One thing I admire a lot about folks in Japan - most are diligent and
carry out their jobs properly - no matter what it is.
Tokyo is generally a clean city thanks to the folks who clean up (and
a general understanding of not leaving rubbish around).
I constantly see cleaners looking for the smallest amount of trash
lying around and dealing with it - a very different story to where I
was brought up in Hackney London where cleaners would just 'generally'
sweep up and not go out of their way to clean stuff around the edges.
Do you live in a generally clean city or are you tripping up over coke cans?
日本の方の一生懸命ぶりに脱帽。その一生懸命で街は奇麗。故郷のロンドンでは、この一生懸命ぶりはあんまりなかったため、街はかなり汚かった。
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[www] Danny Choo. You can view more of Danny Choo's past Live Blogger posts
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mahou kishi
http://www.animedia.com.mx
not very clean in new york :/
Blogger Looking For Employment
http://www.theandysan.com
Or in my corner of Ohio. Too much raccoon roadkill, not to mention the amount of trash in general just lying around.
I try my best to not litter, but my stepdad is constantly throwing crap out the window of his vehicle!! (＃ﾟДﾟ)
Mad scientist clone (my first account broke)
I once saw a documentary about policework in USA. Basically it was just a cameraman who visited different policestations in different countries and went out with some officer for a day and recorded what happened. In one case somebody called the police because she had seen somebody dumping garbage on a parking lot. The police went there, saw the garbage and got the description of the car (which were from a distant state with people not planning to ever return, go figure). The police then chased them with sirens on and found and stopped the car. The driver were fined and told to go back and clean up himself. If it haven't been cleaned up at some time later that day he would get another fine in the mail. I can't remember how severe the fines were, but they were severe enough to make him go back and clean up even though he already got so far away from town that it would cause him a delay of like 3 hours.
Too bad I didn't record it. Sounds like your stepdad could have benefited from watching it. For all we know he could be the next guy the police chase at 100 MPH while he is "attempting to escape" from the scene of the crime (of littering) :P
pervert
littering fine is like a few hundred to a thousand
Blogger Looking For Employment
http://www.theandysan.com
Yeah, that sounds like something he'd be caught up in, haha!!
pervert
yup.everything here is done by those street cleaning machines.i see people just sweep everything out onto the street and expect the street cleaners to sweep everything away
Street sweepers here get most of it. They usually have some old guy with them using a leaf blower to get all light debris off the sidewalks. I don't know who picks up the big stuff like car doors or tree trunks.
IT Student
http://www.aeon.net.nz
Average here in Wellington New Zealand...Its not bad by any means, but it isnt that clean either and most dont care.
Especially dog poop...its just all over the footpaths around my house...
Student, Musician, PHP
http://www.tojikomori.com.ar
After 6PM, I walk back home on the streets (where the cars go) because the walkpath is 90cm~110cm only and it's full of garbage bags, very often broken and with the garby spread by dogs or indigents :(
Student
Not very clean around where I live, I see a few little cleaning cars drive past and sweep the roads shabbily. Although a fair amount of people here just litter without a care in the world, sadly.
Student
bwhahahaha here at Sydney it doesn't stay clean for long :D
Too much people not giving a crap to clean up after themselves to stay clean
student
http://www.gunpla-inochi.com
People generally try to be clean here in Portland. I occasionally see litter but for the most part, I think my city is VERY clean. We are also very green as well ^^.
eh somewhat clean where I'm at.
student
http://listlessink.wordpress.com/
Very clean in suburban California. Just average in cities. Very dirty in certain cities...
Student
>Tokyo is generally a clean city
Yeah, when looking at Danny's and other people's photos of Japan it always seems sos clean there. Wish it would be more cleaner here too.
CEO
maybe tokyo's clean but around here in the kobe area isn't so clean. the river is filthy with bicycles and all kinds of crap in there. and train stations in osaka are fair from clean, don't sit down on a toilet at a train station!
part-time worker and full-time slacker
the river is filthy with bicycles??? how's that possible? they throw bikes to the river?
anyway, cleanliness is surely not the priority in my city...nor any city in my country I think (which is sad, but inevitable...>.<)
CEO
yeh i think some people park nearby the river and maybe young ruffians decide to have fun with them... they look like they've been there a while, some people also have a habbit of throwing their rubbish in when walking home, mcDs kfc, beer bottles,
not to mention the river still has lot's of carp there too! wanna eat some of them?
