A Tale of Two (Japanese) Cities

A compare/contrast of two cities in Japan: Kyoto and Tokyo. 

FYI: this is not as Dickensian as the original....

Even in 93 degrees and 100% humidity, it’s acceptable/preferred Japanese for women in Kyoto and Tokyo wear pantyhose. (I can’t even imagine.....)

Tokyo style and fashion is pretty monochromatic and subdued in color. Lots of whites, blacks, grays, and navy blues. Much more color is worn by women in Kyoto. Men, it’s basically the same as Tokyo. White shirt. Black pants. Black shoes. 

Tokyo is more white collar, business oriented in dress, at least the places we happened to visit. We did visit some smaller hip areas of Tokyo, where ironically enough, American fashion brands and logos were dominant. Even so, it stayed pretty professional. Kyoto, on the other hand, is much younger and more hip. 

Lots more American and international tourists in Kyoto. The only places you noticed tourists in Tokyo were the big attractions: Shibuya Crossing, the Tokyo Observation deck, the Robot Resturaunt (yup, that’s a thing!).

Nightlife in Kyoto is intense! Lots of nightclubs and afterhour hotspots. LOTS of young people at intersections, music blasting, promoting clubs and latenight entertainment. I only saw this on one or two streets in Tokyo, and it happened to be where the Robot Resturaunt was—a Mecca for tourists.

Oh, it should go without saying. Tokyo has a Robot Resturaunt. Kyoto does not.

In both cities, I was pleasantly surprised to witness the amount of seemingly healthy, fit, elderly people shopping, walking, biking, and taking public transportation on their own, living independent lives. 

In both Kyoto and Tokyo, we may have seen maybe two or three overweight people. Total.

Stores don’t open until 10 am in Japan. That’s true for both cities.

Everyone in Japan, and this is true for both cities, is polite to a fault. But not necessarily friendly. There’s a distinct difference.

In every single place, tourist attraction, dining experience, museum, public transportation experience, as white/caucasians, we were in the extreme minority. In fact, there were many times where Pete and I were the only white people.  That is an experience that many white people in this country, I would guess, have never had before. I would highly recommend it. It’s a very empathy-inducing experience.

In Kyoto and Tokyo both, I noticed that people don’t interact and talk with each other in public situations very often. At the bus stop or on the metro, for example. In fact, there are many times Pete and I rode the metro in Kyoto and Tokyo and it was completely silent. You could hear a pin drop. It’s just not what they do culturally; everyone keeps to themselves (Pete loved this aspect of the culture, while I found it challenging 😏).

In both cities, it’s socially acceptable for men to carry handbags and satchels. Similar to Europe. In fact, everyone carries a bag pretty much everywhere. Backpacks are very popular, even for professionals.

Style in Tokyo and Japan is pretty “western” in clothing, more so than I had expected.  The only people dressing in traditional Japanese garb (think “Memoirs of a Geisha”) were young people who wanted that dress-up experience wearing kimonos, wooden sandals, etc. Apparently, this is popular enough thatvthere are even establishments that specialize in daily renting traditional Japanese dress-up clothes as a novelty. Some places will even do your hair and makeup, if you want. Seeing these “fake geishas” (that’s what our Kyoto tour guide Akiko called them) is not common in Tokyo, but much more common in Kyoto. This is also a popular past time among tourists. Even non-Asian tourists....

Japanese in both cities love to queue! In Kyoto, there are many small resturaunts that can only seat 10-15 people at a time. So, Japan has implemented a system to address waitlists. Many resturaunt have clipboards outside their buildings for people to write their names and be added to the queue. Then, people wait outside in a line until their name is called. No one takes advantage of this system. Everyone respects the process. It’s quite lovely.

Kyoto has ten times the amount of restaurants than Tokyo. And as I just mentioned, they are quite small. Everything we ate in both cities was incredibly delicious. 

Starbucks is gaining popularity in Japan, both in Tokyo and Kyoto. But only with young people. There were definitely more Starbucks in Tokyo than Kyoto.

Kyoto taxi cars had these ornate white lace liners used as seat covers inside the cars. They were even put on the edges of the car doors. Drivers in Kyoto also wore white gloves. Didn’t see this at all in Tokyo.

Japanese women—only a few, but definitely enough for me to notice!—like perms. Apparently curly hair has its appeal in Japan!