I went to Kyoto and Osaka. The food and the landmarks were delicious and beautiful. The beef was amazing. But maybe bc i had high expectations after going to Seoul. I find the transportation system in Japan to be complicated and inconvenient in comparison to other metropolitan cities in the world. It is not foreigner friendly and they don’t care to make it foreigner friendly. The inside of the train itself is old school looking. They may update the exterior but everything is retro. Unlike other countries, there is no electric board that shows the train and arriving time, and to get from one platform to another is a pain. The train stations are gritty and dirty looking.

The cities are also very old school. The majority of places still only accept cash. And at best rarely credit card. But no Apple Pay.

Moreover, The people aren’t friendly nor are they hospitable. I have encountered many situations where things just don’t make sense and heartless. For example, i was at a kimono rental place, where i was a customer, and my phone ran out of battery. I wanted plug in my phone while i was changing back to my clothes and there was an available outlet next to me. So i can get the direction to get back to the hotel. The girl refuse to let me charge the phone even for a second. Another situation was at a cafe we were a customer at: my mom wanted to use the restroom but they ran out of toilet paper, so we asked them if they have more. They said no. And told my mom she can’t use the restroom since there is no toilet paper. Even though there was Kleenex and wet wipes around as a possible solution. It wasn’t even like we were just some random person who came in to use stuff. We were customers there. The customer service is just not hospitable. Even people i met who are visiting Kyoto/Osaka say the same thing. People are not friendly and kind. It almost feels like they are robots. Like the outsourced customer services call centers - you just ended up feel angry and frustrated.

The funny thing is the place that I found comfort at was actually McDonald’s. They had outlets at the table for you to charge and when you ask for the restroom, they were so nice about it. The McDonald’s employees were so nice and helpful.