Peter's Japan blog

Japan has to have its own strange etiquette about escalators. In most parts of the world it is custom for the people who are not in a rush, to stand right, so that other people who are in a hurry, can go up on left. Well, Japan has 3 ways ;p
In Tokyo, you stand left.
In Osaka, you stand right.
In Kyoto, it doesn't matter (people from Kyoto are not so much in a hurry than those in Tokyo or Osaka).

How did all this happen? While walking on the pavement in Japan, I tend to have to feeling, that 80-90% of the time, people walk on the left, when crossing each other. This might explain why people in Tokyo, stand on the left side of the escalator.
In Osaka however, I've read that there was a world expo in there. A world expo has a lot of foreign people visiting, and in 90% of the world, people stand right, and so people stood right in Osaka. So I've read.
In Kyoto, where people are in less in a hurry, I've read about another story. That there was a rule, that you stood left in the subway, and right on the Keihan lines. Thus creating confusion.
Also, knowing that people in the street walk left, it makes for a small paradox ^^

I had just stayed a week in Tokyo, standing left, and was now staying in Osaka, thus standing right. And today I went for a day to Kyoto, and I actually noticed it myself that in Kyoto, there isn't any rule. Some were standing left, some right. So it's actually true, and I was confused myself because I didn't know it was actually like that in Kyoto. I was thinking, who is right and who's wrong here?

Tokyo, Osaka & Kyoto may be one of the biggest cities in Japan, but how is in the other big Japanese cities. Is it only in Osaka that they stand right, or all cities down from Osaka? I will probably notice in a few days, when I'm in Hiroshima & Fukuoka ^^;