Weirdly enough, I was just in Japan as well (and stayed at the same hotel in Koto City!) I agree with much of your observations about the huge visual appeal of the country. I was training for a running race while there, so running through the cities there lets you see a lot of the cities you might not otherwise. There's definitely something almost magical and otherworldly about it. I also felt like an underdressed American slob the entire time I was there. 😅 We're already planning another trip for cherry blossom season next year.
Thanks for confirming my impression. These things are highly subjective, and I worried that I might be overstating things. Your comment makes me more confident.
I'm really jealous of that $47 appetizer meal---there are six, count them, six! levels with a total of 24 items. It seems like a microcosm of your experiences in Japan, which was the perfect place to visit to escape current affairs in the U.S. Tokyo and other cities in Japan, prove what a city can be when it isn't shackled by the depravity of American zoning and planning. The Japanese also do modern architecture better than anyone else, which is appropriate since they were the inspiration for many of the early European modernists.
I had a friend that went to Japan for about six months. He said one of the things he enjoyed most about Tokyo/many of the other major cities was that the bar scene was much more private. He would walk into a place and it maybe had no more than a few people including the bartender and he was always greeted pleasantly. Most of the folks would turn on Google Translate on their phones and would be extremely friendly. He said there was a very serious sense of community even in large cities, which just does not happen in America. He's lived in Boston and NYC and said the only someone comparable scene for him was living in Somerville (Davis Sq).
He also said something similar to you in that everything felt "lighter". There was a sense of cleanliness and relaxation most of the places he traveled.
Also, just a reminder that taking a photo of a young woman's behind while out in public, and at any age, but especially at 70, is extremely creepy. I'm sure she neither appreciated the goggling, nor did she agree to have her image posted on your blog.
Thanks for the comment. I think the term "creep" is somewhat ambiguous, and I don't believe people are very good at evaluating their own flaws. So I'll remain agnostic as to whether I'm a creep. I would add that there are two distinct types of creeps, those that abuse others and those that merely have creepy taste, with no real world implications. Given my preference for David Lynch films, it would be hard to argue that I am not at least a tiny bit creepy, but I don't think I'm creepy in the consequentialist sense (i.e. like Jeffery Epstein.)
Everyone of my friends and acquaintances who has gone to Japan has loved it.
On the sense of beauty of Japanese culture, a friend of mine who studies Chinese culture says that traditional Japanese aesthetic is essentially Tang dynasty at its base. Watching the Chinese drama (C-Drama), The Untamed (a mega-hit worldwide), the aesthetic seemed very Japanese. My friend explained that it was the other way around.
Something I very much notice about C-dramas (I only watch the costumed ones, not the contemporary ones) is their very strong sense of beauty. It seems to be a salient feature of East Asian cultures. Possibly a product of their cultural continuity.
On The Untamed, there was a lovely (now not available) Tweet that said:
“The three stages of watching The Untamed:
1. This is ... nonsense? This is very bad.
2. Oh, this is quite watchable nonsense.
3. I HAVE NEVER CARED ABOUT ANYTHING MORE IN MY LIFE.”
Some of the Chinese beauty was destroyed by extreme poverty, some by the Cultural Revolution. But it's coming back. Last year, I saw a new park in Xian that was stunningly beautiful.
It is good that beauty is coming back. The aspiration is very clear in C-dramas.
Mao took over an almost perfectly preserved C15th city (Beijing) that suited the local climate and replaced with a modernist city that didn’t.
The switch to harping on the Century of Humiliation (which Mao very much did not, but under Xi has become a big theme) is the downside of reconnecting with the Chinese past. The archetypal emotion of Communist propaganda is anger. The archetypal emotion of Fascist propaganda is love—of (a specific) people, land, landscape. Which is this? (It is sung by one of the two stars of The Untamed, and I am not having a shot at him.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVfmXg9Qe80
They were not of the volk. They don’t count. The Uyghurs might understand the distinction.
Worse, the Jews were, according to Nazi theory, enemy parasites on the volk. You protect those you love from such malign parasites.
The Marxist and Nazi mass murders have in common targeting those deemed parasites, though differently identified parasites. Race/biologically identified in the latter case, class/economic identified in the former. Marx’s theory of surplus value is a theory of parasitism. Of course it led to mass murder.
