Just as Americans are accustomed to thinking of our country as a union of semi-soverign states, each with its own unique history and traditions, one of the hallmarks of Japan is “uniformity.” During my bachelor days I travelled around the country quite a bit, going from cold but vibrant Hokkaido in the north, through the barren Northern Honshu area where sad enka songs were born, and all the way down to modern, bustling Hiroshima, and one thing that has always stood out for me was how similar many things were. Roads, signs, telephone poles, the way schools are constructed, all seem to be following one master blueprint, with little or no variation between regions. There are exceptions of course — the cold climate of Northern Japan requires sturdier architecture to withstand the heavy snowfall compared to the rest of the country, including veritically oriented traffic lights rather than horizontal ones — but by and large many aspects of life in Japan are remarkably similar whether you’re in Tokyo or Kyushu or wherever.
Traffic lights in Japan always look like this, except in the colder parts.
