tl:dr
1. there are factories everywhere; hundreds of kms on the train and there's factories left and right
2. the koreans are taller and more beautiful as an ethnicity; the japs seem more wise
3. the youth has facial skin problems, visibly more than in korea
4. every street, every square meter of field is maintained and taken care of
5. things are cheap, cheaper than korea and way cheaper than back home (I filled a bag with groceries for 11E)
6. ticketing sucks ass, very ass backwards
7. gotta carry some cash
8. very few signs in english in restaurants
9. they are polite but you can feel they look down on westerners as rude and uncivilized (rightfully so); felt it less in korea
10. the sun light is special, just like in the anime; they really have that shade of light; never seen it before and i thought it was a meme but it isn't
11. there's hardly any food that isn't wrapped in plastic - europe easy win here
12. lots of fatties, like in korea
13. clean. clean. clean
14. people in the subway going home from work look destroyed; as if they have no energy to do anything but drink and fall asleep - europe wins on work culture
again, their sunlight is special (this shocked me most, fabulous)