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Curiosities of Japan

Painting in a Chinese restaurant.

Chris in front of one of the many extremely colorful stores.

This is a standard Japanese shopping basket, a cart on which you position 1 - 3 hand baskets.

Japanese tourist bling.

Typical Japanese newspaper stand.

Nationwide recycling is a must, both at home and in most public places. From left to right, trash is divided into other materials, paper, plastic, cans, and glass. No single stream recycling in any places I visited.

Robotic floor cleaners at the airport. Too bad I never saw them jump into action.

Japanese are very visual. Here is the display at the airport telling you what liquids you can and can't bring through security.

These Japanese naval vessels were easily visible from the Starbucks where we stopped for coffee.

A Japanese totem pole? It was sitting in someone's home driveway.

This moth was 3 to 4 inches long. The bees and crows were also bigger than in the US. Ask me about the bee that was trapped in my jeans ... while I was wearing them. I guess everything ISN'T bigger in Texas. *grin*

I saw my first dual-screen laptop in Akihabara, the electronics district of Tokyo. Note that the keys, like all computers I saw in Japan, have both English and Japanese characters on them.

Also in Akihabara, a mouse pad where the breasts are the gel pads where you rest your wrist. Of course, not all mouse pads look like this novelty item.

A standard dishwasher for the first time homeowner. It's the size of two microwaves stacked on top of each other. A U.S.-sized dishwasher is only for the rich people who have oodles of money and room for that kind of thing at home.

Dungeons and Dragons is alive and well in Japan. I'm very sad that they were shrink-wrapped closed so I couldn't open them. Also, they cost twice as much as the US version or I would have bought one.

Star Wars is also quite alive and well in Japan. I saw several different advertisements that used Star Wars. These humorous Star Wars bobble heads can probably be found elsewhere but I saw them first in Japan.

Japan toy shops, in general, have more figurines of fictional characters (books, movies, comics) than anywhere I've seen in the US. The level of art and craftsmanship was impressive for a number of the figurines. The links below are to some R-rated figurines I photographed in a toy shop in case you are curious. I found it interesting that items like naughty figurines and soft porn magazines/comics were not out of reach of children. I was told that children are simply taught what corners of the stores they are not allowed to view. Hmmm.

Naughty figurine 1

Naughty figurine 2

A sushi clock. Not pictured are the other many nick nacks made in the shape of sushi including magnets, earrings, and paper weights.

A dragon lighter with two flames.

A girls clothing store with an airplane inside of it.

A Japanese-style toilet. Most restrooms had bowl toilets but some places still had Japanese toilets available as an alternative choice and, when mixed, there were always more bowl toilets than Japanese toilets. Only a couple of places had Japanese toilets as the only choice. Water faucets were usually available for hand washing. Paper towels or automatic hand dryers were NOT always available, which is when the hand towel in my jacket pocket came in handy. Mimi never had an issue with hand drying but I encountered several bathrooms with no way to dry your hands.

People | Food | Curiosities | Natural attractions | Cultural attractions | Buildings | Urban features | Notes