Living in Tokyo/Japan-The things you didn't expect.

I've lived here long enough now that I no longer really think about things which I originally found odd, they've just become "normal" to me. I don't mean the kinds of things you hear about on all the websites and blogs like trash nazis and no driers, those are all things I expected and was prepared for, I mean the things that I didn't expect. Recently i've been reading some blogs from foreign women in Japan who have been here far longer than me that brought up some of these forgotten oddities.

1) You will accumulate much more trash living here than in the states. And as you've heard everywhere, dealing with it is a constant burden. The noticeable increase in trash is due to several factors:

-Items in Japan tend to have more unnecessary packaging. Sometimes this is for the presentation of the item and sometimes it just seems totally useless. Check out this packaging for some yummy cookies. You have main outer wrapper, a plastic tray, AND individually wrapped items. IMO they should have it individually packaged without the tray or have them not individually packaged and keep them in the tray, you don't need both.

Now I know items in the states have such unnecessary packaging as well but it seems much more common in japan and Japan just LOVES to individually wrap stuff. If you go to the konbini to get meals you'll notice how much waste 1 bento produces. You have the bag it came in, the plastic wraping on the chopsticks or spoon/fork, the shink wrap on the item, the lid, and the foam or plastic tray/container. Thankfully my ward has recently started collecting foam trays as recycling, so I don't feel so bad about the waste anymore.

-You will get tons of bags for everything. Now this can be reduced by using an eco bag, which I highly recommend as it's more comfortable to carry and some stores have incentives for using them. But somehow you will still gain massive amounts of plastic bags. Store clerks will give you a bag for even a tiny mundane little item, and they even have tiny little plastic bags just for that purpose. If you go to the konbini it's even worse, not only do they have tiny plastic bags but they will separate the hot and cold items into different bags (which okay, it actually kinda is necessary but still.) And then even if you use an eco bag at the grocery you will probably end up using little plastic bags for your produce and any wet drippy items like meat so it doesnt make a mess. Also the clerk will RARELY ask you if you want a bag, they will usually just give you one. The amount of plastic bag waste I used to have was so insane I'd have 2 large trashbags at the twice weekly pickup. Now i've made an effort to refuse a bag if I already have one which the item will fit into. Also i've made an effort to save every plastic bag I get and use it as a trashcan liner (the small ones are the perfect size for bathroom trashcans), to seal up items which will rot, or any other use I have for them because I get so many here I just feel guilty to throw the bag away after one use.

-Probably the number one reason for the excessive trash is items are just packaged in smaller containers. People here have smaller homes and storage areas, plus they mostly walk to the store and need smaller items that are easier to carry home. So obviously this results in more waste than using one larger container. Also it's very difficult to find large value sized items here unless you go to a wholesaler like Costco or a specialty store.

Now before I lived here I never thought twice about my garbage, It never occurred to me that I was producing an excessive amount. This can be partially due to having to pay more attention to my trash for sorting but I think it's mostly because there is just so much more of it. I never would have reused a plastic bag or taken notice of unnecessary packaging before, but now I think about it in the back of my head every time i'm shopping.