What's some amazing technology they have in Japan that's very normal to them but would blow our minds here in the US and western world?
What's some amazing technology they have in Japan that's very normal to them but would blow our minds here in the US and western world?
High-speed rail
don't tell America. pretend it's multiple automobiles welded together and they'll like it
Just tell them they run on coal.
pretend it’s multiple pickup trucks welded together
Fixed for 'murican tastes
Duh, we have high-speed rail in Morocco. It's called Al Boraq and is the best way to blast from Casablanca to Tangier.
And it is not overpriced like in France, where the tgv is more expensive than a taxi to the airport, your plane ticket, and then another taxi.
I thought I was the only Moroccan on Lemmy.
I also live in an area that doesn't get served by the Al Boraq. We don't have trains in general over here and I am jealous.
I also learned about the Al Boraq's existence the hard way, because in the summer of 2022, my family had to drive me from Casablanca to Tangier and back by car, which took us like 3 hours on one trip.
Tgv is awesome but I do agree that it is quite expensive
Don't quote me on the exact time but I heard somewhere that they run so close to schedule that a bullet train arrived something like 18 seconds late and the company apologized for the delay. ( might have been a minute or two but I recall it was really, really short. )
Confirm. That's Japan. The driver is in trouble when it's a minute or more
We're doing fine with that in Switzerland thanks.
Switzerland doesn’t really have a high speed rail network. In fact they design against it. Indeed the country is very small so it’s not a huge deal but then again there are flights between Geneva and Zürich so it’s large enough for that.
Their rail system is by far the best in Europe though and one of the best in the world only surpassed by the likes of Japan. They just aren’t really know for high speed rail.
Also, the EU just launched a new plan for railroads all across Europe! Ofc Switzerland won't get any additional upgrades, but they are still somewhat connected because of the proximity.
I'd kill for a fast track to New Orleans, Atlanta, Little Rock, Tulsa, Nashville, all that. Ply me with cheap beer, let me chill and ride. What a dream.
Private sleeping room. I'd never fly inside the US again.
Kansas city... what I'd kill for a fast track to Chicago, St Louis, Denver and the like...
I mean fuck, at least we have Amtrak to Chicago and one to St Louis... however only runs once a day, takes as long as driving as long as the priority that goes to freight trains doesn't delay too much.
smug TGV noises
Would love to be able to take a sleeper train to the border with Canada, then have one of my friends from Toronto pick me up so I can visit them.
On the flipside, something most developed countries consider normal but would blow Japanese minds is the ability to do all "paperwork" on your phone or laptop without any paper ever being printed anywhere. Japan is somehow still a country of fax.
I heard Japan described as being "stuck in the year 2000 since the 1980's". I think South Korea fits the original question better than Japan nowadays.
I was there in the last few years and couldn’t believe how much of the country was still cash only!
And when it isn't cash only it's a completely random grab bag between credit cards, transit cards, QR codes, app payment and e money. Just hope you have the supported option of like 20 options.
They’ve made a stunning amount of progress in accepting credit cards in the past couple years though. I’m there pretty regularly and the shift has been wild. By spring 2023 I didn’t really need cash anymore. By fall, I used cash maybe twice.
There was one thing I was sure I’d need cash for— nope, the hotel paid them and added it to my tab. Back in the day, that mostly happened only if you skipped out on a reservation and the restaurant wanted to collect the cancellation fee. Which has never happened to me so I guess I’m not sure it worked exactly like that.
I know a lot of people here hate credit cards and only use cash, but it’s honestly a pretty large hassle to get cash in every country you visit. Using the same card everywhere is way more convenient and cheaper (exchange fee + no % back like with a credit card)
Isn't this because of those special stamps they use in Japan to notorize documents? I heard about them on a podcast: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/hanko/
Love that show.
