The Japanese are fastidious rule followers. If there are rules or instructions for something –and there are alway instructions for everything– you can bet that 99.99% of people will follow them.

• You’re not supposed to eat & drinking while out in public, so nobody does (except ignorant me when I first arrived):

• Everybody wears a mask, and when you’re not, you’re not supposed to talk. So trains & restaurants are eerily quiet all the time (though pubs get crazy with light chatter throughout):

• Lines on the ground as to where to queue? People perfectly line up exactly on the marked spots:

(seeing my bags not perfectly in the correct spot in that pic honestly just made me uncomfortable – I’ve clearly been here awhile)

• Smoking is only allowed in specified places & boxes, even outside, so that’s the only place you’ll find folks smoking:

The rule following is probably why it’s so orderly, clean, and safe here, and why everything works just as it should.

But it can also be frustrating. Perhaps the best example of this is that nobody jaywalks or crosses the street when the the walk sign is red, no matter how small the street.

It’s maddening, really. Don’t believe me? Check out this scene (which is not uncommon at all) where it’s late and not busy at all, it’s a smaller side street, there are no cars coming for blocks & blocks, and it’s snowy freezing out. So, you’d think that everybody would just want quickly get inside somewhere. Yet there we are waiting. And waiting: