Japan musings: fact or ficiton

Whenever you go on a trip somewhere, you do a bit of research right? I'd done plenty of reading up about 'how things are' in Japan and it was interesting to see which things turned out to be true and which a bit of an exaggeration.

Here are a few things I noticed:

Wi-fi
What I read: that there aren't many wi-fi hotspots, even in Tokyo
What I found: this is still the case. We hired a portable hotspot to keep in touch and be able to check online maps etc. We used this one PuPuRu.

Smoking
What I read: that everywhere was really really smokey
What I found: it was okay, less smokey than when you could smoke inside here. You can't smoke in the street in Tokyo either so, thats quite nice.

People
What I read: that people on the whole are very polite
What I found: that people were on the whole very considerate, though I don't speak Japanese so I don't know if anyone was rude to me verbally ;) It was noticeable in public places like food courts; if someone left something to 'save' a table, no one would move it or sit there. I saw people leave anything from  a scarf or their hand towel (a little towel for drying your hands since they don't have paper towels in public toilets) to a baby.

Prices
What I read: that it is really really expensive to buy anything; that apples are £20
What I found: Tokyo prices were similar to other capital cities I've been to. Yes there was mega expensive fruit. I don't think I really ate any fruit whilst I was there. Except those amazing strawberry sweets. They count right? I love Hi-Chews.

There are probably more things. I wrote a post about toilets - yes there are super hi-tech ones, but also super low-tech.