Japan vs Australia: part 3

Speaking of pedestrian crossings, I have to remind myself that in Australia, they are actually useful. Now at this point I'm not talking about pedestrian crossings with lights, but just the ones with white lines painted on the road. In Australia, cars will (theoretically) actually stop to let you cross here. That's its purpose. In Japan, I don't know what the point is, because you have to pause and wait for all traffic to pass anyway. I suppose if you're crossing at the crossing and a car does come, there's an infinitesimally greater probability of its noticing and stopping.

When I arrived in Japan, I thought 'wow, the apples are really big (and expensive)'. They were more of a light meal than a snack. When I got back to Australia, I thought 'geez, these apples are ridiculously small'.

Similarly, bread. Oh, it's good to have proper, decent-tasting wholemeal bread again - at a fraction of the price. But it does look rather sad and small compared to the huge Japanese loaves.

On the other hand, it's lovely to have a wide range of nice, non-processed cheeses.

While I was in Japan, I heard the news that smoking had been banned in pubs, and therefore everywhere. For some reason I thought this now meant smoking was actually banned everywhere. And every time I sat outside at some Japanese cafe, enjoying the beautiful autumn air right up until some jerk started blowing smoke in my face, I thought 'well, at least in Australia this won't happen'.

Wrong! Wrong! Still perfectly fine outside! This always bugged me, actually. Okay, I sort of believe smokers should have rights, smokers should ideally have a place where they could sit. But I love sitting outside when the weather is nice. I seek out every minute of outdoors I can. It's just not fair that smokers should render all outdoor seating areas unpleasant. I don't want to be forced into the sterile airconditioning.

The toilets in Australia - why is there always toilet paper on the ground? What do people DO? It's almost impossible to find any public toilet without paper all over the place. In Japan, with the exception of some toilets in minor train stations and parks, toilets are kept very clean.