Weirdly wonderful Japan.
Living in Japan feels like stepping between two worlds, one moment I’m paying for a license with a paper stamp, the next I’m riding a self-driving bus.
It’s a daily dance between old-school charm and futuristic tech, and honestly, that’s what makes life here so fascinating.
The Quirky Blend of Tradition and Technology in Japan
Japan is a country of contradictory experiences, one day you are faxing a document, the next day you are filling in the next document completely online. Sometimes the difference between of a month can mean printing, filling in, scanning, and emailing the document, or the whole process is done online.
This isn’t just part of the business world here in Japan, it can also be a part of the whole experience. Let me be clear, the whole of Japan isn’t some cyberpunk-esque world with feudal Japan intermixed with it. Even Tokyo isn’t Neo Tokyo. In fact, I’ve seen the buses use an old disk drive while in some places they were testing out self-driving buses.
The differences are more like, oh, yes they used to use that back when the internet was not really a thing and oh, they are testing this tech out in the most advanced cities in the hope of it working.
The Most High-Tech, Low-Tech Day of My Life
Unfortunately, this causes some issues that are truly hilarious in that they didn’t need to exist. A while back I had to renew my driver’s license, this was probably one of the scariest and easiest things I’ve had to do. The thing that stood out to me was that the whole process is semi-automated, from getting the notice to getting the forms took little to no effort. Then I had to wait in line to pay the fee….. where they placed a physical paper stamp in the form to prove that I paid… only to have me head to the next area to have my eyes checked and the information written in pen on the card. When the photos were taken it was done digitally and all the information that was written in the eye exam seemed to be already there.
There were a couple more steps, but in the end my card was done mainly on the digital data, leaving me to once again wonder why things had to be done the slow way sometimes.
Contrast this to my experiences with the town hall I go to, where everything is basically handled effectively, quickly, and most importantly, digitally.
Now, I’m not saying that the contrast is not present in all countries. What I am saying is that if you have a picture-perfect view of Japan, then you’ll be disappointed to learn it is actually just a normal place. A great normal place yes but still a normal place.
All the videos, songs, images, and graphics displayed on this page belong to their respective owners or channel. AnimeFanatika does not claim any right over them. Please support the creators by subscribing and liking their content.
We loved putting this article together for your enjoyment and hope you enjoyed the read just as much! If you found it helpful or fun, share the love by posting it on your favourite social media platform.