Japan - July 7 to 17, 2007 - Differences from U.S.

This is the shopping center in the Osaka train station.













I was so amazed at this parking in the condo parking garage. We arrived in the blue car to find the silver car on top where the blue car is in the picture. The man went to the lock box and the silver car was raised up so he could drive his car on the ramp below. You can see in this picture that he went to the lock box after parking his car and his car was lowered underneath the floor so you couldn't even tell it was there. (This reminded me of raising cars to put on new tires.)






This was another interesting outdoor parking lot with parking similar to the above. The cars on the top would need to be lowered to get out of the parking spot.











This is a Japanese mailman. They all ride these bikes. Mail is delivered seven days per week.












The mailman posed with Nate and Adalei for a picture.

This is the Tokyo Station with the bullet train. The bullet train goes approximately 180 mph.

The bullet train is so long you can't begin to get much of it in a picture. There were at least 15 cars. Cars 6 to 15 were reserved seats. Cars 1 to 5 were non-reserved seats. Car 3 was for smoking. Car 11 had a family room for a baby to sleep. There were 3 restrooms on every other car and the sinks were in separate. Food was sold in the train just like on the airplane. The bullet train goes so fast that you can't take a picture out the window that is anything more than a blur.

This is a picture of the "squatter" toilet. There are some toilets marked "western style" where toilets are like they are here in America. This is a toilet in the women's restroom. The seat in the corner is for the baby to sit.

We found this type of toilet in some homes and in some restaurants. When the toilet is flushed, the faucet on top of the toilet tank begins to run so you can wash your hands. Then a towel in on the wall for drying your hands. This toilet really conserves space since you only need room for the toilet. I didn't know toilets like this existed. (This is considered a western style toilet.)

Every half block there was at least one vending machine. Seeing 5 vending machines in a row was not uncommon. The 2 vending machines to the right are for cigarettes. The other 3 vending machines are for drinks - coffee, water, soda, tea, beer, chocolate milk, etc. The price in the vending machine is just a few cents higher than purchasing the same drink in a store.

I was surprised at the public telephone shown above. There weren't a lot of phones or phone booths since most people have cell phones. These public telephones cost approximately 10 cents for each 3 minutes for a local call. Most people only use their cell phones for texting. There is no charge for texting but the call is more than $1/minute for calls in the home area. Telephone booths are marked whether they are for domestic or international calls or both.

The picture above shows the police with a car pulled over. Note the bicycles in the picture. These bicycles are for the police. They are similar to bikes in the US that are women's bikes with baskets. The picture below shows the typical police station. Japan seemed like the safest country in the world based on the places I have traveled.

This picture above is a weight loss machine. It cost me approximately $3 for 10 minutes of shaking. This was at a place for massaging. They told me that if I came and used the machine every day it would help me lose weight. Theoretically the shaking of the machine exercises all your muscles without any efforts. The shaking is quite strong even though it's not apparent in this picture. After my 10 minutes, my calves and feet were very tired. I was aching by the time I returned to the hotel that night. I'm not sure the rest of my body received much of a work-out. I gained 2 pounds on my trip so I'm not sure this one time experience helped any!
The picture above was taken at a typical grocery store. I have never seen so much sushi! Below is a picture of food ready to be eaten that was also in the grocery store.
The picture below shows how small the grocery carts are. Notice that the cart basket is the same as the basket we grab in a grocery store for a few things when we don't need the cart. The aisles in the stores are narrow and this was the only size cart we saw in any store.
For Charity, I had to take the picture below of the Toyota brand!
Nate did a great job being our tour guide. He managed to get city maps, directions, and necessary information at the train station information centers.

The picture above was taken at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Takatsuki (a suburb of Osaka). Notice that all the hymn books have homemade fabric book covers on them. This was a small ward chapel. Two wards meet in this building. Since the people come from long distances for church, they do not have activities during the week. Therefore, the members bring lunches and eat in the cultural hall after church is over to socialize. Notice that they are sitting on the floor. There were no tables nor chairs in the cultural hall. Even in the foyers, there were no chairs, sofas, tables, etc. Adalei really had fun playing with the cute little Japanese children.
The picture below is the church from the front of the building. This building is small but does have classrooms upstairs. Also, notice that there is no grass around this building. There was red brick where there might have been grass. To the right of the church the bicycles were parked. To the left there were a few covered parking spaces and in the rear maybe a dozen parking spaces. This building was in walking distance of the train station.
The first day in Japan..... Nate is looking at the map to determine the route to the church. We assumed church started at 9 am and we were late by arriving at 9:15 am. But church didn't start until 10:30 am and we were quite early.