I've heard it's just more of a burocracy thing. A friend there once told me he always puts the date wrong on the top of documents because there is a person who's job is to double check your work. They're judged on how often they find mistakes, so it's easier to put something blatantly wrong at the top that easily fixed so they can quickly find it and he can move on.
We are getting more and more stuff, but they often have a really shit UX. We can do some stuff on PC since the "My Number" card system, but that also requires installing all kinds of software, only works in certain browsers, etc.
sweats in german
sorry this is gross:
i do not understand american's aversion to the bidet. why would i want to wipe my ass with dry fucking paper rather than water? why why why. like it's somehow 'gross' to use water. but scraping at wet shit with fucking tissue paper is hygienic and normal?
American with bidet for 2.5 yrs. I hate shitting anywhere else now. Need a shower to get a new ass. Day is ruined.
Same.
My ass is squeaky clean at home.
Somebody once said it to me like this: "If you faceplant into a pile of shit, would you rather wipe your face with a dry paper, or use water for cleaning"
This is also gross. There's a lot of men in the US that thinks touching there ass is gay so they never clean them.
I don't understand this either, toilets already require running water and have plenty of room to integrate bidet function. It's not fancy tech or anything... in North America that's sort of how they're marketed though, with an emphasis on the settings, like its something you have to learn to use.
Pretty much every thread we have in this community, someone comes along to say "you should pressure-wash your asshole". I'm mildly bemused that this is what Lemmy obsesses over.
It's not just Lemmy, the sentiment is on Reddit and such as well.
I've always heard it explained like this (which I wholeheartedly agree with). Imagine you're hiking a trail in the forest, and you trip on a rock and fall. By chance, you land on turd of excrement, luckily it only smears part of your arm and elbow with shit. Would you be fine just taking a piece of toilet paper and scraping it off? Or, would you feel compelled to wash it off with water, perhaps also soap?
Why wouldn't you just use paper, if you scrape hard enough it wouldn't even smell and be just as clean, arguably?
If you would at least use water, why do you extend to your elbow a courtesy that you don't extend to your anus?
The point is that there's a lot of people who walk through life with a dirty asshole, but then try to act morally superior regarding personal hygiene, and I think that that's not right.
I was in Asia and got pretty horrible food poisoning. My wife suggested we head over to this Japanese mall. Spent the day there. Use the toilet, walk around, buy something, use the toilet. That was the ideal toilet to have in that situation.
I live in Japan. My wife and I recently went to visit my family in the US and I hated every minute of the toilet situation.
I own a BioBidet 2000. My friend Brian has one at his house and he convinced me to just try it. I did. And then I ordered one for myself before I left the bathroom.
Fear of the Koch bros?!
Completely agree. I was raised with bidets/ water cleaning. TP That's just a dry off or catch those last few drops
They've become increasingly common in recent years. I don't think there's as much of an aversion as you appear to imagine.
Cultures who use bidets and not the bum gun will always confuse me. Ones a robot strapped to the toilet that does a medicore job at one thing, then other is a cheap water gun you can use for all sorts of shit (pun intended).
I used them while visiting Europe. They made my ass incredibly itchy. I'm good with the paper and washing my hands.
Uhhm, I'm not a doctor and this is not medical advice, but. You should talk to a proctologist about hemorrhoids or other blood circulation issues. Anuses are not supposed to itch when lightly sprayed with water, or ever for that matter, and that sensation might be a sign of tissue inflammation. Don't ask me how I know this.
It's like having a second toilet seat. Takes more room.
Not from the US and live in a condo, so I'm speaking from a purely practical standpoint. My condo is not that big and having a bidet would mean that I have no place to put my washer and dryer at.
You'll enjoy this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=crDMkN8TZ8k
Water coming from the nastiest thing in the building in contact with the part of my skin that's got a low barrier to things passing through it? Get fucked.
Excellent public transportation
WITCHCRAFT
Is is a joke I'm too European to understand?
As I understood, lots of Japan is rural, and travel between places outside of the main cities and tourist spots is limited. It'd be like saying the US has good public transport because of the NY subway...