Underpants inspector #42
Awesome! Free bicycles! Free crap is not so appealing.
Mad scientist clone (my first account broke)
Japan probe wrote about a plumber who discovered that the toilets at a station by mistake was put on the rainwater drain instead of the sewer system. The result was that everything had ended up in the river for decades.... now that's a way to get free crap :P
I don't think you would want to use bikes after they get that treatment. I have seen some and they don't look good when found. Here they are dumped in harbours and when the harbours are cleaned they collect all the bikes and the police looks at all of them to read the serial number (if possible). This is a quick way to close a whole lot of cases of stolen bikes. It's usually not the owner who place their bikes in such a location.
Mad scientist clone (my first account broke)
Spirited away hints this issue. The water spirit needs to be cleaned of "bicycles and all kinds of crap" in order to become healthy again. The reason for this is that the guy who made that movie once helped cleaning a river and he were amazed by what they found. He is an environmentalist and that's hinted at several locations in the movie. I could start to point out a lot of them, but that would spoil too much. Instead I will recommend people to watch the movie. It's quite good. In fact it's rated as #61 on IMDB, which is the highest position of an animated movie.
I once saw a list of known steam locomotives under water in USA. It's amazingly long. most of them derailed on a bridge during the 19th century and then nobody bothered to recover them. There are even found some in the Atlantic ocean off the cost of New England. No records of a ship ever losing locomotives there so one can assume they are dumped there on purpose when they were scrapped. Maybe the metal wasn't worth much at that time.
In fact USA (or likely any country in the world) wasn't that nice to rivers during the 19th century. When the oil industry started they just wanted petroleum. They refined the crude oil into petroleum and waste and they just poured all the waste into nearby rivers and it were gone. No garbage problems at all O_O
???Confused???
Hm, I'd say it's only so so over here...well Japan is so much cleaner in comparison...
star-keeper
singapore's slogan: clean and green
hmmmm.
Underpants inspector #42
Singapore was hella clean when i was there. The streets were substantially cleaner than Tokyo.
Mad scientist clone (my first account broke)
Go figure. Even if I were littering on a regular basis (I'm not) then I wouldn't dare to litter in Singapore. The penalties are too severe to even risk it. I think it's like a week of civil service for throwing a gum on the sidewalk.
Professional Slacker
from what i read gum is illegal to possess in Singapore. other things with small wrappers or gum like waste probably are as well.
Programmer
It depends! on one side of the boarder its generally clean, but on the other its so dirty. people just don't care and throw garbage on the street, its full of coke bottles and chip bags , Its such a shameful contrast.
http://otakuposts.blogspot.com/
well the cleaners here do a good job of cleaning the streets, but the stupid people dont care and a few hours by, its full of litter again. plastic, paper, cans what not.
Carpenter
Vancouver is messy with cigarette buts, McDonald's stuff and can's/bottles scattered everywhere. Its a shame. The olympic's will clean it up a bit but the homeless people around downtown litter like crazy! To bad again. But what can a passive aggressive canadian do...
providing temporary relief to nymphomaniacs since 1986
http://www.nihonterebi.com/blog
Not really. Let's say the cleaners are out there doin their job, but they're doin it half-assed. More of a general sweep...anyway, what I know is that outside my shop I have to sweep myself every f***in morning, otherwise it's a mess:-)
Game Developer
http://edwinzeng2005portfolio.blogspot.com/
A similar story can be said of Sg, and I noticed jet water hoses are used to quickly flush out dirt around structural edges. However, you wont see cleaners trying to manually clean the edges thoroughly, coz the water flushing gets the job done quicker and is more efficient.
Car Washer
I wish tacoma was like that. I went into a center turn lane to take a left today and didnt notice that was like 10 broken bottles of glass there until i drove over them... ='[
electronics engineer
That's one of the reasons for me to hate my country – Russia is a real crap-hole.
