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Japan is both the most advanced and the most backwards when it comes to technology it seems. You've got incredible rail systems and smart payments. Then you hav

Japan is both the most advanced and the most backwards when it comes to technology it seems. You've got incredible rail systems and smart payments. Then you have ATMs and banks that turn off at night or around new year. Documents that must be stamped. Did you see how during the pandemic that was a nightmare where the stamp was only in the office in a lock box? Fax machines, paper, single use plastic on everything, etc. It's like the country is trying to move forward, but still do things the old way because of culture.

ramchip 5y ago
It goes both ways. Going to the US, the toilets make me feel like I went back a hundred years, while other stuff feels like the future...
- javajosh 5y ago
  What's wrong with the toilets?! The Germans put a useless poop shelf in theirs, but are otherwise identical, and the Japanese make you squat over a porcelain trough. Or are you referring to fancy electronic Japanese bidets? Have those taken over "the trough" so thoroughly?
  - gfxgirl 5y ago
    When your hands are dirty do you just wipe them with a dry towel or do you wash them? Why would you just wipe the shit off your ass with dry paper instead of wash it? Note: If I understand correctly, most muslim people wash instead of wipe (happy to be corrected) It's funny to me. For example doctors, when told they needed to wash their hands before surgery all freaked out, thought it was bullshit, complained, thought people were over thinking etc... Now we have washing your ass instead of just wiping it. To those used to washing, just wiping seems barbaric, the same as doctors not washing their hands. Similarly walking down streets and parks with shit and grease and oil and then tracking that shit into your house instead of taking off your shoes at the door. It's like that saying "Were you raised in a barn". I want to say it every time I see someone track outside shit through their house. https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/raised+in+a+barn https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/raised+in+a+barn
    - llampx 5y ago
      Washing your hands implies rubbing them together under running water. Definitely not just letting water run over them. So you're going to need some friction to get the area clean. You could just wet some TP and wipe with that, to me that's just as hygienic as a bidet with no wiping, but what do I know.
  - ramchip 5y ago
    > Have those taken over "the trough" so thoroughly? Definitely! In 12+ years in Japan I could count the number of times I've used a squat toilet on one hand. Anywhere remotely nice has bidets.

ramchip 5y ago

It goes both ways. Going to the US, the toilets make me feel like I went back a hundred years, while other stuff feels like the future...

javajosh 5y ago
What's wrong with the toilets?! The Germans put a useless poop shelf in theirs, but are otherwise identical, and the Japanese make you squat over a porcelain trough. Or are you referring to fancy electronic Japanese bidets? Have those taken over "the trough" so thoroughly?
- gfxgirl 5y ago
  When your hands are dirty do you just wipe them with a dry towel or do you wash them? Why would you just wipe the shit off your ass with dry paper instead of wash it? Note: If I understand correctly, most muslim people wash instead of wipe (happy to be corrected) It's funny to me. For example doctors, when told they needed to wash their hands before surgery all freaked out, thought it was bullshit, complained, thought people were over thinking etc... Now we have washing your ass instead of just wiping it. To those used to washing, just wiping seems barbaric, the same as doctors not washing their hands. Similarly walking down streets and parks with shit and grease and oil and then tracking that shit into your house instead of taking off your shoes at the door. It's like that saying "Were you raised in a barn". I want to say it every time I see someone track outside shit through their house. https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/raised+in+a+barn https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/raised+in+a+barn
  - llampx 5y ago
    Washing your hands implies rubbing them together under running water. Definitely not just letting water run over them. So you're going to need some friction to get the area clean. You could just wet some TP and wipe with that, to me that's just as hygienic as a bidet with no wiping, but what do I know.
- ramchip 5y ago
  > Have those taken over "the trough" so thoroughly? Definitely! In 12+ years in Japan I could count the number of times I've used a squat toilet on one hand. Anywhere remotely nice has bidets.