I got out to the middle of fucking nowhere on a mountain by taking the Shinkansen, then a local small train, then a bus, and finally a taxi because I didn't want to wait 20m for a shuttle bus
Compared to California (home, comparable size and layout tbh) it's way easier to get to remote places period thanks to the public transit system
Quite literally to do the same trip I did in Japan in CA I'd have Maybe a slow ass Amtrak line to get me close-ish in twice the time of the Shinkansen and still have an hours drive of my own rented car to get there
I’ve traveled from tiny towns in northern Japan to major cities like Tokyo. All on public transportation. Bullet trains, local trains, they’re very well connected to each other.
We have trains out to hubs in the countrysides here as well. Generally, they only run hourly the in a lot of the countryside.
Japan's current fiber-optic commercial internet connections use optical fiber transmission windows known as L and C multi-core fiber (MCF) bands to transport data long distances at record speeds. Meanwhile we (USA) have fiber back to copper and Cat3 for the last few hundred feet in most cities at best making the entire idea into a bottle neck.
There are a lot of very good reasons to switch back to copper for the last portion of a run. I highly doubt that consumer internet in Japan is terminating fiber directly into peoples' computers. Fiber is a lot more expensive both for the line, to run it, more prone to breakage, the network cards are more expensive, etc. It's really not needed for most purposes.
Also no one uses cat3 for data and it can't be run for 'hundreds of feet'. And LC fiber IS used in the US - that's a kind of connector not the kind of fiber.
I highly doubt that consumer internet in Japan is terminating fiber directly into peoples' computers.
You run fiber to the home and gigabit ethernet or whatever internally in the premises. All your other complaints re: cost and etc aren't really an issue for last mile consumer grade fiber.
I have seen installers run a fiber drop cable across from a power pole, bring it down an outside wall , then staple it to joists under a house, cleave off the end and stick a mechanical splice on it, bang it in the power meter, all good, plug it in the fiber modem, good to go in less than 20 minutes. All this stuff uses standard components and technology that's been available for 10+ years now.
Also no one uses cat3 for data and it can't be run for 'hundreds of feet'. And LC fiber IS used in the US - that's a kind of connector not the kind of fiber
It's probably the standard "last mile" half assed solution where they decide to use existing phone lines and VDSL from a box down the street instead of biting the bullet and running fiber.
And you would be wrong.
Sweden is also quite well connected with fiber.
Yes, but nowhere compared to the Netherlands and Denmark
Ofc the size of the countries makes it easier.
Cat3? As in most cities in the US are limited to 10mbps?
No, the average internet download speed in the United State is about 171 Mbps. Though disclaimer, I'm not sure of the exact reliability of that number, different sources are reporting quite a range of speeds, though I don't see any under 100 Mbps average and I see many reporting well above this. You'd also have to consider median vs average since people with fiber sitting at gigabit speeds may be dragging that number up, median may be lower.
https://www.highspeedinternet.com/resources/fastest-slowest-internet
There are certainly some areas, especially rural, that struggle though. And upload speed is often much worse unless you have fiber. Major cities are definitely getting much better than 10 Mbps down though.
They have a device which progressively shines a light on a piece of paper while moving across the page and converts the brightness of the reflected light into an audio signal. Once it reaches the edge the paper is incremented and the process repeats. Each of these segments of sound are sent via a standard telephone connection to a similar device on the other end which uses the sounds to reproduce the image on the original paper on a new sheet of paper. This can be used to send forms, letters, black and white pictures, and even chain letters. It also forms the basic underpinning of a significant fraction of formal communications with landlords, employers, medical systems, government offices, and so on.
"McFly! Read my fax!"
YOU'RE
FIRED!!!
So simply put, it is a facsimile machine?
Bro you actually got me so hard until I read the comment below. I was blown away.
Takkyubin.
