Monday, March 21, 2005

Good Things About Japan


  1. Super high quality control on fruit and vegetables. An apple may cost the equivalent of $2.50, but by God it will be worth it, huge and tasty and without any blemish or imperfection whatsoever. Where can I get a $2.50 apple in America? I really want to know.
  2. Japanese people know how to eat crab. I could never understand the fuss about crab before, and now I know part of the issue is that Americans don't know how to eat it properly. Key points: Vinegar is tastier than butter. Shears are much more useful than those nutcracker things.
  3. Inexpensive sushi. This might seem a given, but my recollection from visiting Japan ten years ago is that sushi was not especially cheap then. But now it is half the price in Japan that it is in America. The effect of ten years of deflation, perhaps?
  4. Trains that run frequently and on time.
  5. A button at the restaurant table to summon the waitstaff when you want them. This is so incredibly obvious, why do we not have this in America?
  6. Clean streets.
  7. Kirin Ichiban Shibori.
  8. Sit-where-you-can tickets at sumo tournaments.
  9. A relaxed national attitude toward religion.
  10. Relative lack of crime.

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