Travel notes from Kyoto

When we got to Kyoto, I started a list with all the things that I noticed or that stand out to me. It was my first time in Kyoto, and my first time in Japan in general. 

We spent 11 days here, staying in a traditional Machiya Airbnb (traditional Japanese townhouse) close to Nijō Castle, with our very kind host Rihito, whom we never met in-person, but who was very accommodating nonetheless, one time delivering stain remover for our laundry late in the evening directly to our doorstep, but not daring to ring the doorbell, as not to disrupt our evening peace, which we later realized was a very Japanese experience.

I didn’t know until going to Kyoto that it was the Japanese imperial capital for over a thousand years from 794 to 1868, which is when the capital was moved to Tokyo.

My list:

- Yes, the toilets are awesome. Heated toilet seat, in-built bidet with many settings, even sound/music that you can play at the press of a button, as to cover up any other sounds you might be producing while using the bathroom

- You don’t tip. From what I read/heard, tips are not only not expected, but frowned upon. For taxi drivers, staff in restaurants, etc, the expectation is that they are paid properly, and good service is considered standard, not something extra you need to pay on-top-of. The quality of the service is tied to someone’s reputation and professional pride, not tipping is the respectful behaviour. If someone really went above and beyond, you can do a deeper nod/bow or try a small gift, like a snack

- People bow to express their gratitude. The deeper the bow, the more gratitude or respect they’re communicating

- I’ve not seen this at every place, but a few restaurants, where for every single guest, when they leave, a waiter from the staff with accompany them outside, and as they leave / walk off, the staff will do a deep bow to the hip as a sign of deep gratitude

- The Japanese know how to drink beer. It often comes in thick glasses that have been refrigerated, so the beer comes ice cold and stays cold for a long time, even though you don’t need it to because it’s just great beer.

- There are no public trash bins. Literally. If you, say, get a to-go coffee, there will be no place for you to get rid of the to-go cup anywhere in public (unless you go into a grocery store and use their trash, which is explicitly only for trash produced from things you bought at that grocery store). So every single person walks around with at least 1 plastic bag in their purse or backpack that functions as their personal trash bag throughout the day, that they then dispose of when they get home. Some carry multiple trash bags in their bag to separate trash. 

- It’s super clean anywhere. Japan is a very polite, homogenous population, and you’ll not find any trash lying around basically anywhere

- Did not see a single homeless person

- Hygiene is a big thing, lots of people wear face masks, some even outside while riding a bike etc.

- Bus drivers are wired up with microphones. Anytime someone gets on or off the bus, they say “hello” or “thank you” to passengers through the speakers

- Things are compact but well thought out. Most homes in Kyoto are tiny, so the Japanese are very good at making very good use of very little space. Lots of neat tricks around storage and hiding things

- They try to make things pretty. We eg. had a tiny-tiny backyard in our Airbnb, literally a 1m by 1m space, not useful for anything, can’t use it at all, yet they still tried to make it pretty

- It’s quiet. Weirdly quiet for the fact that Kyoto is a big, major city. Even playgrounds with a bunch of 2 and 3-year old toddler playing are quiet, not sure how they do it. It’s a cultural thing. One of the biggest struggles we had was trying to get Maya adjusted to a new, lower acoustic level

- You get a warm towel to wipe your face anytime you sit down at a restaurant

- A lot of people don't speak English, way fewer than in India or Bali, even in typical tourism jobs like taxi drivers and waiters

- Clothes, buildings, lots of things are in subdued colors, lots of tones of greys and beiges. Almost nothing is in bright colors, which is almost the exact opposite of India. Ironically the only bright colorful things in Japan are old, traditional things - temple gates or kimonos 

- They are incredibly good at designing slightly better versions of everyday items: toilets, coffee cups, a sticker on your trash can lid to absorb the moisture. There is a much longer list that I didn’t document unfortunately and can’t remember now top of my head

- Taxi drivers wear suits. A lot of people in general wear suits

- Can’t quite describe it, but there’s a modern-but-retro vibe I’m getting with a lot of things. Japan is futuristic in some sense, but also retro in many others. A lot of the taxis are old Toyotas. You still see phone booths with coin slots everywhere. Stuff like that

- Kinda related to this, but a surprisingly high amount of places in Kyoto are cash-only. Really surprised me

- If you accidentally give or pay a Japanese person too much money, say your taxi fare is 1,000 yen and you accidentally give them a 10,000 yen bill, they will immediately tell you. That’s a direct contrast to Bali, where the idea is, if a tourist is stupid enough to give you the wrong bill, they deserve it

