OBSERVATIONS
1. Japanese culture
They must be the most socially shy people anywhere. They never start a conversation, and rarely is the English good enough to be conversational. At the hostel I stayed in in Yokohama, it was packed and all the seats in the common area were full. In 4 hours, I never heard anyone having a conversation. I was almost the only white guy, but no one ever showed any curiosity about me. That was until I talked to an older guy sitting across from me. He was a businessman and spoke great English. We talked a lot about Japanese culture and the economy.
At another capsule hotel near Aoto Station, I ended up talking to a man (who never would have initiated a conversation), but lived in Australia and had great English. He said the Japanese young people don’t worry about the future and don’t think about it (a very present way of thinking).
Japanese must have the best weight of any country in the world. It’s uncommon to see any fat people. They all dress well. I find the women very attractive. Almost all wear makeup, usually perfectly applied, and their hair is perfect.
Criminal Structure. If you are charged with a crime, the conviction rate is near 99%. They believe a confession is the honourable thing to do and don’t stop questioning until you confess.
Rigidity. They follow rules. They never cross a street against a No Walking light, even if it is a tiny, one-lane side road with no traffic at 1 am. I jaywalk and walk against lights all the time. I wonder what they think.
At check-in at airports with a domestic flight, one must produce a paper copy of your e-ticket, or one won’t get a boarding pass. I talked to an Estonian tour operator, and he is unable to book a restaurant in advance for his group, even if he pays for it up front.
Read what happened when you get a scratch on the vehicle in the Renting a camper van in Japan.
Garbage. I have never seen an outside garbage receptacle. Japanese must carry it around with them. Then I learned that they use convenience stores. I wonder what they think about being the garbage collection areas. Convenience stores are ubiquitous, at least one every block and often 2-3/block. They have a little bit of everything including an ATM
Smoking outside is against the law. Open-sided glass enclosures are provided.
Rigid countries and war. The only countries I have travelled to with rigid policies are Germany, Japan and Australia. They never cross the street against a light. The first two caused the two world wars and had brutally sadistic regimes. Australia doesn’t start wars but they are in every one possible. They have been sucked into fighting with the US in every one of their crazy wars. I lost track of all the monuments I saw in Aus that listed proudly every war they had fought in dating back to the 1880s.
Germany and Japan were economic powerhouses, but in 2025, are having a hard time adapting to a digital/tech world and being innovative. Both have become failing economies.
See my “jaywalking index” on my Travel Page.
2. War Crimes. I think the biggest thing that bothers me about Japan is that they have never owned up to their horrific brutality in WWII (whereas Germany has completely apologized). The motto of the three Alls – kill all, loot all, burn all resulted in huge civilian death rates. In China, twice the number of civilians died compared to Jews killed in the Holocaust. 300,000 in the Nanjing Massacre, 100,000 in the Manila Massacre, and 200,000 on the Daath Railway in Thailand/Burma are the most well-known. Poison gas was common.
Whereas the death rate in German POW camps was 2-3%, it was over 35% in Japanese POW camps. The prisoners were brutalized in every way. Read “Unbroken” – About an American Olympic athlete first shot down in the Pacific and set a record for the length of time they survived (55 days) and then shit befell them when they became Japanese POW’s. He was beat daily by a sadistic officer.
The most horrific was Unit 761 in Harbin, China, where 200,000 Chinese died from medical experimentation – people were exposed to diseases, starved, and had vivisections with no anesthesia. Women were raped repeatedly, and the resulting babies were experimented on. After the war was concluded, not one Japanese was even tried – the Americans let them go scot-free to obtain the results of the experiments.
Each battalion had a troop of comfort women. They were raped 10 times a day before battles and 40 times a day after.
And the Japanese have never issued a proper apology for any of their brutality.
3. People.
It is aging faster than any other country. 60% of young Japanese don’t want to get married. Birth rates are less than 1 per couple. Men prefer dolls as sex objects. A significant female contact is at bars, where they buy unlimited drinks to chat with a woman.
Their only hope is immigration, but they tend to be racist against anyone black or brown. It is one of the few countries where a foreigner can never become a citizen.
When here in 2014, I met two American men who had married and had children. The courtship was great, but once the ring was on the finger, any semblance of romantism ended. They had both divorced.
