Japan may be further east on the map than China, but in every other sense it's far more western. I took a week's holiday in Tokyo last year (I was living in China at the time) and from the moment we set foot off the plane it was a total culture shock, like walking back into civilization.

From the people waiting patiently for the green man before crossing the road (even when there's not a single car to be seen on the road) to the taxis with self-opening and self-closing doors, Japan is an extremely well-ordered country; everything is in its right place.

It was a welcome break from the chaotic nature of daily life in China, whether it be fighting your way to cross the street or arguing with taxi drivers who want to take you the long way round to bump up the fare.

Tokyo is the only place in the world other than New York that totally mesmerized me in terms of its sheer size and the number of people. I lived in London for three years and it makes that look like a country village. The people, with their always-stylish, often-outrageous dress sense and hairstyles made the fashionistas and it' crowd in London look pretty tame and conservative too.

Japan is also the cleanest country I've ever been to. The public transport, toilets and parks are absolutely spotless, and pretty much every street you go down is immaculately presented; spitting and urinating in the street are not socially acceptable as they are in China. I don't remember seeing a derelict building in the whole time we were there, and we saw a lot of buildings.

Litter is virtually non-existent, despite there being hardly any bins in public places. What bins there are are all split into different sections for recycling purposes, which seemed like an excellent idea until it took me five minutes to decide which one to use every time I wanted to throw something away.

Contrary to the portrayal of the Japanese in the film Lost In Translation, communication was relatively straightforward too. Of course, partly this is because Tokyo, unlike Dalian (the city where I lived in China), is used to playing host to tourists, but it was incredibly refreshing to go into a restaurant and not have the waiter or waitress have a nervous breakdown when they realise you don't speak much of their language, as frequently happens in China.

Their ability to have an educated guess at what you might be asking them for example if you've just walked in to a restaurant and sat down at a table it's quite likely you

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