- I went to the old Imperial Palace, which has been turned into a cultural site since the emperor moved to Tokyo. Honestly, it felt modest. Obviously it was big and had lots of buildings and beautiful gardens, but for an emperor, it felt modest. Which might’ve been the exact intention. The Shogun’s castle was more impressive or pompous 

- When you pay by card at a restaurant or shop, and the display comes up for you to enter your pin, the numbers on the keypad are always randomized, meaning they’re not in the regular 1, 2, 3, 4… order from top left to bottom right, but in a random order, to make it harder for someone to spy your pin while you enter it. Never seen that anywhere

- The entry / fare gates at the train stations are open by default, and only close last second if you try to walk through them without inserting your ticket, which is obviously the exact opposite to how almost any other entry / fare gates work. They’re closed by default and only open once you insert your ticket. To me symbolic of Japan’s trust and politeness-based culture

- For how convenient and thoughtfully designed almost everything in Kyoto is, it’s surprisingly difficult to buy a train ticket and figure out the train stations

- I'd say about 50% of all coffee shops I went to were playing Taylor Swift on repeat

- Most coffee shops don't offer free wifi, surprising to me

- "sorry for waiting" - Hey, I am currently in Kyoto, Japan, and I've now noticed it a few times that waiters, when they bring me my food or my drink, will say in English, sorry for waiting. And it seems to be almost uncorrelated to how long I've actually been waiting. Like they've said it also when the drink came pretty fast or it came at a normal time and I haven't been waiting for a long time. Is this like a literal translation that they're using of a Japanese equivalent? And if so, what is that Japanese equivalent that they are translating? And then also my question is, is it true that they are kind of using it every time or uncorrelated to how long you've actually been waiting and it's just kind of a nicety? Thank you.

- I noticed a few times that a waiter, when they brought me my food or drink, said, in English, “sorry for waiting”. And it seemed to be almost completely uncorrelated to how long I've actually been waiting, they said it also when the drink came pretty fast or I hadn’t been waiting for a long time. I asked ChatGPT about it, and it said that the original Japanese phrase is “Omatase shimashita” which literally translates to “I made you wait”, so “sorry for waiting” is a slightly awkward translation of it. The Japanese use this as a nicety, a polite phrase that waiters use whenever they return to your table with your order, regardless of wait time, even though it literally means “I made you wait”

- For how neat and tidy the Japanese are, the fact that all the powerlines are still above ground stands out like a sore thumb

- We've been offered many sweets for Maya, mostly from men. One time I was sitting on a bench at the playground, while Maya was playing by herself in the sandpit maybe 10 meters from me, and an older man approached me to ask if Maya was my daughter (assumingly locating me pretty quickly due to the similar European look), and once I confirmed that she is, he handed me a candy for me to give to her later. My first thought was whether it's some sedative or predator trick, but he left and the candy was fully sealed. Turned out, it was just an old man trying to be nice

- They use an inordinate amount of plastic bags here. When I go to the bakery, they wrap every single pastry or sandwich individually in a small plastic bag, and then put all those plastic bags into one big plastic bag. We ordered groceries once and every single item, including packaged items, like a jar of joghurt, came individually wrapped in its own plastic bag

- People form lines at the bus stop. And then everyone will get into the bus in the exact order in which they arrived at the bus stop, except old people are often allowed to skip to the front of the line

- Seen exactly one police car with sirens during the 11 days we were there and they announced "thank you so much" (arigatou gozaimasu) through their megaphone as they pass over a red light

- The only bad experience / interaction we had was on our last day on the train. We arrived late to the platform, 1 minute before departure, and it was a long train, so we decided to get into the train compartment that was closest, which was compartment 3, even though our tickets were for compartment 8, fully planning to walk inside of the train towards our compartment. But once we got in, we saw that this compartment was completely empty, maybe 5 out of 30 or 40 seats were taken, and because we had a ton of stuff with us, 3 big suitcases, two backpacks, multiple smaller bags, with Maya in tow (it was on last our train to the airport), we decided to just sit down in this compartment, given that we had tickets and reserved seats, and if anyone would’ve showed up who had those seats reserved, we would’ve just gotten up and relocated. It was a late train with very few stops, and we got in at the main station, so chances were low that it would still fully fill up. But once the ticket inspector came to check our tickets, and we explained our situation, she not only made us get up and walk through the entire train with all of our stuff towards our designated seats, but she was visibly angry at us. Mind you, when we finally got out at the airport, the train was still 80% empty, and our compartment 8 was the exact same as compartment 3 where we dared to sit down, so it wasn’t a difference between 1st and 2nd class or something like that. It was the one and only time I saw anger in Japan