Underpants inspector #42
You guys just got screwed over by the collapse of the USSR, it'll get better with time.
Mad scientist clone (my first account broke)
Are you sure it will get better with time? Getting people to stop littering is something you have to do something actively to accomplish. It will not happen on it's own.
College Student
http://www.mikeolotaku.wordpress.com/
Generally here in SF in the west side its decently clean thanks to street cleaners, though there still is some trash blowing around. We don't have many people I see that comes out and picks up trash by hand.
http://vivato.blogspot.com/
At here, the drain is our dump site.
Thats why flash flood is frequent here.
Magi 2nd network assistant
Chewing gums everywhere... really a shame...
Where I live people don't care, even if trash bins are everywhere.
Tech Support Officer - Network Security Engineer
http://burugureibi.blogspot.com/
It's clean, but there is always the odd can or bottle lying around like a sore thumb - *sigh*
Underpants inspector #42
Canberra is pretty clean most of the time. The biggest thing i notice is garbage on the sides of highways and arterial roads. A pitty.
Wastrel
When I was holidaying in Japan, the only place that had trash on the street was アメムラ "America Village" in Osaka. It kinda looked staged. Most countries try to pull off "fake ghetto" with graffiti, you gotta credit Japanese with fake trash.
As for Malaysia? I gotta say the there's enough soil and food garbage in the drain outside my office that someone pulled out some sorta mudskipper/worm/snake thing from there a few months back. But I'm an optimist. I regard that as a sign of "NOT YET too toxic to sustain terran life"
Student, part-time slave
http://yakuri.wordpress.com/
It's got to do more with the mentality people have. I grew up being taught to clean up after myself in public places and thus either look for a trash bin or put the papers in my bag to throw later. It would be nice if people were more community oriented to contribute and have a nice place; unfortunately there will always be people leaving a mess, throwing trash through the car windows, messing the walls with graffitti...
Researcher, translator, demonic blogger
http://evils.tumblr.com
My thoughts exactly. Most of towns on the countryside are cleaner thanks to good willed grannies sweeping the dirt from their, but their efforts don't amount to much, for young (and not so young) people keep throwing trash randomly everywhere. And even I end up doing the same unconsciously (=_=;;
We have dried leaves, cigarette box and sometime candy wrapper every where the place that the car can travel to except on the highways.
Mad scientist clone (my first account broke)
Leaves aren't litter ^^
I saw some worker "getting rid of dried leaves" once. I really wondered about how useless his job was. He was using some sort of reversed vacuum cleaner and it was blowing the leaves away. This naturally removed all leaves but when he walked 10-15 meters and did the same and the leaves would fly back. Not only did he waste his time, he also wasted fuel, generated air pollution and quite a lot of noise pollution. I noticed him because it was so noisy that I couldn't concentrate indoor >_<
student
http://shiro-tan.tumblr.com/
it's not clean at all....
Student
i hate to say this but most of the people living around here don't really care about the environment...well, at least in my place..
you can see people throwing cigarette butt out the car window, spitting on the floor, open burning, throwing unwanted stuff into the river.
plastic bag, tissue paper, brochures are all over the floor after an event.
it's just sad...
Techno Geek would be Jedi Knight
Cleaner do their job in an average way, and citizen should try a bit more to not leave trash around.
my neck in the wood it's not that bad, but could be better
here people pretty much dump their garbage whereever they are, cigarettebutts are a plague in particular.. even the forests are full of crap sometimes. such a shame really, and the worst part is that there are trashcans friggin everywhere
Blogger
http://www.yonasu.com
Not very clean here but could be worse. A lot of leaves around this time of the year and always cigarettes, gum, paper and stuff on the streets =/
http://www.stefkov.com/
I love the commitment the Japanese have for their jobs, even if it's something like this. The streets where I live are horrible.
I've always wondered, there are lots of chewing gum remains on the streets where I am. What about Tokyo? Is there a lot of chewing gum on the pavements?
Web Developer/Designer
http://www.rickbenedict.com/
I live in Milwaukee, about 60 km north of Chicago. It is pretty clean here. Certain neighborhoods are dirty than others though.
