[lurkingknight]

not to mention that it's ridiculously safe over there. I saw kindergartners taking the tokyo metro by themselves, meeting their moms at another stop before parting ways. Primary school kids on the yamanote train... hanging out with schoolmates till one got to their stop and got off, the next stop the other 2 got off the train together.

I remember in grade 1 when I walked to school alone or with my brothers, I never see that anymore... all the kids here get dropped off or bused in.

From my experience there for just 2 really short weeks, some things are more expensive.... some things are not. Some things are very reasonably priced, even by our standards. The entire country is not compressed and built up like tokyo, and areas like aqua is playing are probably an hour trainride if that out of town. I drive more than that to get to some of my local fields. There's plenty of places in the countryside or suburbs to setup a field like that.