First Impressions

Last two weeks I've been on a roundtrip around Japan. Of course a tourist trip is good enough to start to learn a country. So I mainly gathered some impressions about Japan.

Cellphones are useless in Japan

As soon as I landed on the island I was looking for a SIM-card to insert in my phone. The system with SIM-cards is used almost all over the world, except in Japan of course. As the information counter at the airport didn't understand my question I just moved on and hoped to buy a SIM-card in a shop in the city of Osaka. No use I didn't find it. Only after observing the Japanese cell phone shops and getting some Japanese explanation did I understand the truth.

In Japan you get a contract with your telephone provider and you get a number and a cell phone. So you basically get a free phone. If you want a more fancy one you can pay for it. It is even possible to get a special contract with the telephone company so that you change phone every 2 0r 3 months, so you always get a brand new one.

The Japanese phones don't use a SIM-card and you can not insert one in them. So Japanese phones are useless in a foreign country.

This whole strange thing is a regulation imposed by the Japanese authority to protect the economy. People will by Japanese phones with a Japanese provider. Even the Japanese phones all look the same, there isn't a lot of diversity.

So what can you do as a foreigner? Well you can rent a phone at the airport or sign a contract (if you are a resident) with a telephone company.

Japanese are not interested in foreigners

Upon arrival in Japan and during the 2 weeks spend over there I felt like an alien. Not because everyone was looking at me, no just because no one was looking. As I spend some time in Thailand or China I am quite used to the fact that people will stare at me or want to practice some English.

But in Japan nobody even glanced and I was never talk to in a spontaneous way. So that felt q bit awkward.

I'm still trying to figure out if it is because Japanese people are shy and don't dare to look or because they feel superior and don't feel the need to look.

Japanese are obsessed by sex

In every hotel we went you could always go buy a card to access the pay channels. And upon looking at the guide book, they have a lot of sex channels.

When walking in Tokyo we saw businessmen handing their cards to women on the streets. We asked our guide what was happening and he answered that those men are 'host'. So they are the male call service. There must be about 500.000 men in Tokyo who offer that service.

Later on the streets (around 10.30), we encountered young ladies in wedding dresses. We thought that they just came from a party but no according to our guide they are the female 'hosts' and these were the expensive ones. The ladies in the wedding dresses earn a good business, they can ask up to 300.00 yen (2000 euro!!!) a night.

Japan is expensive

For a holiday destination Japan is an expensive choice. Almost every product can be purchased from a vending machine so prices are controlled. A can of coke will always be the same price, which is 120 yen (almost 1 euro), which is a reasonable price, but for a small bottle of water you will also pay 120 yen. And clothes, especially in Tokyo are bloody expensive. So are hotel rooms by the way.