Observations, looking back

Here are some things I noticed during my visit.

• I had probably known this at one time but had forgotten that they drive on the left side of the road in Japan.  They also walk on the left side of the sidewalk, which I picked up pretty quickly.
• The streets of Tokyo are kept very clean.  I saw one shop-keeper using a lint roller on the pavement in front of his store!
• They take recycling very seriously.  Almost every street corner has one or more vending machines with dozens of plastic bottles of many different flavors of tea, so it's needed!
• I kept seeing mesh bags by the edge of the sidewalk.  Alan told me that's to put bags of garbage in, and the mesh is to keep the huge crows from pecking them open. There is regular garbage pickup in the city by smallish garbage trucks.
• The Japanese like chicken cartilage!  I had a meal at an expensive restaurant that included chicken kabobs, and thought that someone had not cut the chicken properly!  I had to try and discretely dispose of the cartilage chunks!
• Another Japanese favorite (that I did not try) is fermented soybeans!
• I have already mentioned the amazing, multifunctional toilets that are now commonplace.  But, Alan says the clothes washers and dryers leave much to be desired.  Many bathrooms have the shower in a separate cubicle with a "dryer" setting.  You hang you clothes in there and wait all day, and hope they get mostly dry.  Seems very inefficient!  Many residents hang clothes on their balconies, but the newer highrise apartments often prohibit doing that.
• I did not realize how hilly Tokyo is!  Alan tells me it's good to live in a hilly area, since that means you are living on "real" ground, rather than "fill"!
• Kent is considered a "half", since he is half Japanese and half American.  This makes him "special" in Japan, but Alan and Yuka don't want him to be treated differently.  I noticed a number of people who seemed to look at him with admiration.