They say travel is broadening. So here’s a brief list of some of what I learned after three weeks in Japan and Korea. Will add more as I think of it.

  1. toilet seats are highly engineered and if you can’t read the Korean or Japanese instructions, just push some random buttons

  2. but be prepared for a jolt in a kind of personal area

  3. QR codes are everywhere for everything.

  4. Some blogger said that anything in Japan that might conceivably require a reservation, does. True! You needed a reservation (and a QR Code) to enter certain stores, for instance.

  5. The SUICA card system for paying for travel - and some convenience store items - in Japan via the wallet app on your phone is pretty impressive

  6. Until it doesn’t work on your wife’s phone and nobody can figure out why

  7. Despite SUICA and QR Codes, be prepared to carry multiple small pieces of paper that represent - separately - your train reservation, your actual train ticket, your seat assignment, and your receipt, and they may be different sizes, and only one of them goes in the machine.

8.) In Canada you wouldn’t dream of taking a bus to the airport and hoping to make a four minute connection to a different bus in a different location. In Japan or Korea - hey, why wouldn’t that work, everything is exactly on time, as it should be.

  1. Public transit is so advanced here, in speed, frequency, coverage, even signage, that it makes you wonder what Japanese visiting Canada think of the TTC, GO Transit and Via. (Westjet ads were in heavy rotation on the Narita Express train.)

  2. I actually like the TTC and GO Transit and VIA, who do a good job with limited resources, and I just wish we could get a move on in building more frequent and reliable service.

  3. Japanese ballpark hot dogs come with a dual ketchup/mustard packet, and you can carefully fold and squeeze it to dispense beautiful parallel lines of red and yellow onto your hot dog. Or in my case, onto my shirt.

  4. Japanese baseball is an amazing experience. Congrats to the Yomiuri Giants, who beat the I’m-not-sure-exactly-I-think-it-was-the Dragons 8-1 last night. The organized sections of fans, chanting contiuously, loudly, and assisted by trumpets and drums meant that there was essentially no time (or need) for the sort of loud audio interruptions we’re used to at North American games.

  5. Japanese may say “Ohayo” (“good morning”) to you but the correct response is not, unfortunately, “Ontario.”

  6. Let’s remember how incredibly fortunate we are in North America that we can visit faraway lands, and still, most signs are subtitled in English, and everyone is eager to help you even if they have to pull up a translation app on their cell phones.