One thing about Japan that has surprised our entire team this past week is just how efficient they are. From big things down to little things, it seems that conserving space, resources, and time seems to be on the minds of Japanese inverters/tinkerers. Here are some examples that we've seen:
When throwing away trash, there is not one can or bucket, but three! One is for burnable trash (eg paper, cardboard, tissues, etc), one is for non-burnable trash (eg plastic bags, food trash, etc), and one is for recyclables (eg bottles and cans). In this way they can conserve on landfill space by burning the burnable trash and recycling the recyclable trash. Neat, huh?
Here's another way they are efficient. On the top of the tank lid of most toilets, there is a little spigot that turns on every time you flush to refill the tank. THis way, when you are done using the toilet, you can wash your hands in the water, which will be reused for the next flush. Ingenious, eh?
Japan's public transit system is surpurb, too. There are multiple train stations (usually either raised high or underground) that you can go to that have trains or subway cars comming in and out of every minute or two which go to every part of the city. Often times you'll have to switch trains (which can be really confusing if you're not sure what's going on!) but every place in Tokyo is within about a 15 minute walk of a station.
Well, that's what I got for today. I think tomorrow I'll talk about some of the big differences in similarities that Japan has. Until then, ja na!
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2 comments:
Russell, buddy, I don't think that spigot that comes out of the toilet when you flush is for your hands...
-Tommy
No, no, no, you crazy coot! It doesn't come out of the toilet _bowl_, it comes out of the toilet _tank lid_ and into a little sink that goes back into the tank. Sheesh!
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