Tatami Mats and Escalators

After giving my final presentation at Waseda University, where I have spent the last two years as a “research student” 研究生, I left immediately for the Kansai area of central Japan to join Sayaka and her family in her hometown of Takarazuka 宝塚. The next three days were spent traveling around to nearby sites that I have, in all my time in Japan, never gotten around to visiting. Sunday was spent visiting Nara (see some of my pictures here) while the next two days were spent in Kyoto (some pictures here). It is a bit ironic that I have spent some of my last days in Japan in two cities tourists usually spend their first nights, but I’m very happy to have had the opportunity to visit.

The Kansai region is different from the Kantô area of Tokyo in many ways and since I have spent very little time in the former, some of these differences are quite new to me. Two little tidbits that have escaped my notice all this time: 1) Tatami mats, the size of which are a common measurement for the size of rooms and apartments, are apparently significantly larger in the Kansai area. I am told, however, that the “standard” Tokyo size of tatami mats are becoming more widespread. 2) In the Tokyo area, people stand on the left side of the escalator and walk up the right side. In the Kansai area, people stand on the right side and walk up the left side. Sayaka said something about seeing a TV news clipping which explained this as having something to do with the location of the exit in the first department store in which escalators were used in Japan. I’m really curious to know where this practice switches sides. Presumably, somewhere between Osaka and Tokyo, escalator-standing-culture switches sides…anyone know where? While I’m on this type of topic, I always wondered what the border between Sweden and Norway looked like back in the days when the Swedes drove on the left hand side of the road….two great questions for an idle google moment.

UPDATE: I found out a little more about the history of the Sweden case of switching from left to right on this web page (can’t vouch for its accuracy)