Two illustrative anecdotes based on my experience (I’ve lived in both countries):
Woman sitting near me in a coffee shop in Taipei this morning: talks for a long time on her phone about personal stuff, business stuff, no regard to whether the people around her want to hear all this, she is doing her thing.
Man in coffee shop in Tokyo earlier this month: discretely steps out before using his phone to not disturb people around him, even though—maybe especially because—he doesn’t know us.
Which is better? Do what you want, with lots of freedom—or have more restrictions, and think about others?
I agree this is largely a personal preference. I know where my preferences lies.
Tokyo is one of the largest cities in the world. I think maybe 2 or 3 on the list? There’s a lot there for sure and I would say with more things to keep you busy. World famous food culture as well.
Taipei is probably one of the most laid back cities in a developed country I’ve been to if not the most in this regard.
Both are extremely safe and relatively clean for major cities. Both have good public transport and affordable with Japan.
One more thing you might want to take into consideration is how different you’d like your lifestyle to be from home. When I visited Japan last year, it basically felt like home (the US) to me. I felt very much still in the “real world”. There wasn’t much “exotic-ness” or novelty. Well, except maybe the tiny cars. I couldn’t get over the tiny cars.
What I love about Taiwan (especially Southern Taiwan) is I feel like I’m on a perpetual vacation here. It feels VERY exotic to me, and VERY different from the US. I feel like I’m in some kind of dream world. Kind of like a never-ending honeymoon period.
But, why? A cafe is not a library. I know this would really wind me up if I lived in Japan. The arbitrary rule following here already has me at my limit (masks, swimming pool etc)
Interesting. My most recent trip was to Tokyo and the countryside around Ito, and everything just reminded me of New England throughout my whole trip.
Single-family homes with yards, sloped roofs, and attached garages, quiet car-centric (un-walkable) suburbs laid out in a grid pattern, lack of scooters, lack of pedestrians, sparse population, maple leaves in a variety of Fall colors, snow-capped mountains, vending machines instead of humans selling out of a street-side stall, very organized traffic, no night markets. Most of all, everyone and everything was quiet wherever I went. Nobody honked. Ever.
And then Tokyo reminded me of any other large, dense city in the West. No scooters, everyone walked and took public transit, all cars yielded to pedestrians, malls everywhere, a dedicated downtown business district that was well-separated from the residential districts and became quiet after 7pm, no mixed-use residence/commercial buildings, nobody living above their shops, etc.
I guess to summarize, Japan just felt like any other first-world country to me.
Same. I too felt like it was another planet. I’ve been there many times and can speak a bit but it has always felt other-worldly to me (when compared to US).
One thing I particularly like about the small towns and villages where I live is there are no American fast food restaurants. No Starbucks. No McDonalds. Just authentic local restaurants and shops.
I agree all over the line. But working culture in JP, especially in the corporate sector, is quite toxic, much more so than TW. Super conservative to the extreme of bigotry.
