Five Things You Didn't Know About Tokyo

Above, lots of people at Asakusa's Nakamise Street, but no trash on the ground.  Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Viator's "Things To Do: Tokyo" has an interesting article on "Five Things You Didn't Know About Tokyo."

It begins with:

Tokyo is a bustling, bright city on the cutting edge of fashion, food, and technology. Underneath the surface, though, Japan’s capital has a few secrets. Here are five things you probably didn’t know about Tokyo.

Each item I am very familiar with. The first item I immediately noticed during my first visit to Tokyo in 2001.

I will share it:

No public trash cans 

“Wherefore art thou, Trash Can?” might have been Juliet’s line in Romeo and Juliet if it had been set in Tokyo. Public trash cans don’t exist… but neither does trash. The city is nearly spick-and-span. This is due, in part, to cultural etiquette; it’s considered rude to eat and drink while walking – limiting bottles, cans, wrappers, napkins, and other food trash. For the times you have trash on you, prepare to hold on to it until you spot a rare receptacle or get back to your hotel.

I marveled at how clean the city streets were, but also took notice that there were no trash cans anywhere to be found. I have since learned where to find them or, as the above recommends, held on to the item to be trashed until I returned to my hotel. About the only place I've noticed a lot of trash on the ground was at the Hachiko statue in Shibuya.

To see the other four "secrets," go here.