Why Japan?
Questions
Map
About
Map
Where to see it in Japan
Places that come up in the episodes. Tap a pin for the story behind it.
Why Do Japanese People Take Off Their Shoes?
Edo Castle (Imperial Palace East Gardens), Tokyo
Where the American envoy Townsend Harris walked in wearing brand-new shoes in 1857.
Kyu-Iwasaki-tei Gardens, Tokyo
The Mitsubishi founders’ home: a Western wing beside a Japanese house, built in the 1890s.
Ise Grand Shrine, Mie
Japan’s most sacred shrine — and the rumor about a minister’s shoes in 1887.
Why Is There No Tipping in Japan?
Hakone, Kanagawa
Hot-spring inn town. In 1909 only two inns here had dropped “tea money,” the old tip at inns.
Why Is Japan So Clean With So Few Trash Cans?
Oze National Park
A high marshland with no public trash cans at all — the birthplace of “carry your trash home.”
Omotesando, Tokyo
Solar-powered bins that crush trash and report when they are full (installed 2020).
Kamikatsu, Tokushima
A small mountain town where residents sort trash into more than forty categories.
Shibuya Station area, Tokyo
Street drinking is banned around the station from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m. (since October 2024).
Why Japan?