| As a Japan resident and expat from a small south pacific nation you may of heard of recently, I don't find Japanese "baseline execution quality" to be categorically better. There are a lot of places where it is worse. > Buses and trains are better (and more punctual);
Japan's public transport is great.(where there is money) > low-end food is tastier;
50/50 on this. Maybe gyudon or kaiten-zushi are tasty, but a lot of the low end food is over processed, over packaged, over sweetened, uninspired imitations of food, factory made, prepared by low wage workers, with all the challenging and exciting bits take out. > cheap hotels are more comfortable;
you even get complimentary right wing nationalist literature in the bedside table.. but This is probably true. > streets are cleaner;
People just throw things where no one can see, when no one is looking. They neatly tie up their convenience store rubbish in its plastic bag, and throw it into a stream. dump their fireworks and BBQS on the beach, fluorescent lightbulbs in the forest, > grocery stores and corner stores are nicer;
Every thing comes in sooo much plastic, and the selection is very limited. Corner stores are all franchises of a few big players, who don't share much profit with local owners or suppliers. sure Fami-chikin is tasty, if you don't think about where it came from. > ostensibly unremarkable villages have more beautiful buildings and are more pleasant places to spend a few days.; Sure they are nice to "spend a few days". But a village is supposed to be the centre peoples lives. These nice villages with cool old buildings are emptying out fast and becoming abandoned along with the rural way of life because of the lack of immigrations and the economy being so centralised on Tokyo. It strikes me that all the writer's points are very much about what appeals to a middle class visitor. Is this a good metric to judge a society by? |