Only in Japan: Cleanliness in Japan

While walking through the streets of Tokyo, there is always something catching my eye which is totally different from the place I grew up. Not only is it different from my home country, but perhaps also from many others. The streets and parks at least in Tokyo are mostly very tidy, and you rarely find garbage on the street. The cleanliness in such a big city is really amazing for me and also for many of my friends who come to Japan for the first time. But let's have a look at some of my favorite daily experiences in my neighborhood:

The zen playground
Almost every day I visit the nearby playground with my kid. It's really a very tiny one, with just a sandbox and a few trees around. Really nothing special and not many people even go there. But really every morning a nice worker of the city is cleaning the small area and the sandbox. If you are there early enough, you can see a beautiful zen style in the sandbox, which that worker is putting there every day. Something you really only find in Japan.


The riverside
I like to walk around the Sumida River in Tokyo. Most of the river area has some nice parks which are good for a walk. For me, it's always surprising that it is really rare to find any garbage on the way, even though many people use the parks for a picnic or for parties. Also, the river has low and high tide, that's why the riverbank gets partly very dirty from the river water. Often you can find dead fish, shells or other garbage, when it is low tide. Surprisingly though, all that garbage will be completely cleaned by some staff members of the city ward after one day. At least the ward I'm living in is keeping its city very clean!


The neighbor with the chopsticks
When I lived in a more rural area of Japan, many older people lived around me. One of my former neighbors had seemed to be very happy to clean the street in front of her house. Every week she used long cooking chopsticks to pick up leaves or other garbage to clean the area around her house. Kind of a good idea when you don't have a broom or don't want to use your hands, but it always made me smile, when I saw it.


Diapers
Since having a small kid, I often have to change diapers also when we are out in a park or city. Many shopping centers and also parks nowadays have special garbage bins for diapers, but sometimes it's hard to find one. Most of the Japanese moms carry the used diapers the whole day around till they can throw them away at home. This can be sometimes really a stinky burden if your kid made a dump, but it is totally normal here not to throw them in a normal garbage bin.


Have you also experienced those cleaning habits of Japanese?