A few things about Japan

In no particular order....

They have seats for you to put your small child in in most bathroom stalls (or your camera bag if you don't have a child).  super convenient for moms!

they sell chocolate by the name of "crunky ball nude", or crunky nude balls as we like to call them, that taste like Nestle crunch bars with more crunch!

when you order at a food court, they give you a pager to let you know when your food is ready (it's made fresh!)

I think there are more parking areas for bicycles than for cars

contrary to what I've been told, they do celebrate Christmas (just maybe not in the the religious way we do as Christians in America)

they give you these "face shields" to wear when you try on clothes so your makeup doesn't rub off on everything you try on...genius!  (sorry about the crappy photo)

they think it's O.K. to sell hot dogs (or herb dogs) at subway

it's a little scary to try new produce when you can't read the signs to know what you're purchasing! (yes, I know that is broccoli in this particular photo)

  

this is the awesome market where I buy my produce...it's called suicide market because if you don't pay attention, it's easy to get hit by a car that is driving by (after I snapped this photo, the car drove around the man standing in the street)

 

 you can buy hot soup from vending machines (sort of like Campbell's soup in a can).  notice that the tag below each soup is red, that means it's hot.  at the very top of the photo you can just barely see a couple of blue tags which indicate cold products.  They sell hot coffee and tea and soups along with a few cold beverages in the winter months and mostly cold drinks in the warmer months.  this is so neat to me!