I constantly find myself daydreaming about Tokyo. I suppose after spending an extended period of time anywhere, a piece of your heart remains. Quite often I imagine I’m standing on a platform, waiting for a train to arrive, or sitting down to eat sukiyaki, dipping thin strips of pork into a layer of boiling water and tasting the freshly-cooked, tasty meat.

So I’ve come up with this list (which could be exhaustive in my mind): the things I miss about Tokyo. It does not include ALL of the things I miss, but touches on several of the main ones. Those iGosians who’ve spent time in Tokyo hopefully will connect with some of these things. For those of you who’ve never been to Tokyo, or maybe are planning to go in the future, my second list may prove more helpful (see below). Hope you enjoy!

Top 20ish Things I Miss Most About Tokyo (in no particular order):

1.  Walking on the left side of the road/staircase.
2.  The many smells on the side of the street, especially yakisoba.
3.  The brilliant invention of unlimited hot water in the shower.
4.  Bowing.
5.  Always being greeted when walking into a store.
6.  The challenge of trying to survive Shibuya crossing without touching anyone.
7.  Rush-hour train rides and thirteen complete strangers touching you simultaneously.
8.  The neatness and cleanliness of the streets, people, and culture.
9.  Rain (and thus slightly cooler weather) during the summer months.
10. Onsens
11. Taking ALL shoes off at the door.
12. Sitting on the floor.
13. Chopsticks.
14. The way most Japanese are so shy about their English, when in all actuality they’re pretty fluent.
15. Escalators everywhere.
16. Sorting trash.
17. Pink toilet paper.
18. The Elvis dancers, drummers, bagpipe players, skateboarding bulldog, and so much more that can be found in Yoyogi park any given Sunday.
19. Heated toilet seats.
20. Umbrella plastic bags to keep people from tracking water into businesses.
21. The 4am sunrises (yes, I’m an early-bird).
22. Morning jogs through Yoyogi park.
23. Karaoke nights out.
24. Umbrella wars.

And now for those of you who’ve never been, but may be planning to go…

The Top 5 Things one is tempted to do while in Tokyo, and which are usually highly unadvisable:

5. Making no attempt to read the Trashcan labels, and discarding your garbage into whichever one is nearest.
4. Laughing out loud and pointing out to the Japanese all of their Engrish mistakes.
3. Dousing all your food in soy sauce.
2. Increasing the volume of your speech so as to make the Japanese better understand your English.
1. Yelling “Somebody’s touching me!” during rush hour while on a crowded train.