Unexpected

One thing I have been pleasantly surprised by is that food and other necessities don't seem to cost much more than in America. I have always had a vague idea that "Japan is expensive" and while it may be that a) land, which we are only paying for in a very indirect sense, is still quite costly and/or b) we are in an area that is cheaper because of the presence of a large university, basic items like bottled water and generic snacks about the same price as in America. Similarly, restaurant food doesn't seems to be somewhat cheaper than it is in America, though the sample size for this case is small. This is a classic example of the old "don't knock it unless you've tried it" nostrum, though perhaps that sentiment will change again when we get to Tokyo.

One surprise for me has been the number of motorcycles. I had never thought of Japan as having many motorcycles, but there seem to be far more of them here than at home. It may simply be that America has very few motorcycles compared to most other countries.

To offer up a slightly "deeper" societal insight, Japan seems to have a large number of people (relative to America at least) employed in certain quasi-menial jobs relating to interacting with and directing other people. There are far more traffic cops here than in America and there also seem to be more greeters. I'm not sure whether to view this as a positive or a negative- on one hand these kinds of jobs don't seem like the sort that lead to future advancement, but on the other hand they allow older people to continue earning money and they also may reinforce societal norms that are perceived to be beneficial.