The Nazis mass murdered outside their homeland in time of war. Communists mass murdered inside their territories in time of peace. This goes back to the archetypal emotions, and that the Nazis presented themselves as restorers of order.
It's hard to take seriously a commenter who suggests that Nazi propaganda describing Jews as vermin represents "love". Did they love their "homeland"? All tyrants say they do, even the communists.
Are you being wilfully dense? I said a specific people. Jews were dehumanised as vermin, that’s the point. They were not of the volk. They were the opposite of the volk.
Yes, of course it was a deeply twisted and pathological love. In Hitler’s personal case, it wasn’t even real. The German people “let him down” by not proving worthy by winning.
Nevertheless, love of volk and homeland, however twisted and exclusory, was the central emotion of Nazi and Fascist propaganda. They were very good at mobilising people, this was central to their techniques in doing so.
Also, most the killing was by death squads (Einsatzgruppen) and local massacres. The Holocaust overwhelmingly happened in the territory of destroyed states and to citizens of destroyed states. Prof. Timothy Snyder is very enlightening on all this.
If your state was not destroyed, and you stayed within its territory, your survival chances as a Jew were much higher. If you lived in, or were transported to, the territory of the destroyed states, your survival chances were appallingly low.
I would guess that the tiny restaurant serves more people for lunch?
The Youtuber Oriental Pearl did some videos on homelessness and slums in Japan. I've really only watched the first one in this list all the way through (edit: and the last two), but it was good.
Thanks. I think the most important thing about those videos is not the existence of the slums, but what it tells you about Japan that the poverty is much more hidden than in the US.
Yes, the Japanese homeless culture does seem to still be Japanese culture. I think we've both seen that US culture lionizes con-artistry, corner cutting, line cutting, and et cetera.
Really loved this post. Never had Japan on my travel aspiration list but it’s on there now. I have an appreciation of some aspects of Japanese culture. Now I want to go there! Thanks Scott
The Japanese do seem fond of reservations. While inconvenient, I like it for two reasons: 1) creates a barrier to entry that keeps the masses at bay (planning/booking our 4-day hiking trip in Japan was quite challenging, even for someone like me who thrives with that sort of logistical coordination); 2) allows them to reduce food waste in the restaurants--lots of places require reservations days in advance, regardless of crowds. Probably part of the reason that the elderly couple can survive with $60 in gross revenue for an entire evening. Doesn't fly in the US where perhaps we just expect to get everything we want whenever we want it.
Of course, we must wonder, how much is all the perfectionism damaging efficiency/productivity? And are the Japanese okay with this trade off or are they simply stuck?
Japanese population is about 1/3 that of the US, though presumably has more adults and elderly as a percentage of the population. About 1/10th of the total Japanese population watched the World series on average, with about 13% watching game two.
I'm an old Luddite. I don't like computers or iPhones, probably because I've never been good at operating them. I like simple things that are easy for me to use. I used to go to the movie theatre and plunk down some cash, and get a ticket. Then I started standing behind people using credit cards, and it seemed to take forever. Now you go and they want you to operate a computer to buy your ticket. Then then want you to pick a seat. Why? The theatre's always nearly empty. I just don't like the way technology makes things more complicated over time.
I'm not defending my taste, which is clearly wrong. This stuff is great for young people. I'm just explaining what sort of person I am.
BTW, I don't use drugs, but I like the fact that there is still a medium of exchange that allows people to buy stuff that never should have been banned. Maybe if I get cancer I'll start buying heroin or LSD. Cash will come in handy.
I find this very interesting. I find life is much simpler when I don’t have to carry cash. I literally wave my phone at a machine wherever I go now and that’s it. Cash gets lost, it’s something extra to take with you, you need to count it.
I’m curious about this because when I see older people say cash is simpler I usually assume their brains just aren’t working well, but you have a great blog so that can’t be it! Not being insulting, again I love your work, but the idea of a brain that can write incisive economic analysis while preferring cash for its simplicity is very hard to understand. There must be something where young people find technology a lot more intuitive that’s unrelated to pure intelligence. I’m 39 BTW, so old enough to at least remember when cash was the norm.