If you have a large suitcase or other parcel it may be unwieldy to walk around Tokyo or another city with it. Subways only allow one suitcase of a certain size, so you might have to take a much more expensive taxi.
Instead you can go to a desk at the airport and have your luggage delivered same day or next day to ~any hotel, subway station, or convenience store. It will be insured and kept safe for you there to pick up. And at the end of your trip, you can send it back. The price for this convenience? Around $10.
This is not only a good demonstration of Japanese trust and customer service, it's also a legitimately hard logistics problem. I daresay that such a business could not succeed in the US both because of our defensiveness and sprawling cities.
Well, airports already manage to lose up to 0.9% of bags, it would certainly be difficult to convince the average American to trust this service.
There's definitely a huge difference in service work ethic in Japan, which probably leads to those reliability stats. I don't even know if I consider it a good or bad thing, because it's super-nice when you're relying on them there, but I can also tell that waiting on people hand and foot wears on people's mental health, and it often shows across that country.
Wow that is fantastic. I'm surprised no one "imported" that one to the states in "make everything a start-up!" days early-mid 2010s.
As a tip, it's not quite as convenient but most hotels will let you check a bag with them, even if you're not a guest. I've done that at different conferences (usually 1st day and/or last day) when I had a day left, didn't want to haul my bag, but couldn't go to from my hotel. I think I got turned down once and it was simply because they were full.
Good livestock conditions so that food is actually edible raw
There are places in Japan that actually serve chicken sashimi.
I've tried it, and I ate the whole plate, but I wouldn't do it again.
Raw chicken tastes like it smells, and it's just inferior to every other sashimi - not outright repulsive, but just not as good.
I honestly don't understand how those specialty chicken sashimi places stay in business. I guess there must be an audience for it, but I can't imagine why.
It's completely normal for stores to keep cooked, deli style chicken on non-refrigerated shelves all day. I don't trust it.
Automatic opening doors but they don't open by a proximity sensor, they open when you press the button. This is the optimal solution as the door doesn't open needlessly but still allows for ease of access.
Ordering machines, where all your menu options are clearly listed and priced. Pressing on a combo of buttons will print a receipt which you can sit down and show the staff/cook your order.
Water (hot and cold) tapped straight to your dining table for self serve drinks.
Unfortunately becoming less applicable with the smartphone domination finally reaching Japan, but their flip phone technology.
taco bell in particular is embracing the kiosks and it's wonderful. they have signs in the lobby saying 'order at the kiosk' even. and why wouldn't you? why do people in the US have this pig-like stubbornness where they must have a human stand there and 'PeRsONaLIze tHE iNtERacTion' or some shit
Every US McDonald's I've been to for the last...5+ years has had the kiosk system.
There was an article published last year, maybe the year before, where they tested the touch screen kiosks in McDonald's. Every single one of them has traces of faeces on it.
Even if that wasn't true, it takes me significantly less time to tell someone my order than to scroll through however many sub menus the restaurant has decided to put their food into, and then select the options for each item and add it to my basket, then check out.
Because I don't want to be bombarded with ads and "did you consider this offer" shit and take 5 minutes to use some usability nightmare? Because I do not want to touch a greasy screen that 362 people used today without washing their hands after taking a shit? Because I do not support corpo greed that will not rest until every employee has been fired?
"BUt I LiKe tOucHy fLaSHy SCreeNy!!"
What are you, morons?
If you have to push a button, does it really count as an automatic door?
Since I don't speak Japanese, it was definitely a much preferred setup that made things very simple for me when I visited.
Water (hot and cold) tapped straight to your dining table for self serve drinks.
This in particular sounds awesome, speaking as a heavy water drinker who always feels like a bit of a heel having to pester busy wait staff to come over and refill my water glass a bunch of times.
I love places where you can just get it yourself. Rare here in North America, but all over the place in Korea
I often see buildings in Japan that have a manual sliding door followed by either a push button or proximity automatic door. If I am going to have to open one door myself, I might as well open both. If one is automatic, the other might as well be too.
