Japan: Mostly Clean, Could Be Cleaner

    When I started studying Japanese, one of cultural differences that my Japanese teacher in college seem to think was very important was the idea that Japanese streets are pristine. She assured us that even in the busiest metropolitan areas of Japan and without garbage cans provided, there was no garbage anywhere. She insisted the streets were home to absolutely no garbage at all because everyone just took their garbage home with them.

    Imagine my surprise when, on my second day in the first little town I was sent to in Japan, I found a fast food wrapper and bag in the park. This was hardly an urban center, but garbage was there on the street, even if in smaller quantities than similar places back home.

While it is a rare sight, the garbage strewn in front of the station plentiful in June.

    My college Japanese teacher was probably trying to ensure than the gruff American students she might take abroad on a summer program weren't going to mess up her homeland and she had been living abroad for a couple of decades, so it is also possible that her memories of the streets of Tokyo were a bit rose-tinted by nostalgia. Either way, I felt betrayed, standing in that park, but also somehow relieved?

    My momentary desire to take a picture of the garbage and send it to her, noting that garbage was on the streets of Japan was really short lived, replaced almost immediately by the realization that this society wasn't so much unlike me after all.

On the side streets and back alleys even of a small town like the one where I live, bits of litter gather.

    Japan is clean and people take care of the space, it is said, and to a large extent, it is true. We can all remember stories of Japanese fans at a World Cup match cleaning their area so thoroughly that it made international headlines. But Japan is not spotless or perfect, as no country or culture truly is. For me, knowing that it isn't a perfect place I am somehow besmirching with my presence makes me a little more comfortable, but that isn't to say that we shouldn't do something about this.

    There are still things I can do to improve my area, even if it's just picking up garbage now and again. These days, I use tongs for this activity and bring a large garbage sack. I have no interest in getting corona from some litterer's cigarette butts.

There's no excuse for this. With 2 convenience stores a block away, each with places where you can put this straight into the recycling, there is no excuse for leaving an empty can on the street. Come on, Japan!

    If everyone in Japan could police their own garbage the way I was told they would, there would be no need for people like me to waste time picking up what they leave behind. If more people had the time and energy to pick up a bit of what lingers on the streets, the place would be even cleaner than it is now. That's what we should be striving for.