Kristina in Tokyo: Top Ten: Tokyo conveniences

As my time in Tokyo winds to a close, (one month left!) I think it's appropriate to count down some of the top ten things that I've seen so far in

Japan

and in the other countries I've visited. So here goes list ichi-ban!

10. The hiru-gohan setto
Japan is expensive, but hiru-gohan (lunch) in Tokyo is surprisingly well-priced if you go for the setto (Set, natch! But don’t call it a “set.” They won’t understand you. It’s setto.) which are usually 1,000-yen or less (about $8) If you go for Italian, you get a big bowl of pasta, salad, bread, coffee and dessert. Traditional Japanese? A nice bowl of specialty rice with fish entrée, salad, pickles, and tea. Can’t beat it. You’ll pay three times as much for the same food at dinner.

9. You never need to buy tissues!
This might sound preposterous, but it is absolutely true. If you make a visit to the busier areas of Tokyo, such as Shinjuku and Shibuya, you can collect all the free tissues that you ever could possibly need. There are people employed to hand out advertisements near the Metro stations and along the busy roads, and sometimes these advertisements are on the outside of packs of tissues. It's far more likely that a passerby will take a free pack of tissues than a piece of paper. Suckers! I can't read your ad anyways! Which, come to think of it, is probably why sometimes they look pissed to give the tissues to gaijin like yours truly...

8. It’s a toilet seat, it’s a massager … it’s both!
You know the drill. You’re comfy in bed, it’s 3 a.m., and you have to pee. You slog out of bed, head to the bathroom, sit down, and gahhhh … that seat is cold! Not in Japan. The "Western" toilet seats here are a hoot for the unfamiliar. They have a seat heater, so your bum is nice and toasty while you sit and I found one with a massager as well. There are also some other buttons that may give you a surprise burst of water. There’s a “flushing noise” button that makes a fake flush sound so that people in the next stalls can’t hear you peeing. Pretty convenient, I’d say. But only if you can get a Western toilet … the Japanese toilets (a hole in the ground that necessitates girls taking off their pant leg) are markedly inconvenient.

7. Large bill, no problem It’s unthinkable to imagine sticking a $100 bill into a machine in the U.S., but in Japan, which is a cash-based society, you can go to the arcade, stick a 10,000-yen note in the coin machine and get back 10 100-yen coins, 4 1,000-yen notes and a 5,000-yen note. You can buy a Coke from a vending machine with a 1,000-yen bill. In the U.S., they’d kill you if you tried to buy a pack of gum with a $100. Here, no problem.

6. Health insurance cheap and easy
Japan's national health insurance system is a marvel. You walk into your local metropolitan office, fill out a form with your name, address, and salary, and you are signed up for health insurance. No worries about preexisting conditions, questions about family members, etc. They mail you your bill, which in my case, came out to a mere 800-yen a month. Speaking of…

5. Bill paying never looked so good
Instead of wasting time and money going to the yuubin kyoku (post office) for stamps, you can pay all of your bills (electric, gas, phone card, health insurance, etc.) at the convenience stores. They scan a little barcode on the bill, you pay, and they give you a receipt. Wicked easy, dude.

4. Fast train? You mean you've never heard of the Tokyo densha? Ahh, transportation in Tokyo... It's expensive, it's confusing, but man, when you figure it out, boy is it fast and convenient. Trains run all the time, sometimes less than five minutes apart especially on the JR Yamanote line. And the Shinkansen (bullet trains) are pretty famous. Trains here are almost never late and people freak out if they are, and the station managers hand out little slips which workers can give to their bosses as an apology on behalf of the railway company. Very convenient excuses, very convenient train lines. Not to mention that with dozens of train stations, you have to spend less time navigating Tokyo's inconvenient address-free streets.

3. Beer at your command
Ahh, the vending machines. They're curtailing some of these in the interests of Japan youth not getting their hands on ciggies and beer while underage (and there used to be vending machines featuring porn and other unsavories). But can you really beat vending machines that offer up beer at any time of day? What about HOT beverages and food? There you go.

2. Keitai denwa - Japanese cell phones rock the house
What can your cell phone do? My Japanese keitai denwa can scan barcodes, send emails, browse the Web, sent short messages to friends. It has an alarm clock that plays music, a calculator, a camera, a video camera, a calendar, a notepad, and the ability to look at images of the earth. And my cell phone was free. Keitai denwa are one of Tokyo's status symbols and more expensive upgraded versions can do even more. They act as mp3 players, GPS tracking devices, portable video game players, and so on and so on...

1. Good food, cheap prices at konbini - it's actually convenient!
We all know about Seven-Elevens in the U.S. They're horrible. The food in the refrigerator section is nasty, three-day old junk that's chock full of processed cold cuts and is horribly overpriced. If you want to run out to a convenience store because you forgot to buy mustard or cheese or something, you're going to pay twice as much (or more) for the same thing you get at the supermarket. Not in Japan! Some people do ALL of their shopping at the konbini, (or combini) which is unthinkable in the U.S. The best combini I have come across is right near my apartment, called the Daily Hot Yamazaki, which pairs up a bakery with a convenience store. You can get everything from batteries to wine and beer to batteries and office supplies to full meals here. And fresh bread and desserts as well. Lots of TUJ students eat their dinner at the konbini, because they serve full rice meals that are fairly tasty and they heat them up right there for you. Oh, and they're open 24/7.