Automatic opening doors but they don’t open by a proximity sensor, they open when you press the button. This is the optimal solution as the door doesn’t open needlessly but still allows for ease of access.
Ordering machines, where all your menu options are clearly listed and priced. Pressing on a combo of buttons will print a receipt which you can sit down and show the staff/cook your order
I see those all the time over here in my European country.
The hot and cold water thing is not common at all. A few sushi places and bars have it. But it's quite rare tbh.
Automatic opening doors but they don’t open by a proximity sensor, they open when you press the button.
I think it would be cool to have a hybrid system where you can wave/nod/bow to a sensor to activate it, but also implement an open standard frequency that can trigger it so people with reduced mobility can mount a transmitter on a wheelchair/cane etc. or just use their cellphone. Would eliminate having any external equipment that would be exposed to weather or vandalism and is one less common surface for the public to have to touch.
The need to push a button everyone else pushed, is how you get covid :p
I work in a pharma research facility, so people can have literally any disease or chemical on their hands, so we have a lot of doors with hand wave sensors.
Just wag your mitts in front of it, and the door opens. They're on the wall a few steps before the door, so the door is usually open by the time you get to it.
A mindset of quality.
CNC Machines that are built in Japan are so much Mount Betterest than their 'Made in America' counterparts. Even under the same company name.
Visit any shop that requires quality around the world and you'll see Japanese made machines almost everywhere.
I remember touring a Harley Davidson factory in Milwaukee and noticing that, while the tour guide continued to repeat the "made in America" mantra, all the machine tools were either Japanese or German.
A place I worked had a noodle machine made in Japan. The manufacturer had us send noodles to them from our shop in the US to ensure the machine was working properly and that our noodles were good, I had never heard of any other sort of company doing that. Where I work now has top quality machinery and they are mostly made in Japan.
I work for an OEM and we will request photos after installation and samples of raw material before sale for anything unusual, so I got to say that is more impressive
Thanks to Demming...
Wow, that's fascinating! What do you think would be the best thing to read from Deming from an lay engineering or lay civic perspective? What's most accessible, I guess?
Refrigerators that make way less noise than the ones we have here. Japanese more often live in small apartments so noise is a bigger nuisance. But, those refrigerators are ridiuclously expensive by our standards. I had been interested in buying one, oh well.
Japanese more often live in small apartments
Cries in NYC
Another big difference is the apartments are actually very affordable. Two minimum wage earners could afford a
32 bedroom apartment in 6 of the 23 wards in Tokyo.EDIT: 2 bedroom, not 3.
There are tons of silent and near-silent refrigerators in the US
Got a url? Not the very inefficient ammonia type, or the Peltier type that won't freeze stuff. Thanks.
Doesn't anyone check the dB an appliance makes? It's one of the first things I check, as I hate loud devices.
Those crazy toilets
New band name
Can't believe noone has mentioned the hot beverage vending machines.
Its so fucking nice to spend $1-$1.50 and just get some hot tea or coffee right there without issue. And they're everywhere so you can pretty much rely on them.
So much more convenient than having to go to a coffee shop so you can pay $5 for the same thing, and the vending machine version still tastes great.
This comment made me remember that the tech school in my (US) hometown of ~4000 people had a machine like this roughly 20 years ago and I've never seen another one since.
My college had a french fry vending machine. That was pretty awesome.
They also have much more popularized versions of canned coffee than us; I occasionally see bad overpriced Starbucks coffee bottles in grocery store checkouts, but not something small, quick, and convenient like BOSS.
I had one at my old workplace and it certainly served me better coffee than the mud I could get from the mcdonalds across the road.
It's likely not as cool as Japanese vending coffee, but in the UK there are Starbucks/Costa etc vending machines all over. Do Americans (sorry assuming you are from US) not have those?
