A few things that surprised me about Tokyo, besides how different it is from China and how much more similar it felt to the West.

• People drive on the left side of the road.
• This one girl I was walking behind after the U.S. lost to Slovenia was, by all indications, drunk off her ass. She was stumbling everywhere. And yet, while walking down the stairs from the walkway overpass in 4-inch heels, she didn’t fall.
• There were squat toilets. People used them.
• For all Japan’s modernity, its hotels are rather stuck in the late ’80s/early ’90s. And we were staying in ones that were supposed to be nice.
• So many Chinese people!

I’ve made my way from the North ‘jing to the East ‘jing, which is in a whole other country, so that probably explains most of the differences. It’s the battle of the two giant Asian capitals: Beijing versus Tokyo. Which is better?

Cleanliness: The Japanese may have borrowed a lot from the Chinese, but they stopped short of the Chinese’s public hygiene habits. The sidewalks and streets were clean. Shops were neat. Even grubby ramen and sushi restaurants managed to keep their tables, floors and wares clean. Advantage: Tokyo.

Class: In Tokyo, no one made disgusting hacking noises, no one spat, no one spat 2 centimeters from where my next step would be. People dressed nicely to work. They didn’t stare. On the trains, talking on mobiles was forbidden, so nobody was shouting (grunting) into their phones. (For some reason, the Chinese only have two voice volumes when talking on their cells: loud or even louder.) That being said, in the evenings, just about every person in Tokyo is stumbling around drunk. Advantage: Tokyo.

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