文/Diego

日本：追求極致的便利The Extremely Convenient Japan

文/Diego

Diego：一個充滿想象力的美國文藝青年，彈著夏威夷四弦琴，畫著漫畫，做著營養(yǎng)師。帶著家人看這世界的花花綠綠，草長鶯飛，就是人生最大的滿足。

If there is ever a ranking of tourist destinations by convenience,I will vote for Japan with no doubt.

The everywhere convenient stores

Japan is a not a big country,however,within its 377,972 square meters’area,there are over 50,000convenientstores.Inbig cities suchasTokyoand Osaka,you can literally find yourself surrounded by convenience stores in all directions.

Infact,Japandidnotimportthemodelof convenientstoresfromtheUnitedStatesuntilthe 1970s,andeversincethen,convenientstores flourishedthroughthewholecountry,andsoon surpassed supermarkets.In 2015,the annual turnover for convenient stores in Japan went beyond 10 trillion Japanese yen,which is equal to 607.5 billion RMB.

There are three biggest convenient store brands in Japan:Family Mart,Seven-Eleven and Lawson.Most of these convenient stores are open 24 hours a day,365 days a year.There are a wide range of products sold inthesestores:lotsofready-to-eatfood,drinks,cookingingredients,cosmetics,dailyessentials,household supplies,books,stationary and stamps,pet food,phone chargers,etc.With time passing by,the convenient stores keep extending their services and aim tomakepeople’slifemoreconvenienttoenhance their competitiveness.Shoppers now can buy tickets for showsandtheme parksinvariesconvenientstores.They can go pay their bills,use photocopy machines and print out photos in these convenient stores as well.Not long ago,Seven-Eleven opened their own banks,just to enable customers,especially foreign tourists to withdrawJapanesecurrencywithforeigncreditor debit cards.

InJapan,lifecanbesoeasywithallthose convenient stores.

Coin lockers make sightseeing easier

Inairports,train and subway stations,or even tourist attractions inJapan,coinlockers are quietly spreading out,proving a secure and convenient place for travelers to store luggage.

Basedonthesizesandlocationsofdifferent lockers,customers need to pay between 300 to 900 JPY(about 20 to 50 RMB)for the service.It can be paidwithcashorlocalICcard.Theonscreen instructionsareinmultiplelanguages,including Chinese,English,Japanese,etc.Usually when the green light on the locker is flashing,then it indicates the availability of the locker,otherwise,red light means it’s taken.Customers need to take the print out receipt withthemasaproofofstorage.Coinlockersare usually for a 24-hour period use,when customers go back to pick up the luggage,they need to scan the receipt to open the locker.

Automatic coin lockers are convenient and secure.It skipped the manual handling process for travelers,whichmakesthingseasierandmorestraightforward.With the help of coin lockers,luggage is not a burden to tourists anymore.

In addition to convenient stores and coin lockers,clean bathrooms are accessible throughout the nation.Almost all stations and convenient stores let people use their bathrooms free of charge.What’s more,the public transportation system in Japan is usually punctual,and it comes very frequent,which makes trip planning easy.

Japan,thecountrywheretravellingiseasy,because of the conveniences.

作為旅游目的地的國家如果以是否便利排名，毫無疑問我將投票給日本。

便利店，遍地開花

日本國土面積不大，但在約37萬多平方千米的區(qū)域內(nèi)，遍布超過5萬家便利店。當你置身于東京、大阪等大城市，你會發(fā)現(xiàn)自己被街角各個方向的便利店包圍著。

其實，便利店這一模式是在20世紀70年代從美國傳入日本的。從那之后，便利店在日本遍地開花，營業(yè)額已經(jīng)遠遠超過超市。僅以2015年為例，便利店的銷售總額就已經(jīng)超過10萬億日元，約合6075億元人民幣。

日本三大便利店巨頭是：全家，7-11和羅森。絕大部分便利店24小時營業(yè)，且全年無休。便利店出售的商品主要包括：大量現(xiàn)成的食物、飲料、烹飪原料、化妝品、日常必需品、家庭用品、書籍、文具和郵票、寵物食品、充電器等等。隨著便利店的發(fā)展、進步，為了提高競爭力，不同的便利店不斷增加新的便民服務(wù)。比如購買演出和主題公園的門票、支付賬單、打印或復印文件、照片等。不久前，7-11還開設(shè)了自己的銀行，讓顧客尤其是外國游客能用外國信用卡或者借記卡提取日元。

在日本，便利店讓你輕松解決生活的各種基本需求。

存儲柜，讓觀光更輕松

在機場、火車站和地鐵站，甚至是旅游景點，你都很容易發(fā)現(xiàn)一排排默默無言的行李存儲柜。這為游客存放行李提供了一個既安全又方便的地方。

根據(jù)不同存儲柜的大小和位置，顧客需要支付300至900日元(約合20～50元人民幣)的服務(wù)費用，可以使用現(xiàn)金或當?shù)豂C卡。操作屏幕提供中文、英語、日語以及其他語言服務(wù)。存儲柜上如果有綠燈閃爍，則意味著它可以使用，紅燈則提示它已經(jīng)被占用。顧客需要打印票據(jù)作為存儲行李的證明。寄存時間通常24小時有效。當顧客返回來取走行李時，需要掃描票據(jù)才能打開鎖柜。

自動存儲柜既方便又安全。它使游客免去了手動處理行李的過程，讓事情變得更簡單、更直接。在存儲柜的幫助下，行李不再是游客觀光的負擔。

除了便利店和存儲柜，干凈整潔的衛(wèi)生間在全國各地隨處可見。幾乎所有的車站和便利店都讓人們免費使用衛(wèi)生間。此外，日本的公共交通準時、準點，頻繁運行，方便大家按計劃出行。

日本，由于便利，是一個可以輕松實現(xiàn)“說走就走的旅行”的國家。

（中文僅供文意參考，請勿逐字逐句對比學習）

1.flourishv.繁榮；興旺2.surpassv.勝過；優(yōu)于

3.enhancev.提高；加強4.withdrawv.取回；收回

5.multipleadj.多樣的；許多的6.punctualadj.準時的；守時的

李丁文