But are those like a hot coffee dispenser, where you grab a cup and put it under a spout, push a button and it pours out a hot drink? Because we do have those in Australia.
But in Japan they have vending machines for canned drinks and cans of soup that are heated.
Australia here, nothing similar here.
But this is like basically every street has a set of these vending machines. They're everywhere.
No, not that I've seen except for at highway rest stops. They have automated coffee vending machines that sells some brown nasty tasting water. Definitely not coffee
Can you get sugar or cream or do you have to drink the coffee black?
You have a variety of options usually. Different brands, and then ones that have no milk, ones that are milky etc.
You also usually have the choice of having things cold or hot as well.
I used to see these more often in Canada but now they're pretty unusual. Not heated cans like some Japanese machines, just cups of coffee and sometimes lattes and shit.
Now you're forced to pay $3+ for muddy garbage at Tim's/McDonalds and you have to wait in line to get it too. Alternatively drop $7+ at Starbucks for ok coffee? I can make better tasting coffee with a drip machine, let alone my French press.
I've seen these around in the US, but they seem to be getting rarer for some reason.
I'd steal from them
Automated underground bike storage
It'd be cool if they had those here but I swear we have enough idiots that would try to get in for shits and giggles and maim themselves
Make it self cleaning. Problem will solve itself after a while
That’s the premise behind /r/ArchitectureForAdults: architecture that’s dangerous for morons, but safe for everyone else
We got a few of bike towers on the ground in Czechia. Very neat.
Why does this remind me of Death Stranding?
Their ability to actually build things. The amount of construction projects I saw while visiting was insane, and they get it done fast.
Fast my ass. Once they finally start maybe... But it takes ages to lay the first stone. There's not enough people available to build everything they want to build. It's a serious issue
Ok, well maybe they have a long pipeline of projects ready to be built, but they are getting things built. I went with a friend who was there like 5 years prior and he said everything looked totally different since the last time he was there. I don't know about the planning process but even if that's slow that's still way better than most places where it also takes ages to get something started, takes ages to get something built, and they don't have enough projects going through the planning process in the first place.
The bidets, of course. Ultra fast responsive vending machines for commuters on the go.
I came into this thread expecting to see toilets all the way down.
That's just the lid...usually the toilets are about knee high.
But I would never NOT have a bidet in my house ever again. And yes, I'm in the U.S.
Useable transit
Would definitely blow minds in the US, but most of the rest of the western world is pretty much up to par.
I would kill for their bidets everywhere.
Next time out down the katana and just learn some Japanese. You can say:
Toire o tsukatte mo ii desu ka?
And they will just let you use the bidet
I'm in Portugal and bidets are standard in all home toilets around here.
And it's not just here: the word itself - "bidet"- is actually French.
That said, they're invariably plain and no-frills around here.
We have plenty of bidets here in the States, they just install them outside the bathrooms and they mount them kind of high so they're kinda awkward to get a good clean angle, though.
It’s just a small thing. The escalators don’t run continuously. They start running as you approach them.
We have those in Europe as well, not Hyper commin, but still
We even have those in Brazil. Not everywhere, I reckon most are older than those but I’ve seen them in some malls and airports at least.
We have escalators that don't stop in Europe? I didn't even know those existed.
I've seen some in the US that run slowly until you get close. I guess they think that if it was stopped completely, people would assume it's non-operational.
They can put a sign saying it'll run when there's a person. Eventually it'll be common knowledge. I'm just thinking re efficiency.
Japan currently doesn't have this in the more normal sense. That Japan is still super high-tech is more of a PR move. I literally had to send a fax to get my current internet (though it is fiber-to-the-home).
Where Japan is innovating is in robots and also its crossovers with an aging population. Possibly also some space stuff.
But for an everyday person, I don't really see anything that doesn't already exist somewhere else. I was raised in the US and have been living in Japan most of the last 10 years.
Japan's been living in the year 2000 since 1980
but they're still in the year 2000...