My brain is very unbalanced, more so than other intellectuals I read on the internet. When I was young, I struggled with verbal skills (especially foreign languages), and then computer languages when I got older. I am oriented toward being relatively good at visual stuff, as well as a certain type of economic intuition.
Because my brain is so unbalanced, I've always been skeptical of the idea that intelligence is a single thing (although I'd never deny that various types of intelligence are positively correlated-I'm an exception.)
When I read you or Yglesias or Scott Alexander or Tyler Cowen I always think "I could never write that." Not that I don't share some of the insights, but there's something in how your minds work that I'm missing.
What blows my mind about the highly verbal is when they think concepts can't exist or emotions be felt without a name for them. I've literally seen people say/write that complex emotions, such as the ones that have German names, wouldn't exist without the names for them.
It seems as though people with highly verbal intelligence have a problem understanding how important compound memories and flashbacks are in understanding the world and one's state.
Those people are very odd. If a concept or emotion cannot exist without a name for it, how did it ever come about? Did the name come first and then people tried to find a concept or emotion to fit it? The logic is superb.
I watched "What the Bleep" a long time ago, and in that video this sort of thing was basically attributed to people with special abilities who can first point it out.
I do think some verbally intelligent people delight in mixing up words, so may indeed create words before concepts.
I prefer to use a separate card because my card's battery never dies, but my phone's often does! Also, I've lost several phones in my life, but never a wallet.
I remember years ago reading that people spent more money when they used a card than when they used cash because the cash was tangible and felt like a bigger loss to hand over than to simply sign a receipt. I wonder if that's still true with younger generations today (say, those under 40), especially with contactless payments.
Despite being someone who always uses credit cards, I don't get it. You have to carry your ID at least anyway, so you just keep some cash in your wallet, you never lose it or have to bring something extra. "You have to count it"?? Nowadays there are a lot of places that don't charge tax or processing fee if you pay in cash do sometimes it comes in handy, for tips too.
I never carry my credit card or cash. I just carry my phone. Literally the only thing I need. I’m constantly losing things so this is a big improvement in my quality of life.
That would be nice if I could go sans wallet. Not sure if places that need ID will take a photo? Is that your experience or you just don't need ID ever?
I'm mid 40s but couldn't afford a smartphone when younger. I stuck with a cheap feature phone long enough that the learning curve for a smartphone is now pretty big. I also hate the tiny touch interface, and do not like constant connection. While the payoff to the learning curve might exist, the annoyance factor would always be there.
These are good posts, but I must admit that your alto ego, the madman Sumner, who was famous for his incoherent ramblings about how Trump was Hitler, and for his mask/vaccine, lockdown hysteria was 10x better than the rebranded version.
I know the rage is still there. You shouldn't hold back. Just unleash it.
I mean, I've never seen a man panic so much. From Hitler to Napolean, to attacking anyone who advocates for peace as a Putin puppet - the other blog was truly awesome. Better than the best reality show.
Well, my "Napoleon returns from Elba" analogy proved to be pretty prophetic on November 5, wouldn't you admit?
I never said Trump was like Hitler--perhaps you are confusing me with JD Vance or Robert Kennedy Jr. (Equating Trump and Hitler is virtually a prerequisite for a top position in his administration.) Of course I opposed Covid lockdowns, but I do plead guilty for believing vaccines work. And yes, masks do work (imperfectly)---that's why doctors wear them.
I'm one of the biggest advocates of peace in Ukraine. I encourage Putin to stop his invasion.
Thanks for the great post. My family and I took our first trip to Japan last summer and we loved it. One thing that struck me is that in Tokyo there are probably <10% as many public trash cans AND <10% as much litter as in a typical American city. I was so impressed. I don't know how you import that kind of ethic, but we sorely need it.
Nice observations. Having lived there for ~15 years now, this matches many reasons why most people who stay in Japan do stay there. The cliché of modern meets tradition does have some truth in it. I love that neat to my "mansion" (flat in ~10 floor building), there is a yearly local area festival that I can participate to with music / "worship" of the local deity.
