that's very fascinating, as someone who has only experienced Tokyo, I was amazed with how clean it was compared to other Eastern Asian cities (I lived in Shanghai). Wouldn't have guessed it was a bit of smoke and mirrors.
Or the parent's comment is a big of exaggeration to downplay the general cleanliness.
Compared to most major global cities it's night and day.
I'd take a hard look on NY, Chicago, L.A, London, Paris, Amsterdam, before I complain like the grandparent about the Japanese situation which is an order of magnitude better...
Tokyo of course is on a league of its own, but here's Osaka Street View, go around, how does it compare to what you read?
Well Kabikucho is in Tokyo haha. It gets really bad every night and they clean it up in the mid morning. At around 7am it's shocking how dirty it is; a complete mind blower compared to how clean you get used to everything being.
First thing I noticed after leaving the train from the airport to Shinjuku is just how crazy clean everything was. It was certainly impressive and most of the city I visited followed suit. I spent time actively looking for trash with little success, quite different than every other city I've been to in the world. Even unpopulated areas (wilderness, forests, remote parks) you wouldn't expect to see much trash always seem to have trash.
At night time I did see quite a bit of beer cans/bottles around, however, either people or cleanup crews seemed to group them together to make cleanup easier.
If this is due to cleanup operations, I feel other cities around the world should consider such logistics because it makes travel there one of the most pleasant experiences I've had.
Compared to most major global cities it's night and day.
I'd take a hard look on NY, Chicago, L.A, London, Paris, Amsterdam, before I complain like the grandparent about the Japanese situation which is an order of magnitude better...
Tokyo of course is on a league of its own, but here's Osaka Street View, go around, how does it compare to what you read?
https://www.google.com/maps/@34.675107,135.5261238,3a,75y,27...