Yeah, that era has ended in the early 2000s
One that I haven't seen mentioned ever was neat flashlights in every hotel room I stayed in. They were all mounted to the wall, and had no power switch. The wall mount had a tab sticking out that separated the batteries, so when you went to use it, the batteries touch and make the circuit. They were always low power, so that you didn't disturb others in the room, and you have to keep it in its location to turn it back off. They worked well for going to the bathroom at night and not messing up night vision too. I tried finding one in the US, to no avail, but they're all over in Japanese 100 yen stores. A clever, cheap design.
Forgive me if I'm not understanding this correctly, but that just sounds like a fancy nightlight?
Edit: I understand now :)It's just a slightly different design on a standard flashlight. I was able to find this, seems to be a manufacturer of them. Hotel torch they do seem to be mostly for emergencies, but would work well enough to be a night light
A nightlight is a fixture on the wall. This is a flashlight you can take into your hand and carry with you.
Isn't that there to use if an earthquake knocks the power out?
Similar in that it's mounted, different in that it has no buttons/switches and wouldn't be on, or even able to be on when mounted. Those look pretty cool though.
From what I see joked about in tv and film: toilets.
From what I know from people who have actually been there personally: Vending machines.
Also they have the most advanced KitKat flavors in the world. I want them. But they're like specialities of specific regions kinda like Pokemon. It's wild.
Found at 7-11, combo ketchup/mustard blister pack that when you simply bend and squeeze together, ketchup and mustard come out evenly for your corn-dog and no mess for your fingers.
Bathroom mirrors that don't steam up after taking a shower.
Vending machines that are competent at accepting cash. Everywhere else that I've been to, you have to smoothen the bill and make sure it has no wrinkles or bended corners, and even then the machine would sometimes give you a hard time. In Japan, you just insert a stack (!) of bills, and the machine will count them within seconds, and also give you change in bills, and not a gazillion of coins.
Gates at the train stations are also better than everywhere else. You don't have to wait for the person in front of you to pass the gate, you just insert your ticket and go. You also don't need to look for arrows or notches or whatever on the ticket to insert it correctly.
Electric kettles that are very quiet and keep the water hot for a very long time.
Trains where all seats face the front, so you don't have to sit against the direction of travel.
Trains where all seats face the front, so you have to sit against the direction of travel.
I recently took a ride on a historic restored railroad where they run sightseeing tours on period accurate trains with period engines and coaches from the turn of the century. The trip was an out-and-back, and there is nowhere for the train to turn around before the return journey. Everyone was immensely surprised, then, when the conductor came down the aisle and demonstrated to everyone that the seats in those old coaches are reversible, and you can flip the backrest to the other side so you're facing the right way regardless of which way the train is going. They're otherwise 100% symmetrical.
Apparently this arcane technology of the reversible seat has been lost somewhere in the intervening 100 years, never to be discovered again. (In America, anyhow.)
That reminds me. All of the change machines I had the pleasure of using were very gentle when taking your money. Felt kinda jarring coming back to the US where they fucking jank the money our of your hand the second you insert it.
Good food in convenience stores.
That technology just hasn't made it to the US yet.
Do gas stations count? Because Kwik Star and Kwik Trip in the Midwest offer excellent food options.
Casey's breakfast pizza is another. There is zero reason for a gas station to have good breakfast pizza at a reasonable price. But they do.
Their regular pizza is also decent for the price.
not like made to order food like in 711 prepackaged -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVG-3Yug4XA&themeRefresh=1
High quality tentacle porn.
Wait a second, you're telling me tentacle porn isn't drawn at 360p?
Bidets. General cleanliness everywhere, kinda like what we had when everyone was cleaning like crazy during the pandemic, but even more so.
Probably helps that kids are instilled with a sense of cleanliness at a very young age. Kids help cook school lunches on a rotating schedule, and everyone helps clean up afterwards. Litter is also a big social taboo (which is funny because public trash cans are basically nonexistent. You’re expected to carry your trash with you until you get home.)