On the economics / aging: the big cities tend to give a "rosy" picture. If you go e.g. in the prefectures north of Tokyo, you seen many mid size (say 50k) cities literaly dying, with the inner city being mostly closed shops. Construction-wise, personal homes tend to feel "cheap" compared to Western Europe. But that may be partially explained by native preference for houses, meaning in e.g. Tokyo 70-80 % of your house price will often be in the land, not leaving much for the construction. If you're interested in how Tokyo came to be architecture-wise, I recommend the book "emergent Tokyo, designing the spontaneous city". E.g. it explains the influence of black market post WW2 on some of the street design, etc. A friend told me Tokyo is the most beautiful ugly city, and I think that captures well a certain aspect of it.
I myself don't understand how most restaurants make any money. It feels almost exploitative to eat so good food for so low price.
Weirdly enough, I was just in Japan as well (and stayed at the same hotel in Koto City!) I agree with much of your observations about the huge visual appeal of the country. I was training for a running race while there, so running through the cities there lets you see a lot of the cities you might not otherwise. There's definitely something almost magical and otherworldly about it. I also felt like an underdressed American slob the entire time I was there. 😅 We're already planning another trip for cherry blossom season next year.
Thanks for confirming my impression. These things are highly subjective, and I worried that I might be overstating things. Your comment makes me more confident.
I'm really jealous of that $47 appetizer meal---there are six, count them, six! levels with a total of 24 items. It seems like a microcosm of your experiences in Japan, which was the perfect place to visit to escape current affairs in the U.S. Tokyo and other cities in Japan, prove what a city can be when it isn't shackled by the depravity of American zoning and planning. The Japanese also do modern architecture better than anyone else, which is appropriate since they were the inspiration for many of the early European modernists.
Sorry, my wife just told me that was the price for each person. I did an update.
Yes, and Frank Lloyd Wright was also heavily influenced by the Japanese aesthetic.
I had a friend that went to Japan for about six months. He said one of the things he enjoyed most about Tokyo/many of the other major cities was that the bar scene was much more private. He would walk into a place and it maybe had no more than a few people including the bartender and he was always greeted pleasantly. Most of the folks would turn on Google Translate on their phones and would be extremely friendly. He said there was a very serious sense of community even in large cities, which just does not happen in America. He's lived in Boston and NYC and said the only someone comparable scene for him was living in Somerville (Davis Sq).
He also said something similar to you in that everything felt "lighter". There was a sense of cleanliness and relaxation most of the places he traveled.
I don't speak the language, so I didn't get to enjoy that scene. But you can enjoy it vicariously via the quite good TV show entitled Midnight Diner:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight_Diner_(Japanese_TV_series)
I prefer Sapporo.
Also, just a reminder that taking a photo of a young woman's behind while out in public, and at any age, but especially at 70, is extremely creepy. I'm sure she neither appreciated the goggling, nor did she agree to have her image posted on your blog.
Maybe you are correct, but a few points:
Are you sure it's creepy in Japan?
I was considerably further from her than it appears--the picture is greatly enlarged.
She had no idea I took her picture.
Her face does not appear.
This was a part of Tokyo full of cosplay, and I saw other people taking pictures.
It is not creepy, and generally ok if you don't take the face. In the case of cosplay, people will want to be taken in pictures.
Thanks for the comment. I think the term "creep" is somewhat ambiguous, and I don't believe people are very good at evaluating their own flaws. So I'll remain agnostic as to whether I'm a creep. I would add that there are two distinct types of creeps, those that abuse others and those that merely have creepy taste, with no real world implications. Given my preference for David Lynch films, it would be hard to argue that I am not at least a tiny bit creepy, but I don't think I'm creepy in the consequentialist sense (i.e. like Jeffery Epstein.)
Everyone of my friends and acquaintances who has gone to Japan has loved it.
On the sense of beauty of Japanese culture, a friend of mine who studies Chinese culture says that traditional Japanese aesthetic is essentially Tang dynasty at its base. Watching the Chinese drama (C-Drama), The Untamed (a mega-hit worldwide), the aesthetic seemed very Japanese. My friend explained that it was the other way around.
Something I very much notice about C-dramas (I only watch the costumed ones, not the contemporary ones) is their very strong sense of beauty. It seems to be a salient feature of East Asian cultures. Possibly a product of their cultural continuity.
On The Untamed, there was a lovely (now not available) Tweet that said:
“The three stages of watching The Untamed:
1. This is ... nonsense? This is very bad.
2. Oh, this is quite watchable nonsense.
3. I HAVE NEVER CARED ABOUT ANYTHING MORE IN MY LIFE.”
Some of the Chinese beauty was destroyed by extreme poverty, some by the Cultural Revolution. But it's coming back. Last year, I saw a new park in Xian that was stunningly beautiful.
