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Japanservation: the click-clack of high heels on escalators

My first thought on Japanese urban fashion was that it was an anachronism; that despite the ultra-modern buildings and tech the clothing people used to express themselves was evocative of mid-to-late 90’s sitcoms mixed with healthy doses of both posh and seriousness. It’s definitely grown on me during the past few weeks of people watching, though, and I think the comparison has been fun.

Generally, men wear suits. Being in the country during the week-long national holiday of golden week did give me a chance to see a bit more of the average Tokyo wardrobe, but as soon as it was back to work the suits returned. During morning rush in Tokyo it’s difficult to find a guy *not* wearing a suit, and those who aren’t are likely tourists. I was relieved, though, to find that at Google Tokyo the engineers don’t dress up - that would have made working from there in shorts/flip flops a bit more akward…

If you’re in any moderately-sized urban area in Japan you’ll notice an unexpected but interesting bit about female fashion on weekdays: almost every woman is wearing some form of heeled shoe at all times, regardless of weather, activity, or time of day. I noticed this first when getting off the train from Kansai airport. Alongside the hordes of businessmen in suits and flight-worn travelers such as myself pushing through the station there was a cacophony of heels against the pavement.

Tokyo women vary, but generally rushhour reveals skirt suits, lots of stockings, and high heels. It varies even inbetween the different districts, with most people departing a station following the local dress-code, but the basic rule fits. I observed very few t-shirts/tank-tops/etc, and very little color - a big difference from the US. Where as in the US most clothing seems designed to scream LOOK AT ME the opposite is true in Japan. And that’s where it got interesting for me: after a few days what people were wearing stopped registering, and instead I was concentrating more on the person and their actions. It made people watching much more enjoyable.

The heels are crazy though. Urban Japan is carpeted largely with cement and metal: stairs to and from the trains/subways, streets crisscrossing districts, escalators elevating people from deep within the earth to the top floors of the shopping districts. Everyone walks significantly more than the average American, and a lot of people walk quite fast in the rush to catch their next connection. My feet were killing me in crazy superfeet-equiped athletic shoes, I don’t know how men in dress shoes and women in heels don’t die.

Even outside the urban areas it’s common to see girls wearing heels. On most of my visits to the shrines, temples, and mountain tourist getaways I was surrounded by girls walking on dirt and gravel in heels. Seriously. No one swapped out for sneakers while they sprinted up escalators and hopped across train platforms. It was the ‘perfect image’ at all times.

As if this apparent obsession with heels wasn’t enough there’s the simultaneous act of vanity that most younger women seem to add to the mix: walking pigeon-toed. According to one lady I met Japanese men find girls who walk pigeon-toed to be cuter than their non-pigeon-toed-walking counterparts - likely something rooted deep in geisha tradition. Seems as if it’d just add to the pain. Maybe pain is attractive? Hm

Of the hundreds of girls I saw running up and down stairs in 4+in heels in the rain with their toes turned in, none fell. Current working theory: the Japanese have invented antigravity devices that are small enough to fit inside a pair of Stilettos.

Japanservation: the mythical trashcan

There are very few trashcans in the parts of Japan I’ve travelled to; sometimes you can walk hours without seeing one. Only slightly more frequent an occurrence than a garbage can is a recycling bin, often located near vending machines.

Similar to the shoe-bombing scare and the subsequent TSA shoe-removal policies, fear of bombs and such has caused public cans to all but disappear completely (or so I was told). It could also be a cost thing, however with how much is spent keeping everything else spotless I doubt it.

I haven’t seen much of an effort towards conservation; individually plastic-wrapped qtips and toothpicks being two examples of that. I’m especially surprised by this in large cities like Tokyo and Osaka, where the population density is such that the amount of trash produced is mind-bogglingly high. The plastic bag seems to be as ubiquitous as water, but despite the lack of trashcans there are few to be found drifting about.

Another likely reason why things feel so clean is that the Japanese seem to chew very little gum, or if and when they do they tend to somehow dispose of it without throwing it on the ground. Even some stations and sidewalks built 10-20yrs ago look as if they are new, largely due to the lack of blackened, petrified gum marring every surface.