The cleanliness of Tokyo is mind blowing.
Saw a video from Denmark I think where everyone is biking everywhere and the metro station has an enormous numbered rack for depositing bicycles for storage. The entire thing is spotless, well maintained, and has zero graffiti.
All I could think is that in the US the fabric of our society and the integrity of the social contract is so degraded that even if we somehow had the political capital to build it - it would be destroyed by individual anti-social behaviors. And we'd certainly never have the wherewithal to maintain or repair it.
I believe the bidet is actually French. I assume that counts as the "Western world."
Not overly high tech but such a good fit for the culture and extremely convenient:
Self-filling, self-warming baths
Put the plug in during the day, press the button to fill the bath at the remote keypad in the kitchen. Baths fills and a little jingle announces that the bath is ready at the perfect temperature.
I'm so jealous of those deep soaking tubs they have too. SO jealous
Yeah, I've got a self filling one. Nice to run a bath without even getting out of bed. Although if you forget to put the plug in first, you'll arrive to an empty bath.
haha why would they make the solenoid for the water running but not for the drain? that's weak
Medicare for all
Not Japan specifically, but I've got say I'm jealous as hell about the snack scene in east Asia.
I generally don't have a sweet tooth, and things like potato chips don't have that umami I like. I try to keep snacks around because I forget to eat, but nothing appeals to me. But man... all those pre-packaged tofu squares, various bits of marinated meat... that's my deal. There's one solid "Asian Mart" near me, I'll stock up a few months worth at a time.
Closest you get in the US is basically jerky/slim jims, which are great but expensive and kind of one note for flavor.
7-11 onigiri! The best.
90s web design?
Our Japan group's website is such a complete early 90's train wreck.
The odd time I've tried to research something in japanese it always felt like going back in time
i miss file
Kei trucks that are extremely functional and fuel efficient.
The U.S. won't ever get that because they are extremely functional and fuel efficient.
And they are not manly enough for the very manly men in 'Murica.
Hot coffee in a can that tastes great
If all you ever drank in your life is Starbucks coffee maybe
From a vending machine
If you select the wrong floor on an elevator, you can deactivate it by pressing the button again.
🤯
Plastic wrapping that's easy to open.
They have this crazy machine... Slide paper into it and then a hundred miles away a copy of that paper slides out.
I feel like sarcasm is a really strong attitude to have about fax machines.
Also used by doctors here in the Netherlands.
Vending machines with hot drinks like tea and coffee, that also sell cold stuff.
And beer.
Their vending machines are great and reasonably priced. Which is what keeps me from using any here in the US.
Magical girls
And the mechas
meguca is suffering
thank you DoctorButts
You are very welcome
Fax machines
Fax machines are still everywhere in the medical field.
I work in the freight industry, their pretty common here too
Though primarily for specific industries we ship too which includes the medical field
In the USA perhaps, not in Europe.
I recently saw a post where they have slots in bathrooms that clean your phone if you insert it
cat cafes?
We have cat cafes in Utah.
We have one here in Canada and it's really nothing special
Or South Korea
It's kind of a relic of the past now since everyone uses a streaming service of some kind now but right at the end of physical media's lifespan, Japan had some key advantages over the US specifically because it was legal to rent albums and I believe individual songs, just like a Blockbuster. Eventually they had the music purchasing equivalent of Redbox in the form of kiosks as well with the advent of recordable Net-MD minidiscs, which only really ever saw success in Japan.
mcdo with their cellphone cleaners
wrt US, I guess they shoot butts and not children?
also I heard Japan recycling laws are effective compared to US counterparts.
I was in Toronto's Union Station during civid and they also had UV phone disinfection machines. It was impressive.
Eh, we separate a lot of our trash, but what actually gets recycled (and whether you consider incinerating waste to generate electricity as 'recycling') can be disappointing.
