In Japan, if you do not explicitly ask for it, you will NEVER (ever!) get anything without a plastic bag. By the second day I (4k) already lost count of the amount of plastic bags that we got from numerous visits at Conbinis (small, 24/7 supermarkets around every corner) and from other occasions. A few years ago, when I was an Erasmus student in Spain I thought that the Spanish were quite wasteful concerning plastic bags (although, by now, laws have been made and the situation has changed for the better (of the Ocean in particular)). The Japanese, however, take the wasteful usage of plastic bags to a whole new level.
My (4k) favourite story is when we bought postcards at a Sky Tree merch shop. As usual, every single postcard on display had its own clear protective sleeve (already a waste of resources and silly in itself). I took a variety of 10 cards from the rack and went to the counter to pay for them. There, the shop assistant asked me in dead earnest if I wanted 10 little yellow plastic bags, one for each postcard. I couldn't believe it..
Of course, I didn't want 10 of those bags (I also didn't want any of the plastic sleeves but that couldn't be helped), what for? Aren't postcards bought to be sent to family and friends? Why would I need one plastic bag per card? Maybe she thought that these were gifts I'd give to someone when I came back? And since it is rude to give an unwrapped present here in Japan, she had only the best of intentions. Still, it is kind of... ridiculous, isn't it..?
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