Weird Things in Japan: 14 Bizarre Experiences You Won’t Forget

Japanese Toilets

The question of what should take the number one spot here didn’t even need to be asked. It was obvious: the toilets.

When we were booking our hotels for Japan, we came across a strange review on Booking.com. A hotel guest had complained that a hotel had no heated toilet seat.

We had a good laugh about that — until it happened to us at our last accommodation on our road trip through Japan: no heated toilet seat. Now we know: life without a heated toilet seat is possible, but pointless.

Japan wouldn’t be Japan if heating were the only feature a toilet had to offer. Using the toilet is a science in itself.

Back home, you get one flush button — or two at most, for a short or long flush. Japanese toilets, on the other hand, are operated with a full control panel. It’s covered in lots of fun buttons with Japanese labels.

Japanese toilets have a built-in cleaning function — not for the toilet itself, but for the user. There are various types of water jets that can be adjusted to different intensities.

Public restrooms often also have different sound programs you can use to drown out your own noise. Pretty great, right?

You can even buy one of these high-tech toilet seats online for your own bathroom. We looked into it immediately.

People Everywhere

Japan is packed. Packed with people. This obviously doesn’t apply to the entire country, but it certainly applies to the big cities — above all Tokyo.

Have you ever seen those photos from the Tokyo subway where people’s faces are pressed flat against the windows? That’s actually real.

During rush hour, the trains are completely jam-packed and there are long lines on the platforms, even though the metro runs every two minutes. Totally wild! That’s why one of our top travel tips for Tokyo — and one of the best tips for Japan in general — is to avoid riding the train during rush hour.

Because it’s so crowded, there are of course rules. In many stations, it’s strictly regulated which side of the corridor you walk on and in which direction, and during peak hours you’re not allowed to leave even a single step of space between yourself and the person ahead of you on the escalator. Order must be maintained!

We could have spent hours watching the big intersections in Japan. The most impressive one is of course the Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo, one of the most popular attractions in the city. During rush hour, up to 15,000 people cross it with every green light.

Tiny Rooms

Japan’s cities are crowded, and space is tight to match. We thought hotels in Hong Kong had the smallest rooms in the world — until we visited Japan.

Our room at our hotel in Tokyo was a whopping 11 square meters, and our hotel in Kyoto was just 9 square meters — bathroom included, of course.

It’s not like we were cutting corners on our travel budget for Japan, either. Not at all. For both rooms, we paid well over 140 euros per night.

So if you’re planning to visit Japan — especially during the most popular travel seasons for Japan — be prepared for small, pricey hotel rooms.

But hey, you don’t go to Japan to hang out in your room. So it’s really not that big of a deal. At least all the rooms were very well equipped and the hotels had great locations. What more do you need?

The only time it can get a bit tricky is with large luggage, since closets are a rarity in these mini rooms. So pack light! Check out our packing guides for inspiration: Packing List for City Trips & Packing List for Southeast Asia.

Once your travel dates are set, you should book as early as possible. That’s how you get the best value for your money.

Waste Separation

If you think you’ve seen serious recycling before, just wait until you go to Japan.

In our first hotel room in Tokyo, we stood there a little baffled in front of the trash can — it had two compartments: “Combustibles” and “Non Combustibles.” Burnable trash and non-burnable trash. Tricky stuff.

Non-combustible waste is anything that can be recycled, and combustible waste is essentially general garbage in the broadest sense. That includes food scraps, but also plastic packaging that can’t be recycled. How do you know what can be recycled and what can’t? No idea!

But our hotel trash can is nothing compared to the waste separation system that a Japanese household has to navigate. There are far more categories involved.

For each type of waste, there are special bags and specific pickup schedules — and heaven forbid you toss your trash into a bag meant for a different category. All strictly forbidden!

The irony of Japan’s recycling obsession, though, is that there are no public trash cans. At first we thought we were just bad at finding them, but many cities simply don’t have public trash cans. Japanese people typically take their trash home with them, where they then sort it carefully.

If you don’t feel like carrying your food scraps and empty bottles around all day, there is a solution: supermarkets always have trash cans — also neatly separated by waste type, of course — and vending machines often have a disposal option right next to them as well.

Virtues

Speaking of order: in Japan, there are even rules for how you board a train.

Where in many countries people form a chaotic crowd in front of the subway doors, in Japan people line up in neat, orderly queues, waiting calmly to board once the other passengers have stepped off. Very pleasant!