It has the highest rate of divorce amongst the elderly. Men spend long hours at work and are often required to go out with the bosses at night. Their job often moves them around every few years. When the man retires, they often don’t know each other. With the man around all the time, she loses a lot of freedom. Extramarital affairs are very common and accepted.
In Yamagata, I talked to a Romanian woman who, after her divorce, moved here seven years ago with her 11-year-old son. She has become fluent in Japanese and supports herself with online Romanian cooking and working in an office. She is very social and made friends with a few women, but all, for reasons she doesn’t understand, suddenly abandoned her. She has made no good friends in those seven years. She feels that under that polite façade, Japanese are mean-spirited and unpleasant. They gossip constantly behind people’s backs. She developed a relationship with a man who was romantic until he moved in with her. All romance disappeared and he basically sat in front of the TV playing games. Needless to say, that didn’t last long. She dated a second man who took her out for dinner and then they went to a games parlor. They shared the bill. That didn’t last long either. At her present job, the other worker’s have come to like the friendly way she behaves and she has converted the staff in a nice bunch. But, they take it too far and constantly phone her. Her son has been bullied severely throughout school and has come to hate everything about Japan. They plan on moving, probably back to Romania soon.
Her story reinforces what I have believed for some time. They are very nonsocial people who behind that façade are not nice people.
You see many old men working, often controlling areas around construction site, directing traffic, and staffing parking lots.
They are very polite and helpful when asked for any help. They will even walk with you all the way to your destination.
Alcoholism is common. Grocery stores have large areas with booze.
4. The country. It is a country with some deep problems. The debt is the highest in the world at over 250% of GDP, which is possible only because interest rates are near 0%.
There is little innovation, so the future economy looks bleak, and from a huge economy in the 1990s. They are good at making things, but wages are high, and they have lost competitiveness.
It is a culture based on perfection. The Japanese are afraid to make mistakes and thus take no risks at work. They are light-years behind in digitalization. Making errors is key to developing new things: fail until you succeed (think Space X and the heavy Falcon rocket, it took 13 attempts before there was a successful launch).
I talked for a long time with a guy who lived in Australia for 20 years. The Japanese don’t worry about the future of the Japanese economy and live for the present. He thought that Japan should go back to the old days and be self-sufficient on its own. “We don’t need the outside world”!!
5. Transport
High-speed trains are expensive, several multiples of China’s. It cost CA$30 for 15 minutes from Osaka to Kyoto and $125 for Kyoto to Yokohama.
Taxis, even Uber are very expensive. City buses are reasonable, but I haven’t taken many. As a result, I ended up walking a lot, easily walking 15 km on the average walkabout. Renting bicycles is very cheap, but I could never understand the rules. Do you have to bring it back to the same place?
Driving in Japan. The Japanese are very cautious drivers. Combined with the slow speed limits (110 on expressways, 40-50 in towns) and many traffic lights, it can make for ponderous driving. Expressways have very expensive tolls, so I tried my best to avoid them. The secondary roads are of high quality with a full complement of tunnels. But they have many more twists and turns, and they have Japanese drivers.
To keep myself sane, I developed a very aggressive way to deal with the slowness. One must be ready to break lots of rules, and for it to work well, you need to like breaking rules. Here are the tactics:
a. Drive as fast as you can everywhere. Speed cameras seem very rare, but occasionally, you see overhead gantries that likely are cameras. Because the Japanese never speed, it seems wise not to waste your money on an expensive detection system. The speed on the secondary roads is never posted, but I assume it is 80 with frequent slowing to 50, often for no discernible reason. Driving fast allows you to hit many yellow and just turned red lights.
b. Pass frequently and don’t bother with the solid lines, as they are there almost all the time and don’t mean much.
c. Go through all red lights that are possible. It is great watching their reaction. I have never seen cameras, again a waste of time in a country that always obeys the rules.
d. Because there is almost always a turning lane, if that lane is open ahead and you want to bypass all the cars ahead of you, go into the turn lane and either go through the red light or wait till it’s green and surge ahead. It won’t take long until you are behind another long line of cars. Keep repeating.
Even with these tactics, it is possible to take secondary roads and still make good time. Even with them, it would be difficult to average 80 km/hour, unless you were a true madman and driving a Maserati.
