[_RPL5_]

I have not been to Japan, but I have read several fairly detailed accounts coming from multiple travel bloggers.

One thing they all pointed out is that Japan is full of what by our standards would be considered semi-antique technology like trolleys from the 1950s and computers and fax machines from the 1990s, that are all still being used, and maintained in really good condition.

Living in Tokyo, do you notice this as well? I assume this sort of commitment to maintenance / "orderliness" must be cultural?

What do the really bad parts of Tokyo look like?

[presentation]

Old technologies do stay in use for a long time, and while it’s annoying to need to send a fax occasionally, they’ve made it brilliantly easy to do by providing fax services for < $0.50 in any convenience store in the city (there are like 50,000+ of those). Generally don’t need to though and for the most part I’m using more advanced technology than in the USA (like the transit payment cards, which with Japan’s recent cashless push are accepted in most stores).

Ikebukuro is the nearest place to where I live that has a reputation for being “dangerous”, with a homeless population and a large yakuza-dominated nightlife district, but by that I mean there’s like 20 harmless old drunk men around in the plaza sitting around, and a high concentration of sex shops - not dangerous at all though by foreign standards (small women can still feel safe walking around at 3am if they felt like it).

[Clewza313]

There are no really bad parts of Tokyo. One of most economically deprived areas, Minami-Senju/Minowa, is popular with backpackers and doesn't really look much different from anywhere else in suburban Tokyo to the untrained eye. (The trained eye will spot quite a few aging day laborers drowning their sorrows in cheap sake and a lot of down-market brothels though.)