This week, I went to Tokyo to visit my Aunt. I left early and went shopping near the train station. Before I came to Japan, I already knew that the Japanese society was heavily cash-based so I brought lots of cash with me to Japan. I went to about 5 stores and only 3 of them accepted cards. Most restaurants I went to also accepted cash only. I was really curious about this phenomenon so I asked my uncle in law who was a native Japanese. He told me it was probably due to the skepticism of credit cards. Japanese citizens trusted cash more than other sources. Although Japanese people did own credit and debit cards, cash itself remained the currency most Japanese were comfortable with. When I bought drinks from vending machines, I was surprised that they accepted large bills like 5,000 yen. I was able to break my large bills using the vending machines, which was really convenient. Perhaps the huge senior population in Japan also explained why the country still used cash most of the time.
I traveled to Tokyo by Shinkansen. I bought the ticket without reservation so I was quite worried that I would not get a seat in the beginning. Luckily, I was able to have a seat on both my way there and home. Everyone was quiet on the train and I realized a lot of them were reading books instead of looking at their phones. I found that quite impressive. After I arrived in Tokyo, the first thing I immediately discovered was that the city was way more crowded than Hirakata city and people walked much faster. Everyone seemed busier and more careless compared to the Japanese in the Kansai area. However, when people accidentally bumped into each other, they always apologized politely. It was just really interesting that people from different regions in Japan had different characteristics.