5. Food. Much better than China, it is quite reasonably priced. There are restaurants everywhere, and many Japanese seem to eat out a lot. There are not many US fast food options other than McDonald’s, KFC and the occasional Subway. Prices are comparable to Canada. Starbucks here may have the cheapest prices in the world, even less than the good deal in Canada. There is a wealth of processed food in stores. Fruit and vegetables are expensive. I couldn’t find any cereal in a large store.
One of the best deals is the prepackaged meals called bento available cheaply in supermarkets throughout the day. For 400-600Y, you get a very filling, tasty meal. I enter “large supermarket near me” into Google Maps. Each store offers different bento meals. All stores have a microwave, chopsticks and often, a small eating area. Many convenience stores also have bento, but often, the selection and price are not as good as supermarkets. If walking, some restaurants offer bento at lunch. Come early for the best selection, and late, they are often on sale.
I rented a stove in the camper van, but it was a waste of money. All convenience stores have hot water for coffee. Why would one cook when you can eat for less with less hassle?
I love the recreated plastic food often in the front windows of restaurants. It is completely realistic. All menus have pictures, but without translation, you don’t know what you are getting.
Water is more expensive than pop. A two-gallon bottle of water is over 16,000Y.
6. Accommodation is very reasonable compared to most of the Western world but more than China, and probably cheaper than in Canada. I ended up staying in capsule hostels, identical to most enclosed beds in any dorm room anywhere. They have a TV and an audio system, plugs and good lights. Your luggage needs to be stored in very narrow lockers in a separate room. If it doesn’t fit, there are unsecured rooms to store it in. At a hostel near Aoto Station, you even had to empty your locker every day and store your luggage in a storage area. I spread myself all over the place.
At Capsule 1 in Yokohama, you had to empty your capsule every day, even if you were staying multiple days. They completely redo the beds. Is this what clean freak Japanese expect? What a waste of time! I refused and left my bed as it was, but I was the only one of hundreds staying there. They supply pyjamas, towels and toothbrushes. I also didn’t bother wearing my pajamas, but took the bottoms to use as evening warm pants.
The only thing visible outside the capsule (with no room for luggage), was their slippers.
7. Tourism. Japan has become very popular as the Yen has devalued a great amount: 1US$ = 150Y, 1CA$ = 107. In touristic Kyoto, you see more foreigners than Japanese. November is surprising the busiest season. People come from all over to see the fall foliage, and it doesn’t get that cold until December. When I was here in 2014, the cherry blossoms were in full bloom, but it was occasionally too cold to walk around in flip-flops.
In Kyoto, many foreigners rented kimonos and Japanese clothes. One Korean couple had spent US$150 on their outfit for the day. And there were tons doing it (all very neurotypical thinking).
8. Money. Most people seem to pay with digital wallets. I used both cash and a credit card. Bills are 10,000, 5,000 and 1,000. There is a dizzying array of coins: 500, 100, 50, 10 and 1. 1Y coins are worth .075 of a US penny. You end up accumulating a pocket full of them. Stores hate you paying with one-yen coins. This just shows Japanese are not great innovators. Canada got rid of its pennies decades ago, and all bills are rounded up or down.
RENTING A CAMPER VAN IN JAPAN
In 2025, I rented a camper van from Samurai Camper Vans in Tokyo. I have driven in many countries on the right had side before so that was not an issue. The mini vans at US$65/day were all sold out and I had to have a mid-size van for US$90. Add insurance and the total was 200,000Y. 40,000 was a nonrefundable deposit and the rest had to paid 4 days before the rental. You need an International Driver’s License. People from Germany and 6 other European countries need their licenses translated officially at $80.
The van I had was a very basic model of Nissan. The driver’s seat didn’t go very far back because of the cupboard. Two strangers would have been very cosey as the cupboard took up about 12” of space.
The camper comes with a firm mattress set on a platform of storage areas, one thing there is a lot of. There are also 9 lights – if all were turned on, you could get a tan. A small cupboard has a sink (connected to a 2-gallon water tank) and a microwave which can only be used for 3 minutes periods as it drains the battery. There is also an air conditioner. I doubt it could run for 10 minutes without completely draining the second battery. There were 6 curtains for privacy.
