Japanese curiosities

Yes, everything you have heard about 7-11's in Japan is true.  They sell everything from fresh baked goods to pork baos to prepared dinners.  It was also where I had to go to buy stamps for postcards.  But they have competition; Family Mart and Lawson's are almost identical and I like the baked goods at Family Mart better.  Also, you never hand money to the cashier.  At 7-11, you feed bills and coins into a slot on your side of the counter, and change comes out.  At the other two, you put the cash in a little container and the clerk picks it up from there.  Of course, you can use credit or cash cards.

It is also true about Kit-Kats.  For whatever reason that no one knows, they make Kit-Kats in every weird flavor you can imagine and some you cannot:  green tea, wasabi, matcha.  And the store to buy them (go figure) is named Don Quixote.

I also bought some more authentic Japanese treats like wasabi peanuts, and a few less common treats like salmon jerky.

They drive on the left side in Japan.  Apparently this has nothing to do with the British Empire.  Rather, the samurai needed to stay to the left so that their sword was accessible for meeting a passing enemy.  Maybe, but it's a good story.  They also drive teeny, tiny cars, and only back into spaces, including spaces that are so small that I couldn't figure out how the driver gets out.  Then I remembered - they drive on the left and the driver sits on the right.

Everyone knows about the heated toilet seats and the toilets with so many buttons that you have no idea what they are for.  I have also mentioned that most public bathrooms do not have paper towels or garbage cans, so you have to carry a small towel with you.  But there were so many other oddities of Japanese bathrooms.  For example, how does a young mother manage with a baby?  What about a toddler son who cannot go to the men's room by himself?  The Japanese have answers for these problems and others.

Ladies toilet with baby holder

Only urinal I have ever seen in a women's bathroom.

You do not wear your shoes inside.  You also do not wear your inside sandals in a bathroom.  There are special sandals for that.

Toilet with a built-in sink on top.

So that's why they always close the lid.

It rains a fair amount here so everyone carries an umbrella.  When you go inside a museum or other public place, you put the umbrella in a special umbrella holder that locks it in place and gives you a key.  At the lovely restaurant we went to in Kyoto, if you wanted to walk in the garden, they supplied both sandals (since you did not have shoes on inside) and umbrellas.

Something I have never seen before:

And I could see someone inside holding a tiny pig

Finally, most translations here have been excellent but occasionally you see a sign and wonder:  did they really have to warn me about that?