I tend to obsess a little over Chinese history and patterns. E.g. in my most recent post.
https://www.lorenzofromoz.net/p/in-the-shadow-of-the-state-2
Australians tend to pay attention to China now it is our largest trading partner, as we used to do so for Japan when it was.
It is good that beauty is coming back. The aspiration is very clear in C-dramas.
Mao took over an almost perfectly preserved C15th city (Beijing) that suited the local climate and replaced with a modernist city that didn’t.
The switch to harping on the Century of Humiliation (which Mao very much did not, but under Xi has become a big theme) is the downside of reconnecting with the Chinese past. The archetypal emotion of Communist propaganda is anger. The archetypal emotion of Fascist propaganda is love—of (a specific) people, land, landscape. Which is this? (It is sung by one of the two stars of The Untamed, and I am not having a shot at him.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVfmXg9Qe80
"The archetypal emotion of Fascist propaganda is love"
I suspect that Jewish residents of Germany during the 1930s might disagree with you.
They were not of the volk. They don’t count. The Uyghurs might understand the distinction.
Worse, the Jews were, according to Nazi theory, enemy parasites on the volk. You protect those you love from such malign parasites.
The Marxist and Nazi mass murders have in common targeting those deemed parasites, though differently identified parasites. Race/biologically identified in the latter case, class/economic identified in the former. Marx’s theory of surplus value is a theory of parasitism. Of course it led to mass murder.
The Nazis mass murdered outside their homeland in time of war. Communists mass murdered inside their territories in time of peace. This goes back to the archetypal emotions, and that the Nazis presented themselves as restorers of order.
It's hard to take seriously a commenter who suggests that Nazi propaganda describing Jews as vermin represents "love". Did they love their "homeland"? All tyrants say they do, even the communists.
Are you being wilfully dense? I said a specific people. Jews were dehumanised as vermin, that’s the point. They were not of the volk. They were the opposite of the volk.
Yes, of course it was a deeply twisted and pathological love. In Hitler’s personal case, it wasn’t even real. The German people “let him down” by not proving worthy by winning.
Nevertheless, love of volk and homeland, however twisted and exclusory, was the central emotion of Nazi and Fascist propaganda. They were very good at mobilising people, this was central to their techniques in doing so.
This map brings out that the extermination camps were not on the territory of the volk. https://www.dla.mil/About-DLA/Images/igphoto/2002289759/
Also, most the killing was by death squads (Einsatzgruppen) and local massacres. The Holocaust overwhelmingly happened in the territory of destroyed states and to citizens of destroyed states. Prof. Timothy Snyder is very enlightening on all this.
If your state was not destroyed, and you stayed within its territory, your survival chances as a Jew were much higher. If you lived in, or were transported to, the territory of the destroyed states, your survival chances were appallingly low.
I would guess that the tiny restaurant serves more people for lunch?
The Youtuber Oriental Pearl did some videos on homelessness and slums in Japan. I've really only watched the first one in this list all the way through (edit: and the last two), but it was good.
- https://youtu.be/9MScp3ughxM Something Crazy Happened to Me in Japan's POOREST Slum (she gets a tour)
- https://youtu.be/_5_1DTMSIL4 Japan’s WORST Slum Is Nothing Like Your Country
- https://youtu.be/HDECjSIo7aw The Japan Tourists Don't See: Exploring Tokyo's SECRET Slum
- https://youtu.be/UWxpvy_joUI Why Japan's Homeless are Nothing Like Your Country
- https://youtu.be/EDMpeJo7zl8 How Japan Hides its Homeless Problem from the World
Thanks. I think the most important thing about those videos is not the existence of the slums, but what it tells you about Japan that the poverty is much more hidden than in the US.
A few further observations:
The homeless seem older than is typical in the US. Perhaps a weaker public pension system?
The homeless culture seems less dysfunctional than in the US.
The figure of 10,000 homeless in Japan is actually surprisingly low (if accurate.)
Yes, the Japanese homeless culture does seem to still be Japanese culture. I think we've both seen that US culture lionizes con-artistry, corner cutting, line cutting, and et cetera.
