On noticeable difference between Tokyo and Philadelphia is cleanliness.

It was almost freaky to wash my hands after our first day of touring. After countless subway stops, sitting on park benches, holding hand railings, etc., the water rinsing my hands ran clear against the white porcelain sink.

Constantly, workers are cleaning public places. Many bathrooms have attendants, the subway floors are often being scrubbed with soapy water, and there are even workers who often sit with a cleanser-soaked wash cloth – holding it against the moving escalator rail.

On pathways, there are workers sweeping leaves.

Doorways slide open automatically, limiting what you have to touch.

Fresh food – like in coffee houses or convenience stores – is wrapped in plastic. For example, there are not cases of exposed baked goods, like you would see in a Wawa.

Even in nicer restaurants, disposable chopsticks are used (unless it is “western” style, and then you get silverware).

It is customary to wear a head scarf and apron while washing or drying dishes.

Those who are sick, even with the slightest cold, wear face masks. Most people seem to be very healthy. Perhaps the cleanliness is such a way of life to keep such a large population from spreading germs?

It is hard to find trash cans, unless you are in a restaurant (even then, most places clear your table – there aren’t any overflowing trash cans as we often see back home), bathroom, or if you are next to a vending machine – where vendors are required to help in the disposal of the containers of the product they sell.

At the hotel, and for a small price at convenience stores, wet umbrellas are put in plastic bags for carrying them around indoors after use.

Subway tickets are purchased from machines, and are fed into machines – there is no contact or exchange between you and subway employees.

No one blows their nose in public.

Even in fast food restaurants, you are given a warm, wet towel or a plastic-wrapped wet wipe for your hands – in addition to your napkin.

Many restaurants have one person running the whole place. So, to keep hands from contaminating food by touching money, customers purchase a ticket with the number of their food choice from a vending machine. The ticket is then placed on the counter for the cook.

Shoes are removed as soon as you walk into the door, and house slippers are removed before entering a bathroom.

Even the toilets promote cleanliness. Many of the nicer bathrooms have toilets where you squat instead of sit (again, limiting what you touch – many even have auto-flush), and I have _never_ seen a “western style” toilet that wasn’t a shower toilet. It rinses you with warm water when you are done. The function of toilet paper, in this case, is more for drying. At the restaurant we went to last night, the toilet lid opened automatically when the stall door opened, there was a wall station with anti-bacterial toilet-seat cleaner, paper covers for the toilet, seat warmer AND shower-toilet w/ auto-flush– all of which was adjustable to your liking by way of a panel on the wall adjacent the toilet.

The air is clean – even with the crazy traffic, there is no smog. When I was in Dallas, there were actually “smog” reports along with the weather. Here, all you see on a nice day is clear blue sky.

People here are used to being clean, too. I was out shopping for a gift and my friend looked up and was shocked to see a little dirt on the grate of the over-head air conditioner.