A pillow and basic cutlery were supplied. Everything else was an extra charge: sleeping bags, camping chairs, a portable fridge and a camping stove. I travel with a sleep sheet and sleeping bag, was given a camping chair for free, didn’t need a fridge and rented a camping stove for 1,000Y to make coffee in the morning. Interestingly, there was no warning about CO accumulating if the stove was used inside. They aren’t too worried about your health, but that scratch, amongst many other scratches already there, was serious business.
In the end, the stove was a waste of money. There’s nowhere with a picnic table to set it up and hot water was available in every convenience store and supermarket. Food is so cheap to buy as prepared meals, there were on advantages to cooking too. Salads are a good alternative to cooking.
It was irritating that the fob didn’t work, and I had to crawl over the front seat to lock all the doors at night.
There is a lengthy handout that comes with the van. There are more rules here than anywhere. Accidents would be a nightmare.
Along the road, I met a young Australian couple who had rented a mini-van from another company a month ago, and were just finishing up their trip. It cost half of mine. The had spent the month in the center of Honshu, between Osaka and Tokyo and had avoided toll roads completely. That may explain why it took them a month. I wonder what they saw, I’m guessing not much. Young travelers on the cheap are an interesting bunch. It seems the goal becomes seeing how little you can spend.
I forgot to ask what their accident/insurance policy was like. But Australians are used to “excess”, the fee paid if any accident occurs. When I rented a car in Australia, a kangaroo ran into the side of my car (I was going slowly and this kangaroo was obviously psychotic), causing a big dent in front of the driver’s door. AUS$3,500 was immediately paid on my card, when the damage cost AUS$125 to fix. I didn’t get my money back for over a month after I left the country. A second accident would have been another $3,500, a third was another $3,500. Credit card interest fees alone would have been significant, and I took money out of savings to cover it.
No other car rental companies in the world operate like this.
Insurance. The most significant are accidents. Even if you get a tiny scratch or a rock hits the windshield, you have to pay the excess fee of 100,000Y, you mustn’t move the vehicle even one inch, you have to take photos, the police need to be called, a police report needs to be filled out, you must call the van company, and you need to call the insurance company or your insurance is void. You must not leave the scene until the police have arrived.
The excess is paid for each incident (each scratch). Because the damage has to be repaired (the van had multiple scratches already), you will be charged for the lost business at a minimum of 50,000Y. Pay 100,000Y to process the claim. If the vehicle is not returned to the original depot, pay 300,000Y.
It is illegal to change a car’s tire if you get a flat. A service needs to be called.
Smoking inside entailed a 50,000Y cleaning fee. As a result, I purchased an e-cigarette (that doesn’t leave a small), but that was a nightmare. There is only one brand that uses an actual cigarette look. It is pushed into a hole. But I couldn’t figure out how it worked. I took it back to the convenience store and after about 10 minutes may have understood the complicated process of getting smoke out. But it tasted awful. There are flavoured ones (plum is the best), but I was unwilling to fork out another 530Y, when I wasn’t sure how it worked (still!).
Tolls (ETC) are paid on return. The van has a sticker recognized by the toll and you barely have to stop. All express highways are tolled and I was curious of the total. One toll for about 40 km was 2,048Y!
It would be almost impossible to avoid all tolls. You would get interminably frustrated with the local traffic, innumerable traffic lights, small speed zones. Hit dead ends and backtrack +++. Getting anywhere would take 2-3 times as long and may actually cost more with all the extra gas used.
Gas. 1.69Y / lItre, About the price in Canada.
Camping. I intended to only wild camp. I was initially worried about that, but there are many places to stay including McDonald’s and other fast food places, malls, grocery stores and anywhere that you can find.
Free wifi. In the rest of the Western world, I mooch free wifi from many places, often McDonalds and a variety of restaurants. I don’t think that is available here and will have to hot spot my phone.
locationsmart.org. A website and app with laundry, restaurants, restrooms, parking lots and convenience stores.
Kaikatsu Club are Manga cafes that cost 500Y per hour. Have laundry, showers and a non-alcoholic bar and ice cream for free, but you have to pay for the table.
Park 4 night app shows free campsites and parking lots.
Michi no eki are rest areas with free parking. Type in “Roadside Station” into Google maps. The few I stopped at had no showers, a convenience store and a large fish market with a fish restaurant.
