Some observations:
Japanese folk in Tokyo are very VERY polite. Bowing, nodding, smiling and using pleasant verbal introductions are done everywhere; in shops (by staff and customers), on trains, on the street, just everywhere.
Japanese folk in Tokyo love to shop. They really really love to shop. I thought America had a consumer based/lead society but theirs is nothing compared to Japan. Gadgets, fashion and food are BIG business. Every borough and area of Tokyo we visited (and we crammed a lot into ten days) was overrun with high-end department stores, couture and top-end fashion stores, boutique confectioners, beautiful flower shops and gadget stores. We never saw charity shops, 100yen shops or Primark type clothes shops (Uniqlo is as low as they go).
Japan is VERY expensive. Eating out and shopping will suck your wallet dry. Even if the shops had stocked clothes in our sizes (they didn't) we couldn't have afforded them. When I fingered a t-shirt that I like and then looked at the price and then got my calculator out to convert yen into £'s I would often drop my jaw and the calculator in shock at the cost. Late in the holiday someone explained to us that the Japanese love and devour QUALITY and LUXURY items because they work hard and often live in tiny cramped homes which they fill with beautiful things. Their homes are often one room units and so their local neighbourhoods become their living-rooms and their kitchens (they eat out a lot). Book shops and coffee shops are everywhere and a lot of leisure time is spent away from the home and usually in shops. That picture above was taken in a coffee shop on the top floor of a shop in Ginza which sold the type of clothes that usually makes mothers say "who the hell is going to wear THAT?" 2000yen for two coffees and two boutique chocolates (£18). Well, when in Rome etc.