So here I am on a shinkansen in Japan travelling at 320km/h while writing this post. The journey to catch this ride, though, isn’t as comfortable. After over an hour of mad dash – Amazing Race-esque – across Hakone via narrow stairways, winding roads, stuck behind paying customers alighting from the bus, my travel buddy and I managed to catch this particular bullet train which leaves on the dot at 16:08. The Japanese are that precise with their timings, or anything else for that matter.

It’s this clockwork efficiency which I’m so enthralled with and terrified by. If you understand me well enough, you’d probably know I’m the sort who’s very particular about timing. So you can imagine how ashamed I was when I knew what the Japanese are capable of. The sort of precision is terrifying. When a timing is given, it’s almost always abided by unless in exceptional circumstances, and even then the transparency of information is for all to see.

Of course, productivity is often a by-product of efficiency. Most restaurants come with their own ticketing machine so they don’t even need a wait staff to attend to customers. Also, most have this U-shaped table concept where the serving staff would just have to traverse a single column to serve up dishes to the patrons. And don’t get me started on their politeness and hospitality – that would probably require another post.