- Yellow Productions presents 10 things
that Japan and Switzerland have in common.
I'm Chris. This is Topher.
This is part of our series on Switzerland and as we're
finishing up our week here in Switzerland
we had some observations about things
that make Switzerland and Japan similar.
And for those of you who watch my videos a lot
you'll know I have a lot of videos on Japan
and there's actually a lot in common
between Japan and Switzerland.
10 things we're gonna talk about in this video.
So, here we go, number one, Switzerland
and Japan are both very clean.
Zurich, the main city, it's not the capital city, but it's
the biggest city in Switzerland is immaculately clean.
There's almost no garbage anywhere, there's very little
graffiti, stores are clean, bathrooms our clean,
supermarkets are clean, the whole country
is just a clean countryand I like clean.
So that's something that I like in Switzerland.
And by the way before I get on to number two I should tell
you where I'm shooting this video, the video is
in Switzerland, right behind me this is town of Wengen
and if it's really bright this up here's actually snow.
It's end of May and there's still snow here.
So number two thing that Switzerland has in common
with Japan is both countries have good trains
and the trains run on time.
Switzerland in fact, is only second to Japan in travel.
They have an amazing train network.
They have cable cars, they funiculars, and a lot of those
things are part of the public transportation system.
Switzerland has the same concept as Japan
of being able to get a rail pass you can get
the Swiss Rail Pass and travel all across the country
and just show your Rail Pass, so if you coming
to Switzerland definitely take
the trains 'cause they are very good here.
The third thing that Switzerland had in common with Japan
is train stations and shopping streets,
because train travel is so popular here in Switzerland,
their train stations are also very good
and the train stations become hubs of shopping,
and restaurants, places to eat, things to and so the major
train stations here like in Zurich and in Bern
are are almost mini-metropolis' to themselves.
Japan's the same way.
You can spend almost day in a Japanese train station,
but also related to the train stations,
similar to Japan and Switzerland, the main shopping street
in every town in Switzerland is basically
the street that is in front of the train station.
You go out of the Zurich train station and that's gonna be
the major street that has all the shops.
You go out to the major street in Bern and that's gonna be
all the shops, and you can just show up at a main
train station in Switzerland, walk around,
and there will also be a tourist information booth.
Japan always has TIs; so does Switzerland.
Okay the third thing that Switzerland has in common
with Japan is promptness in general.
The Swiss are very timely.
The trains always run on time.
Shows always start on time.
If you have a dinner reservation you better be on time.
If you are 15 minutes late you better forget
that you even had that dinner reservation.
So make sure you have a watch and set to the appropriate
time because time is important in Switzerland.
And the fifth thing that Switzerland has
in common with Japan is the store clerks
are generally polite and efficient.
When you go into a store, the store clerks generally
greet you, they'll ask if you need any help,
waiters and waitresses will do the same thing,
you know in some parts of Europe, France in particular,
I often feel like I'm left to fend for myself
in a restaurant, like they don't really care about me,
but not in Switzerland, they'll keep coming by,
are you ready, or do you need anything yet,
are you ready to order, so that's nice
I like polite and efficientness.
The sixth thing that Switzerland has in common
with Japan is the honor system.
And what I mean by honor system is they extend
a lot of trust here in Switzerland,
actually maybe a little bit more than Japan.
In Japan when you board a train you have to go
through some wickets before you get on the train,
but in Switzerland most trains just operate
on the honor system, in fact you just board a train,
and 80% of the trains we rode
in Switzerland nobody checked out tickets.
Here in the Alps though 'cause I think there's a lot
of tourists they actually do check your tickets here.
Also stores, a lot of stores here will have
rack of things outside the store and they just trust
that people aren't going to steal those things.
In this town, Wengen, there's a supermarket
called Coop and in front of the supermarket
they've got a lot of plants and vegetables
and things like that, the store is closed on Sunday,
but those items remain outside
and they just trust that nobody steals them.
In fact there was one store we visited in a town
called Gimmelwald and it was called the Honor Shop
and it was an entirely unstaffed store, nobody worked there.
You just go in and if there's something you want
you put some money in a box and you take it.
Actually in Gimmelwald we found this honor souvenir shop,
there was an honor window shop,
and an honor cheese shop as well.
The cheese shop it was basically a refrigerator
that had cheese and sausages with prices on it,
you just take it out and put your money
in the box and away you go.
Number seven thing that Switzerland has in common with Japan
is coins are worth a lot in Switzerland.
They're also worth a lot in Japan.
Whenever I'm in Japan I end up with these 500 Yen coins,
they have similar coins which I happen to have none of them
in my pocket but these are two Franc coins,
which are worth about two U.S. dollars.
They have five Franc coins which are worth
about five U.S. dollars, so if you come to Switzerland
don't think that your coins are all garbage.
They're worth quite a lot.
And Japan is the same way, you can actually get a meal
with just a handful of coins here in Switzerland.
Okay the eighth thing that Switzerland has in common
with Japan is drinking in public.
It is okay and legal in fact to drink in public.
You can to a bar, you can get a drink,
and you can take that drink and stand outside
and drink it on the sidewalk, or you can pick up a beer
and sit on a step and drink your beer, sit in a park,
it's perfectly fine and acceptable.
Related to drinking is smoking, the Swiss
like the Japanese smoke a lot.
That was actually first thing I
noticed when I came to Switzerland
getting out Zurich Airport was the smell of smoke.
And let me tell ya, someone coming from California
where smoking is almost extinct,
it takes a little getting used to the smoke again.
And you'll also find cigarette vending machines
scattered throughout Switzerland, a lot of smokers.
The ninth thing that Switzerland has in common with Japan
is cars don't honk, yes you heard me right cars here,
they basically don't honk, I think they considered it rude
and in this town Wengen it's care free, or there's
like these pedestrian streets, some cars still drive on it.
We saw a car following somebody and this person was walking
like really, really slow and the car was following
them like really, really slow but the car was not going
to honk at them, the car was just going
to wait until they noticed that they were there
and then pass them, so in Switzerland's
cities you rarely hear horns honk.
The tenth thing, the final that Switzerland has
in common with Japan is cars stop for pedestrians here
like in crosswalks, if you are in a crosswalk
cars will stop very quickly for you.
In a lot of countries it seems like when you're
in a crosswalk they're actually gonna speed up
to see if they can get around you, or graze you lightly.
In Italy there's this whole game that people play
to say you can't look at the cars before you go
in the crosswalk because if you do look at the cars
then they'll know you see them and they'll speed up
and you have to like not look in Italy.
But in Switzerland if you just appear to be going into
a crosswalk cars will actually politely stop for you
because I think there's a lot of pedestrianism here,
a lot of people car drivers walk places themselves
and so that is important to them.
Alright, well that's it those are the 10 things
that Switzerland has in common with Japan.
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this is kind of a new format for me,
things that one country has in common with another,
let me know in the comments below if you liked it,
or let met know in the comments below if you didn't.
Alright, well thanks for watching and bye bye.