And that’s not all: in Japan, even the taxi drivers look like they’d be more at home chauffeuring a luxury limousine. Every taxi driver wears a suit and tie, and most even wear white gloves!

Japanese people aren’t just orderly and clean, though — they’re also incredibly friendly and considerate. For example, they’ll always hold the elevator door for you and let you exit first. Every single time!

Cherry Blossom Season

Although Japanese people are generally very composed, there’s one time of year when they all completely let loose. During cherry blossom season in Japan, the entire country enters a kind of collective state of exception.

There’s even a word for it: Hanami. Hanami refers to the viewing of the cherry blossoms and everything that goes along with it. And that “everything” means picnicking — and often uninhibited drinking.

When cherry blossom season arrives, all the floodgates open, winter gets shaken off, and the beautiful season is welcomed in. By the thousands, Japanese people flock to the parks, sit on blankets and plastic tarps with their food and drinks, and soak in the splendor of the blossoms.

When we visited Ueno Park in Tokyo one morning to photograph the cherry blossoms, the whole place smelled more like a bar than a park. It’s clear they really go all out during Hanami.

Daily Rhythm

Otherwise, though, Japanese people aren’t quite so spontaneous. We often felt like we were watching robots walking through the city, not real people.

The lives of many Japanese people seem to revolve entirely around work. On the commute to and from the office, they sleep on the subway or stare at their phones, and after work they toss back a sake or two.

Pretty striking, really. At red lights, even at the tiniest side streets, Japanese people dutifully wait — even when there’s not a car in sight.

Shinkansen

Order and punctuality are often considered admirable traits — but the Japanese are definitively better at both than anywhere else we’ve traveled. Especially when it comes to their trains.

We traveled exclusively by train through Japan, and every single train — every one — was on time to the minute. Seriously incredible! Germany could really learn a thing or two from the public transportation in Japan.

Endless Train Stations

Speaking of trains! We calculated that we probably spent an entire day of our trip inside train stations. A train station in Japan is nothing like what you’d find back home.

Train stations in Japan are enormous and typically consist of countless underground corridors and connections.

You should easily budget a quarter of an hour to find the right exit or platform in a major station.

It’s completely normal, but it can get a little exhausting after a while!

Theme Cafés

Japanese people love themed cafés. There are cafés where you can cuddle with cats, and cafés where owls live. For the record, the owl cafés are pretty awful from an animal welfare standpoint, which is why we’re not going to recommend them.

Equally quirky are the so-called maid cafés, where the waitresses dress in maid uniforms and are especially attentive and deferential to their customers.

Craziness

We had that head-shaking feeling almost every single day — in the best possible way, of course. But what truly left us speechless was our experience at the Robot Restaurant. It’s nearly impossible to describe what happens there in 90 minutes.

We’ll try anyway. Despite the name, it’s not really a restaurant — it’s more of a show, and one that couldn’t be more out-there. It’s wild, flashy, loud, and altogether pretty nonsensical.

And yet it was an unforgettable experience that we’d recommend to anyone visiting Japan. It’s something that exists nowhere else in the world in this form, and it’s not something you’ll forget anytime soon.

At around 60 euros, the admission isn’t cheap — but that’s what you pay for that quintessentially Japanese, jaw-dropping experience.

Unfortunately, the Robot Restaurant is currently closed.

Arcades

In Japan, lights flash and glow on every corner, and among the loudest and most garish are the so-called pachinkos. A pachinko is an arcade, and you’ll find them on practically every street corner in Japan.

Inside you’ll find slot machines, video games, and classic carnival-style games where you try to grab a stuffed animal with a claw machine. If it rains in Japan, a pachinko is always a great way to pass the time.

Smoking

One small downside to many pachinkos: they’re often very smoky. Japan is still a smoking country. Trains still have smoking cars, and in Japan people still actually light up in many restaurants.

What makes this all the more surprising is that in many Japanese cities, you’re not allowed to smoke freely on the street.

Smoking outdoors is only permitted in designated smoking areas or smoking booths — otherwise you’ll get in trouble.

So while most countries have pushed smoking outside, in Japan it’s the opposite — people head indoors to light up. A topsy-turvy world!

Nobody Understands You

What really surprised us was the fact that most Japanese people speak little to no English. We wouldn’t have expected that from such a highly developed country.

Since tourism from the Western world doesn’t play as big a role in Japan, you’ll often find that even many hotels don’t have anyone who speaks English.

Somehow you always manage to get by, though. With hands, feet, and a smile, anything is possible!