Japanese Wrap, No Trash Talk

It's traditional to give gifts with elaborate wrapping. It's not traditional to provide bins - but it's still clean!

Observations:

In Japan if you buy anything, they wrap it, put it in a bag. Takeaway latte = would you like me to put it in a bag. Is this a gift for someone = I'll put each cookie in a separate bag.

Wrapping is everything. The traditional gift wrapping cloth you can buy at trinket shops is called furoshiki. There is a whole technique devoted to wrapping gifts with cloth that requires no tape or staples, it's like origami with cloth.

But the modern translation of furoshiki seems to be shopping bags. The bakery we had breakfast from individually wraps each bun in a plastic sleeve, then puts all you purchases in a high gloss thick bag that looks like you bought perfume from Gucci.

Meanwhile, there are hardly any bins anywhere in Japan. Anywhere. Yet the place is also immaculately clean and therw is no rubbish blowing about the streets. Anywhere.

The rare bins you do find are coloured coded for sorting, but the criteria change for each city. It can be... complicated...

https://www.tofugu.com/japan/garbage-in-japan/

Still not sure where all the rubbish goes but I have a sneaking suspicion it is partly cultural.

1. Rubbish is a "domestic" duty, so all the rubbish gets disposed of at home.

2. Drinking tea/coffee is a more social activity so you sit down to drink with other people - I never saw anyone walk and drink anywhere.

3. Robot House Elves clean up everything when you aren't looking. Or at least it feels that way. Did notice a lot more gardeners and health and safety types. The one time I saw rubbish and ordinary civilian picked it up.

I think though that most of the rubbish goes home for recycling - it's only the travelling gaijin who drink and walk who get excited when they find a bin to dispose of their coffee cups in.Read more