And there’s no graffiti. What graffiti exists is contained to very small areas, usually those considered to be centers of counterculture. There are sometimes stickers or small tags on signs but rarely building-side tags like in the US. Most of the artsier works are likely paid for or allowed by business owners (such as the store fronts in Harajuku), but the kind of large-scale city-funded street art as present in places like Seattle is virtually non-existent. The result is cities that are much cleaner looking, but often lack character. When it comes to the beauty of an area a higher reliance is placed on architecture, terrain, and storefront decoration.

Current working theory as to why the streets are so clean even without trashcans: the Japanese have developed the magical ability to turn PET plastic bottles into doves.

Japanservation: jingle jingle jingle

The Japanese economy is almost entirely cash-based, and until coming here I had almost forgot how much I hated change.

I believe there are a few factors contributing to the number of jingling coins in my pocket:

1- Very few places accept any form of non-cash payment (credit/debit/phone/etc). Generally only high end restaurants and hotels take Visa. Even meals over $100 still sometimes only take cash. Don’t even bother bringing a credit card (but do bring a debit card for getting cash from ATMs).

2- There’s no tipping in Japan. Prices are adjusted with ‘service charges’ that take care of it, but it means that the normal ‘keep the change’ behavior that prevents the accumulation of coins in the US doesn’t work here. Often times prices in the US are designed to leave you with very small amounts of extra change that can be thoughtlessly handed over for tip, but in Japan it’s not uncommon to end up with a charge of 110Y that results in 90Y of stupid, jingly coins.

3- Vending machines are ubiquitous, and their price increments often require the use and disbursement of 10Y coins (about 10c).

Somehow, despite all of this, no Japanese person - man or woman - ever sounds as if they are carrying change. It’s assured that they are, as it’s impossible to spend more than an hour out of the house and not end up with some. Meanwhile, giant gaijin is rattling like a toddler with a toy down the streets of Tokyo. Sigh.

Current working theory: the Japanese have developed and kept secret negative-space matter-compression wallets with infinite coin carrying capacity and no noise leakage.

Japanservation: automatic doors hate me

At the time of writing, the worst physical encounter I’ve had in Japan (with an inanimate object) was with one of the first automatic doors I went through. Me, 6’1”, with a giant and full travel backpack strapped to my back attempting to step up into a restaurant while simultaneously having to bend down to avoid hitting my head on the lowered ceiling; I failed in almost every possible way.

Not unlike in the US, most modern doors in Japan for shops, restaurants, stations, etc are automatic. The behavior of the doors is very different, though, and much to the amusement of bystanders I’ve clipped myself on the door while it was opening quite a few times.

There are two types in common use: the manual automatic door and the normal motion-sensing automatic door.

The manual automatic doors were a little unexpected - you press a button on the handle to have them slide open Star Trek style. They feel like the modern incarnation of the traditional Japanese sliding door, and they certainly save space vs. a western-style swinging door. I’m actually surprised these kinds of doors haven’t caught on in the west.

The normal motion-sensing doors, though, are evil. In the US, with it’s large (and often unused) exterior sidewalks, the sensors on the doors are tuned such that you can be walking at a fast-pace towards the door and it’ll be wide open by the time you reach it. Not so in Japan, as I’ve been subconsciously training myself with negative reenforcement.

Due to the confined spaces and frequent foot traffic the sensors require you to come within a few inches of the door and wait a second before it opens to prevent the otherwise constant false-positive open-closes that would occur. Being trained for 27 years on how to approach automatic doors, it’s been an interesting transition with many hit shoulders. I’m finally getting the hang of it. Hooray me.

Current working theory: the slow-to-open automatic doors are intentional forced moments of awareness for otherwise heads-down-on-phone/book daily commuters. 

Japanservations: various notes about my trip to Japan

What follows are observations on Japan from my first time travelling abroad. Japan is awesome. Here’s some stuff I noticed.