Top 5 Not-Obvious Things I Love About Japan

I started this list in 2008, but only got two down on the list. With a little 20/20 hindsight, I've found it much easier to finish now. I guess I'm starting to get a little nostalgic about my Tokyo life and those lenses are becoming slightly rose-tinted. :)

1. When you push the "close" button in an elevator, the doors really close right away, just like on TV. It's all very dramatic. 
2. My toilet paper holder - just click in, click out. If/when, I ever own my own place, you can be sure that there will be Japanese toilet paper holders throughout. Japanese technology innovation at its finest.
   
3. The "bidet" function on the toilets. This took me a couple years to get the hang of and get used to. My apartment came with one of these kinds of toilets, but, like I said, it took some getting used to, but once I did, well, all I can say is that these do the job they claim to. Squeaky clean! (Sorry if that's just too TMI for some people.)
4. The scotch bars. Thanks to my friend, JP, I started learning about different scotches and now consider myself an official scotch drinker. He started me slowly with Johnnie Walker Black and soda and we worked our way up to drinking scotch on the rocks in cool, small bars around Tokyo with impressively large and diverse collections of bottles. Tokyo is where I learned how a scotch on the rocks should be served--in a glass with one big chunk of ice (ideally hand-shaped into a sphere) freshly picked off the block so the drink doesn't get watered down too quickly. 
5. Aluminum screw-top bottlecans. Perfect for times when you want a cold drink, but just a sip at a time. Isn't it annoying when you buy a can of soda and only want a taste and then have to throw the rest out because you don't want to carry it around all day. Enter The Bottlecan. I definitely prefer this to plastic bottles, which aren't as cold and I don't like the idea of putting more plastic into the world. At least the aluminum is cheaper and easier to recycle (I think).

no idea where i took this picture, but i'm thinking it might have been at the miyako odori in kyoto