Convenience

There are a lot of different ways to describe Japan but one thing that I have seen lately is the convenience of things. There is a well-engineered, user-oriented outlook to everyday things. Let's take something really boring: ATMs. Here's a picture of one I pulled off of the Internet:

The phone to call the bank and the calculator on the right is kind of useful but I'm pointing out to the place were you put the ATM card into. It's hard to see but there is a small slot underneath the card. That is were the receipt prints out. Why is that useful? The card and the receipt are ejected right next each other and you can pick up both with a single motion.


That level of engineering is hardly of life-shattering importance but that is fairly common throughout Japan. Prepaid train pass cards that you don't even have to take out of your wallet, vending machines that lift the drinks to waist height you don't have to bend down, advanced barcodes that can be scanned by a cell phone camera - all of these things are really nice to use.


I'm not sure why these types of devices are so common in Japan and so rare in the states. Maybe it's an engineering attitude...