1. Public Exercise
The Japanese have some excellent morning customs. One that has always struck me as very sensible is public exercise, which everyone from school children to seniors undertakes in parks, schools, offices, factories, and building sites.
2. Subway Station Codes
The Japanese writing system is notoriously complicated. They use two native writing systems (hiragana and katakana) alongside traditional Chinese Kanji symbols and the Latin alphabet. Reading place names is so difficult that navigating around strange cities on the subway can vex even native Japanese speakers. That's why every subway system incorporates coding to indicate both the line (signed with a Latin letter, e.g. "K") and the stop (signed with Arabic numbers, e.g. "26").
Even though our writing system is infinitely more simple, perhaps we could do with a code like this too. I'm always getting lost on the subway!
3. Sending and Receiving Post at the Local Stores
Japanese convenience stores (konbini) are ubiquitous in the cities, and they have loads of handy features lacking in almost every other type of store in the world. For example, you can pick up and send your Amazon purchases and other post from there.
4. Plastic Cups of Ice for Iced-Coffee
Two of the more popular convenience stores, Family Mart and 7-Eleven, sell espresso coffee which you can turn into iced coffee yourself. You simply go to the freezer, take out a cup of ice, pay for it, then go to the espresso machine and fill it up. That's one neat way to get a cold drink on a steaming hot day!
5. Hot Water Dispensers for Instant Noodles
Another great konbini feature is the hot water dispensers that turn your dried noodles into a hearty meal.
6. Jogging Paths by the Parks
Some people in Japan want to take a run after work. What they do is go to a park, get changed, store their clothes in lockers, and get jogging.
7. Hard-Boiled Eggs in Packages
A lot of people don't really have much time to cook, since the office hours in Japan are so demanding. That's why shops try to offer food that's already cooked, such as these hard-boiled eggs.
8. Toilet Tanks with Built-In Sinks
To help save water, and minimize the amount of space needed, one great toilet invention the Japanese have made is to fix a sink to the system. As you pull the flushing mechanism, the tap starts running and refilling the tank at the same time.
9. Ordering Restaurant Food with Vending Machines
There are also quite a few restaurant chains now where you can make your order from a vending machine. Simply select the course you desire, pay, and your receipt and table number will be given to you. Many sushi restaurants also utilize a similar system, where each table has its own LCD touch screen for ordering, which you can use throughout your dining experience. Then the food is delivered to you on a conveyor belt.
10. An Umbrella Holder for Bicycles
On any given day in Japan, come rain or shine, most sidewalks are full of people riding their bicycles, another reason they are so healthy. But there's no lack of rain or snow in mountainous Japan. And while you might think this would put people off cycling around, instead the Japanese (particularly elderly ladies) fix umbrellas to their handlebars.
11. Public Baths
Sento public baths are commonplace in Japan too. People will often come here after a hard day at work for a nice warm soak and friendly chat with neighbors. The ticket for admission is very cheap, meaning this is the kind of luxury everyone can afford.
12. Butter Graters
Because of the heat, most Japanese people keep their butter in the refrigerator throughout the year, making spreading it on a nice piece of bread a very bothersome task. That's why some bright individual has come up with the idea of using a modified cheese grater to help distribute butter without having to spread it and ruin the bread.
13. Communal Umbrellas
If there's one thing that people can always be relied upon to forget, it's their umbrellas! Wonderfully, the Japanese place umbrella boxes at the doors of every shop and public building for people to leave and pick up umbrellas as they wish. Failing that, there are many 100 Yen shops that sell very low-priced umbrellas (about $1 each).
14. Automatic Bicycle Parking
Cities like Tokyo are so full of busy cyclists that there is nowhere on land to store them. One recent solution is an underground parking station. All you need to do is pop your bicycle onto a platform, then wait as the doors open and ferry it down an elevator to an open storage point. When you want to take your bicycle back, you simply flash your keycard at the sensor and wait for it to be returned. What genius!
15. Cool-Spray
This Japanese spray and gel causes a satisfying and relieving cooling effect on your body, which is a real God-send when the infamous Asian humidity gets too much for you. The coolness lasts for several hours.
16. Dispen Pack for Dispensing Sauces
Sauce companies in the West are still struggling to come up with decent packaging, while the Japanese have been using their dispen (dispensing) packs for years already. Simply fold the package down the middle and gently squeeze the contents out. We need this!
