In a recent survey, Japanese folks were asked why they were glad to be born in Japan - top 20 results ranked as follows.
1st：Has four distinct seasons
2nd：Tap water is drinkable
3rd：Has tasty food
4th：Has tasty rice
5th：Has entertaining anime and manga
6th：Safe society because of the strict gun control
7th：Pickpocketing aren't as frequent as overseas
8th：Trains are punctual (apology given even with a few minutes delay)
9th：No military conscription
10th：Is economically wealthy
11th：Toilet technology
12th：Love the Japanese language which allows a wide range of expression with wordplay and onomatopoeia
13th：Has amazing convenience food technology
14th：The otaku culture is entertaining
15th：Can see cherry blossoms in spring
16th：Convenience stores are everywhere
17th：Has good fish because the country is surrounded by sea
18th：Contributed to the video game culture
19th：Has a wide variety of culture
20th：Has big cities, countryside and cities like Kyoto
I may not have been born here in Japan (have permanent residence now though) but there is a lot that I love about the Land of the Rising Sun - some of which I covered in the How Discovering Japan Changed My Life post. This first photo is of Mount Fuji - one of my fave things about Japan.
One of my fave things about living in Japan is that everyday is a new discovery which I try to capture in photos as much as possible - check out the Japan category for more.
Ranked in at first place is "Has four distinct seasons" - one of my fave things too. Summer is boiling hot and Winter is bitterly cold leaving Spring and Autumn just right - although Spring does come with hay fever though ><
You can see more of Japan in the Winter in the photo posts below.
While you can see more of Japan in the Summer in the posts listed up below.
Ranked in at 5th place is "Has entertaining anime and manga" - is also one of the reasons how I discovered Japan. This photo taken at the studios of an Anime production house called Production IG - more in the How Anime is Made post.
Ranked in at 8th place is "Trains are punctual (Will apologize even with a few minutes delay)" - trains over here are so punctual that you can set your watch by them. When they are late, they will make an apology and issue you with a certificate so that you can show to your boss proving that your lateness was because of the train and not because you was up watching anime all night.
The trains also from time to time come with very tired salary men like this one.
More photos like this in the A Week in Tokyo category where I cover life in Japan.
Ranked in at 11th place is "Toilet technology" - I'm presuming in particular the type where you dont need to smear the brown stuff all over your bottom to make skid marks. This is our toilet at home fitted with a washlet - many homes in Japan come with toilets like this meaning that you can wash your bottom with the press of a few buttons.
More photos taken around my house in this post. And if you are thinking of buying a house then check out this post - needs updating though.
Ranked in at 12th place is "Love the Japanese language which allows a wide range of expression with wordplay and onomatopoeia" - I learned Japanese from scratch on my own without any knowledge of Chinese characters and if you constantly remained focus then there is no reason why you cant too. But I think that the reason why it was easy to pick up is because Japanese is truly such a fun language to learn and speak.
I developed this product called Moekana - a set of cards that help folks learn the basic Japanese syllabary called Hiragana - we sold tens of thousands of packs worldwide and are in the middle of developing more.
Ranked in at 14th is "The otaku culture is entertaining" - it certainly is and you can see more photo coverage of the Japanese Pop Culture world in this category.
Ranked in at 15th place is "Can see cherry blossoms in spring" - this photo was taken at Naka Meguro - more Sakura Cherry Blossom photos here.
Ranked in at 16th place is "Convenience stores are everywhere" - filled to the brim with stuff that you actually want to buy. I've been to quite a few convenient stores around the world and some of them are kinda sad ><
Ranked in at 18th is "Contributed to the video game culture" - I love games and have been trying to find more time of late to get back into gaming.
This photo taken at Tokyo's leading retro game store Super Potato - photos here.
Beyond the top 20 are answers such as "Japanese girls are cute" - and indeed they are just like this one here - this is Mimori Suzuko who often appears on my TV Show Culture Japan. This particular photo was taken when we were in Hong Kong together - more photos here.
And the episode of Culture Japan below is where we went round cutting folks in Osaka with an invisible katana.
The "Japanese girls are cute" answer usually includes 2D girls like the Mirai Millennium girls - read more about them here.
Also included outside of the top 20 is "Fastest internet speeds in the world" - 1GB Optic fibre connections are the norm over here at reasonable prices too. This chap is installing some optics in our house and you can read more about high speed Internet connections in Japan in this post.
What are your favorite things about the Land Of The Rising Sun?
There is a poll embedded in this article.
While we are at it - may as well ask what you dislike most about Japan.
There is a poll embedded in this article.
And how about the country you were born in? What are you most glad about?
