In my highly unscientific polling of friends that have visited Japan, “Amazing” is the number one term used to describe trip. “Really amazing” is a close second. I see no reason to be a contrarian: Our trip was “amazing”.

People have asked about my favorites, be it food, places or experiences. I’m not always so good at picking favorites, and I don’t want to bore you with a recounting of the entire trip (for that see the photos in this section). So, here are a couple things that immediately come to mind.

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Photo of a poster with a drawing of a group of people walking while hunched over using their mobile phones. The text in Japanese asks people to stop using their phone while walking and look up.
A poster in the Tokyo metro.

I enjoy good signage, and the signs and posters in Japan are particularly interesting. This may be because I can’t read the text and it looks kind of cool. However, the bright colors and drawings must make these grab the attention of even the most jaded Japanese speaker.

What follows is a sampling of what I saw, in no particular order…

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