Things that surprised me,  I didn’t know ,or I learned at some point, but forgot about Japan

1) They drive on the opposite side of the road, which means walking and escalator riding (you do A LOT of this) is the opposite as well, but some cities don’t follow this. It’s confusing.
2) They read right to left and down.
3) At the end of September they already had Halloween stuff out in some store fronts.
4) Their 100 and 500 yen, which equate to $1 and $5 are small coins, like the size of a quarter. It’s easy to think of them as change, forgetting they’re worth a good amount.
5) Their vans are crazy, it’s as if they’ve all been modded and tricked out with body kits.
6) It’s really difficult to get out of some of the subway stations, they’re huge with some of them having 18 exits.
7) Almost all the taxis are black 1980s Toyota’s and everyone says avoid them because they’re extremely expensive.
8) Automatic bidé toilets are everywhere!! But some of them I couldn’t figure out how to flush if they didn’t have FLUSH in English above the correct button.
9) They eat so fast, especially at Ramen shops. They’re in and out.
10) At convenience stores they make you line up 10 feet off to the side, I accidentally walked up behind the person checking out cutting the person in the line. I was told to wait where they were, but I felt like an idiot. To be fair, she wasn’t standing facing the register, but looking at the baked goods next to the register. I did learn from that experience though.
11) They have a ton of crows, I don’t know if it’s throughout Japan, but in the Tokyo and Kyoto area it’s like being in a cornfield of buildings.
12) You get on in the middle of the bus and pay when you get off.
13) Japanese people don’t eat in public, it is considered rude, but there’s literally no where else to eat when you buy food at a convenience store and have a whole city to see. I did learn that in Osaka it’s okay,  as the food capital of Japan, the hostel owner explained “Everyone is in a rush.”
14) “Hi” means yes in Japanese so it sounds like everyone is really friendly to each other.
15) The city gas stations have pumps that come down from the ceiling and you park in a spot underneath them, saving a lot of space.
16) The drinking age is 20.
17) Entering the interior parts of castles, palaces and temples you must take your shoes off. It’s amazing, everyone does it, mostly because there’s someone there watching you, but I feel like you couldn’t get away with this anywhere else. Maybe Korea, but I have yet to see it.