Discovering places while learning different culture and lifestyle is the most practical way to learn new things for me.

In a span of a year, my family flew abroad three times, once in Hong Kong and Macau in December 2024 and twice in Japan just this May 2025 and July 2024. Most likely the experiences have instilled cultural, ethical and economic realizations for me because we don’t just normally visit historic places, we also observe the folk’s way of life and oh, shop a lot.

Japan is always our favorite to go country not only because my siblings and their families still live there, or I used to be a resident of the country, but because everything Japanese is just admirable, deep and almost perfect.

Currently, we stayed for seven days at Tokyo district in Katsushika, which is quiet and away from the hustles and bustles of the capital. In the corner of our accommodation, my husband was fond of this bar which he visited every night with our friend, after our day activities with the kids. He called it, “Happy hour.” aside from loving their tasty pork grills, he had fun sharing common topics with “tired” Japanese, as he described. Despite the language barrier, I knew they understood each other through his amusing stories.

I remember arriving in Japan late night and exited Ueno Station for a bowl of ramen, but it was hard to find a place to eat, because my daughter is a minor and she is strictly not allowed to get in all restaurants serving alcohol from 10PM, as obviously, men and women still in their work clothes occupy most of the tables.

I could also recall walking around main streets in Shibuya with my husband around 10PM because he wanted to capture the most crowded, “scramble crossing” in the world, but we were surprised that the night is on a hype — not just co-incidental to when we visited but every single day. You can see adults, identifiably, youth circling with friends in city parks or just anywhere, holding a can of beer, very engaging, dancing, laughing, or even joking around strangers like they are not the typical shy or introvert Japanese the world knows! People litter and smoke everywhere, literally throwing their junks on the street without any care, you would easily judge and hate them, as if you’d burst, “What the heck, I don’t know who these people are.”

However, I am glad this is happening! Because a few hours prior to midnight, they spend all their energy and time at work, standing for more than eight hours at factories, carrying heavy machines and industrial parts, or drowning their time and brain in science and technology advancement, or in my personal experience, teaching at school and at a language center from 8AM until 8PM way back. Japanese deserve an hour or two relaxing the way they please for as long as they cause no harm to others, for damn sake of their mental health, because every day of their life they are expected to be consistently “yasashi” (kind) and “majime” (diligent) as if there is no room for waiting or sitting, and minutes of delay at work isn’t even permissible, no matter how shattered they feel inside. So yes, they’re totally allowed to be drunk, to forget the bad and remember the good, with or without reasons at all. Drinking and merry-making aren’t just like occasional festivities in the land of the rising sun. They’re a huge part of Japanese’ way of survival, getting ready for another battlefield.

Did you know that after all the mixture of fun and chaos, before the sun says hello, while everyone is deeply asleep, Nippon’s crowded and lively districts – as such Shibuya, becomes mess-free leaving no traces of the night , more than ready to smitten aliens like us again, with its green and modernity balance, which is something distinct and extraordinary about Japanese discipline.