Being quiet for the people around me is definitely a perspective I can understand and easily participate in, as long as I stay conscious about my noise level.
One perspective I understand, but have a harder time following, is not eating while walking. While in Sapporo, we found a 24-hour sandwich shop about a minute walk from our Airbnb. Conbini (convenience stores) and non-dine-in stores in Japan neatly package and tape shut whatever is bought. I’ve almost never seen any Japanese people standing and eating outside these stores and absolutely no one eats or drinks while walking. I think most of them take their food home or to work to eat.
Because I am not usually going straight home or to class, I have to stand outside and eat my food. This probably gets me a few stares, but certainly not as many as if I had walked and ate at the same time. In the U.S., it is easy for me to grab something from the dining hall and eat it on my way to class if I was running short on time. Here, I just have to wait until after class if I don't have an extra minute or two. There doesn't seem to be a really good reason for this rule, so it is something I struggle with a little here.
In terms of trash, I have seen almost no litter anywhere. When I do see some trash on the ground, I highly suspect that someone not native to Japan is involved. It is extremely hard to find a trash can here. On campus, a few of the classrooms have one, there are two medium ones side-by-side in the cafeteria (which is only supposed to be used for napkins provided by the cafeteria), one by the AIU Shop, and Komachi (a dorm) has one. So, all in all, I think I have seen six on campus.