Mechanical Engineering student
http://sabekujikaneda.multiply.com/
It's not clean here at all! We do have cleaners and they clean the streets all day (even under the baking hot Sun). But despite their hard work, the streets are still filthy thanks to inconsiderate people who throw their trash everywhere. We're talking about the same people who are pestering the government to improve waste management so the metropolis will not experience another catastrophic flooding again. It makes me rage -_-
Are cleaners paid well in japan ?
In germany cleaners get up to 2000 €. Thats very much because for example people who work in homes for seniors ( dont know what altenheim is in english) get only up to 1500 €. And they had to learn a long time for their jobs. Well 1 or 2 years I think but as a cleaner you can start right away without needing any special knowledge. I think. so do they get much money in japan ?
But I do aknowledge the work of cleaners. without them most our cities would be trash...^^
Mad scientist clone (my first account broke)
According to the dictionary Altenheim is called "old people's home". Funny enough this is something Google Translate can't handle. Looks like I beat google at translating between two foreign languages :P
While I knew how to translate this I looked it up in the dictionary anyway because I'm always puzzled by the lack of a single word for this thing in English ^^;
Your resident evil
Unless you live in a nice suburbs or a rich neighborhood, its filthy in the downtown area and the inner cities.
Procrastinator, n00b blogger
http://zatsudan.wordpress.com
I'm constantly tripping over coke cans, magazines, umbrellas, and once in a while, over landmines (if you know what I mean XD).
Student
http://tasunke.otakugeeksquad.org/blog/
It is actually suprisingly clean here in the Osaka area. Back home it's not extremely dirty, but there is alot of litter in places, especially cigarette butts in certain areas. >.<
Alchemist in training
In KL we have cleaners too but they don't do as good as the Japanese cleaners .
The problem is the people lazy enough to throw garbage everywhere .
Teacher of English
http://www.freewebs.com/superrobots/
Malta is the country of bells, yells and smells, unfortunately! How sad. I admire the Japanese for their cleanliness, too.
NEET
I don't know what to say. It's neither clean or rubbishy where I live. "after one minute of thinking" ok, it's quite clean where I live.
どエロエロ星人
yeh now we have bin man complaining about how households need to take their wheely bin out further, or else they will not take your trash for you...
"go out of their way to clean stuff around the edges"... frankly, I don't see that coming any time soon ^ ^;
broadcasting slave
Jakarta is dirty. The roads are super dusty or muddy, depending on the weather. We don't have standardized trash cans so most people just let it pile up in open boxes at the sidewalks... The rivers are filthy black, and the stench is horrible. It's not uncommon to find the bodies of murdered people there.
I hate my city.
Full-time geek/Part-time student/Part-time musician
http://randomgeekness.livejournal.com/
Tripping up over coke cans here? Indeed! LOL! and poo and other pieces of crap @_@.
Graphic Designer
Trash everywhere in NYC. It's not only an eyesore but if the sanitation police decide to cruise your neighborhood and there is litter on the sidewalk of your property they will fine you. Honestly, I can't go chasing after people who drop trash or control the wind.
animetard and a writer
http://kluxorious.blogspot.com/
It was OK I guess. I mean I don't trip over coke cans.
College Student
http://www.projectsaber.com
Not very clean here, you should see SF, Oakland, and Berkeley too. =O
student- university servant
you should see my dorm room LOL jkjk
there is even litter in the air... you know what i mean
student- university servant
trash and litter wise japan is very clean
i admire the work ethic and diligence for sure
*sadly* i noticed that many men there skip washing their hands after a trip to the bathroom!
i cant say the same about back home lol- but there IS too much litter
Student
http://k625.blogspot.com/
Vancouver's not that bad. Certain areas will have more crap floating around than others. The more littered an area is, the more populated it is. That's generally the pattern that happens around here. Parks are generally fairly clean, and sidewalks and streets are usually pretty free of litter. But then again, I'm only seeing a small area of Vancouver. =l
Student
it's true that the cleaners in London are lazy. The other day I noticed one guy was just brushing dirt into doorways XD