a country I’ve ever wanted to visit.

It sounds a fascinating place, with low crime rates and everything clean, working and to schedule, but it strikes me that if you scratch the surface, it’s a cruel and difficult place to live. Give me the UK any day. It might be dirty and smelly, with nothing working properly and anti social behaviour in full view, but it just seems more honest to me.

The Allies hardly covered themselves in glory, though, two atomic bombs, Dresden, Russian troops, what Stalin did to Russians, Churchill did to India - the entire Holocaust on the part of the Nazis, the behaviour of France and Belgium (and the UK) to African countries. Add in the invention of concentration camps, using gas and the whole western colonialism business.

Why single out one nation to be 'disliked' for hideous crimes committed over 80 years ago when every other one was doing awful things?

I would DEFINITELY avoid July and August. Ask me how I know...

Japan has some of the lowest rates of homelessness in the world. I wouldn’t say that homelessness is a big problem there at all.

There are poorer areas where many older people live, but what countries do you know that don’t have more impoverished areas? The reason those areas are full of older people is because young people continue to leave more rural areas in large numbers to move to the cities. It’s one of the biggest challenges that Japan faces.

I would really encourage anyone planning a trip there to get off the usual Golden route for a bit and spend their tourist money in some of the many smaller towns and cities that are trying to keep their communities alive.

I’m a teacher. Easter would be my preferred time to visit based on school holidays.

Yes I realise that. OP seems to be dismissing all the negatives of Japan, which really isn’t fair. Her come backs of yes, but … when told of a flaw, is just a bit irritating. Obviously all countries have good and bad.

The OP really enjoyed her time in Japan..for her own reasons.
Then everyone else is pulling it to pieces.
Glad you had a great time OP x

Sept 1st is known as the highest day for teen suicide in Japan.
https://news.abplive.com/news/world/japan-teen-ends-life-on-september-1-for-country-s-children-1714443#:~:text=Japan%3A%20September%201.-,While%20the%20exact%20cause%20of%20Sunday's%20suicide%20is%20not%20known,than%20on%20any%20other%20day.

Sexual assault of girls on public transport
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2017/3/8/sexual-assault-in-japan-every-girl-was-a-victim

Just for balance. It’s probably not a wonderful country for everyone who lives there.

There is much casual and societal racism in Japan. Even if it doesn't seem to be openly expressed.

I've not been to Japan, but I have been a british school girl and remember things like the count downs to page 3 girls reaching 16. I don't think we should get on our high horses on that one.

This. It's a society still rigid with conformity, rampant with misogyny and massively porn-addled. The suicide rate is high and the birth rate is at an all-time low because Japanese women are disillusioned with sex, marriage and child-bearing and men, frankly.

Yes, it's clean and tidy, yes it's beautiful in many parts, but there's a lot more to it than that if you bother to really find out what's going on there.

That’s mostly because of their insane work culture.

Japan is on my bucket list.

Did you know, that almost all married men also have a mistress? The wives usually know, and have to accept it. Also, the school girl fetish is really off putting, they have bars where all the waitresses dress like children. I guess nowhere is perfect!

It’s probably better to be in Japan if you’re not actually Japanese. You can enjoy it without having to deal with the expectations they have on their own people. I know someone Japanese and although they go back regularly to see family they never want to live back there.

I'd love to visit Japan, but it's far from being paradise. Their economy has struggled for a long time because they've failed to incorporate women into the workforce and adapt from traditional ways of doing things. Racism and misogyny are deep-rooted, much more so than in the West. There's very little space for people to vary from the approved template, and the cost for surface conformity and harmony is a good deal of private suffering. And of course they have a serious demographic time bomb now with an increasingly elderly population and a very low birth rate (only South Korea's is lower).

All countries have their problems; certainly the UK does. But I'll take the messiness we have over the Japanese option.

Amazing country. We returned a couple of weeks ago and had the same wooow feeling; can’t wait to go back. I am not saying is perfect but the cleanliness , organisation, public transport, things to see and do really impressed us