Early Review of our Second Week

Meanwhile we get more and more familiar with the local habits and the second week was therefore much more relaxed.

We are real pros in taking buses (and paying properly with our PASMO passes, even though its usage is a bit different in every city), ordering food in restaurants, behave correctly at shrines, buying stuff at a Seven-Eleven or Family Mart (which are at every single crossing and open 24 hours a day).

We learned that some restaurants are open until 26:00 o'clock (no typo!) which we would call 2 a.m. We tried so many different restaurants that actually we only had sushi once so far! But there is so much more, so watch out for a special food post which is soon to come.

We still enjoy the cleanliness, the perfect and well-organized public transport (trains in particular) and the kindness and respectfulness of the people. Bus drivers thank every single traveller leaving the bus. First, we thought to hear a recording for every passenger leaving the bus. But no, it's the driver saying 20 times "thank you very much" or "arigato gosaimas". When a new driver takes over a bus, he takes a bow and introduces himself to his passengers and hangs a sign with his name that is always clearly visible for everyone. Compare this to bus drivers in your city!

Mobile internet is not always reliable, though. Our hotels all had a good internet wi-fi connection and some restaurants as well. But my local Japanese SIM card is a bit lazy and doesn't like Google Maps, it seems.