Really loved this post. Never had Japan on my travel aspiration list but it’s on there now. I have an appreciation of some aspects of Japanese culture. Now I want to go there! Thanks Scott
I think you'll enjoy it.
The Japanese do seem fond of reservations. While inconvenient, I like it for two reasons: 1) creates a barrier to entry that keeps the masses at bay (planning/booking our 4-day hiking trip in Japan was quite challenging, even for someone like me who thrives with that sort of logistical coordination); 2) allows them to reduce food waste in the restaurants--lots of places require reservations days in advance, regardless of crowds. Probably part of the reason that the elderly couple can survive with $60 in gross revenue for an entire evening. Doesn't fly in the US where perhaps we just expect to get everything we want whenever we want it.
Of course, we must wonder, how much is all the perfectionism damaging efficiency/productivity? And are the Japanese okay with this trade off or are they simply stuck?
Great post, as always with your travelogues.
What a nice read this was!
Don’t forget bidets! Everywhere in Japan and nowhere in the US. Our toilet technology is centuries behind!
I will point out that your World Series fact only applied early in the series. For the series as a whole, the US averaged 15.8 million viewers, Japan 12.1 million viewers. https://www.mlb.com/news/yankees-dodgers-2024-world-series-viewership
I also wanted to note that this is incredible viewership.
Japanese population is about 1/3 that of the US, though presumably has more adults and elderly as a percentage of the population. About 1/10th of the total Japanese population watched the World series on average, with about 13% watching game two.
Sounds amazing. Of all the Japanese travel posts I’ve read, this is the best.
Why do you like cash?
I'm an old Luddite. I don't like computers or iPhones, probably because I've never been good at operating them. I like simple things that are easy for me to use. I used to go to the movie theatre and plunk down some cash, and get a ticket. Then I started standing behind people using credit cards, and it seemed to take forever. Now you go and they want you to operate a computer to buy your ticket. Then then want you to pick a seat. Why? The theatre's always nearly empty. I just don't like the way technology makes things more complicated over time.
I'm not defending my taste, which is clearly wrong. This stuff is great for young people. I'm just explaining what sort of person I am.
BTW, I don't use drugs, but I like the fact that there is still a medium of exchange that allows people to buy stuff that never should have been banned. Maybe if I get cancer I'll start buying heroin or LSD. Cash will come in handy.
I find this very interesting. I find life is much simpler when I don’t have to carry cash. I literally wave my phone at a machine wherever I go now and that’s it. Cash gets lost, it’s something extra to take with you, you need to count it.
I’m curious about this because when I see older people say cash is simpler I usually assume their brains just aren’t working well, but you have a great blog so that can’t be it! Not being insulting, again I love your work, but the idea of a brain that can write incisive economic analysis while preferring cash for its simplicity is very hard to understand. There must be something where young people find technology a lot more intuitive that’s unrelated to pure intelligence. I’m 39 BTW, so old enough to at least remember when cash was the norm.
My brain is very unbalanced, more so than other intellectuals I read on the internet. When I was young, I struggled with verbal skills (especially foreign languages), and then computer languages when I got older. I am oriented toward being relatively good at visual stuff, as well as a certain type of economic intuition.
Because my brain is so unbalanced, I've always been skeptical of the idea that intelligence is a single thing (although I'd never deny that various types of intelligence are positively correlated-I'm an exception.)
When I read you or Yglesias or Scott Alexander or Tyler Cowen I always think "I could never write that." Not that I don't share some of the insights, but there's something in how your minds work that I'm missing.
Interesting. Thanks.
What blows my mind about the highly verbal is when they think concepts can't exist or emotions be felt without a name for them. I've literally seen people say/write that complex emotions, such as the ones that have German names, wouldn't exist without the names for them.
It seems as though people with highly verbal intelligence have a problem understanding how important compound memories and flashbacks are in understanding the world and one's state.
Good comment. It reminds me of how some people have the false impression that the autistic are not "emotional".
Those people are very odd. If a concept or emotion cannot exist without a name for it, how did it ever come about? Did the name come first and then people tried to find a concept or emotion to fit it? The logic is superb.
I watched "What the Bleep" a long time ago, and in that video this sort of thing was basically attributed to people with special abilities who can first point it out.
