A few observations while in Japan.

1) books are smaller, usually about 15cm tall, almost no edge space and printed on recycled paper (non-white). This is also true for identical books, which are sold in the U.S. such as Freakonomics, the Japanese version (in English) is much smaller and space is used tightly. There is no space on the margins, virtually. Also most books are in the same format.

2) a cup of Japanese coffee is 5 to 10 times as expensive as Vietnamese coffee. It has more volume and is lighter in taste in Japan.

3) bathrooms offer a lot more options: seat heater, washing pressure adjustments, and different stalls with three versions of toilets ( squat version, “standard” – what I call, and “Japanese” toilet).