I do think some verbally intelligent people delight in mixing up words, so may indeed create words before concepts.
I prefer to use a separate card because my card's battery never dies, but my phone's often does! Also, I've lost several phones in my life, but never a wallet.
I remember years ago reading that people spent more money when they used a card than when they used cash because the cash was tangible and felt like a bigger loss to hand over than to simply sign a receipt. I wonder if that's still true with younger generations today (say, those under 40), especially with contactless payments.
Despite being someone who always uses credit cards, I don't get it. You have to carry your ID at least anyway, so you just keep some cash in your wallet, you never lose it or have to bring something extra. "You have to count it"?? Nowadays there are a lot of places that don't charge tax or processing fee if you pay in cash do sometimes it comes in handy, for tips too.
I never carry my credit card or cash. I just carry my phone. Literally the only thing I need. I’m constantly losing things so this is a big improvement in my quality of life.
That would be nice if I could go sans wallet. Not sure if places that need ID will take a photo? Is that your experience or you just don't need ID ever?
I'm mid 40s but couldn't afford a smartphone when younger. I stuck with a cheap feature phone long enough that the learning curve for a smartphone is now pretty big. I also hate the tiny touch interface, and do not like constant connection. While the payoff to the learning curve might exist, the annoyance factor would always be there.
That said, I use credit cards all the time.
I also use credit cards now, as my wife likes the points we earn. In addition, some places stopped taking cash during Covid.
I guess I just take it for granted. Trust me, it’s easier, and future generations will see cash as insanely inefficient and irrational.
Without cash, how are people in states like Texas expected to buy pot?
I'd bet a large, large fraction of small-time drug purchases are made via peer to peer cash transfer apps like Venmo and Cash App now.
Probably with crypto.
These are good posts, but I must admit that your alto ego, the madman Sumner, who was famous for his incoherent ramblings about how Trump was Hitler, and for his mask/vaccine, lockdown hysteria was 10x better than the rebranded version.
I know the rage is still there. You shouldn't hold back. Just unleash it.
I mean, I've never seen a man panic so much. From Hitler to Napolean, to attacking anyone who advocates for peace as a Putin puppet - the other blog was truly awesome. Better than the best reality show.
Well, my "Napoleon returns from Elba" analogy proved to be pretty prophetic on November 5, wouldn't you admit?
I never said Trump was like Hitler--perhaps you are confusing me with JD Vance or Robert Kennedy Jr. (Equating Trump and Hitler is virtually a prerequisite for a top position in his administration.) Of course I opposed Covid lockdowns, but I do plead guilty for believing vaccines work. And yes, masks do work (imperfectly)---that's why doctors wear them.
I'm one of the biggest advocates of peace in Ukraine. I encourage Putin to stop his invasion.
Thanks for the great post. My family and I took our first trip to Japan last summer and we loved it. One thing that struck me is that in Tokyo there are probably <10% as many public trash cans AND <10% as much litter as in a typical American city. I was so impressed. I don't know how you import that kind of ethic, but we sorely need it.
I do wish they had more trash cans.
Nice observations. Having lived there for ~15 years now, this matches many reasons why most people who stay in Japan do stay there. The cliché of modern meets tradition does have some truth in it. I love that neat to my "mansion" (flat in ~10 floor building), there is a yearly local area festival that I can participate to with music / "worship" of the local deity.
On the economics / aging: the big cities tend to give a "rosy" picture. If you go e.g. in the prefectures north of Tokyo, you seen many mid size (say 50k) cities literaly dying, with the inner city being mostly closed shops. Construction-wise, personal homes tend to feel "cheap" compared to Western Europe. But that may be partially explained by native preference for houses, meaning in e.g. Tokyo 70-80 % of your house price will often be in the land, not leaving much for the construction. If you're interested in how Tokyo came to be architecture-wise, I recommend the book "emergent Tokyo, designing the spontaneous city". E.g. it explains the influence of black market post WW2 on some of the street design, etc. A friend told me Tokyo is the most beautiful ugly city, and I think that captures well a certain aspect of it.
I myself don't understand how most restaurants make any money. It feels almost exploitative to eat so good food for so low price.
Yes, I once did a blog post on Emergent Tokyo.