These small compact trash trucks can be found in many colors, often several on the same street and from the same company. We saw this one and a pink one, one yellow, another green and even a robin's egg blue truck. There is usually found some full-colored, cartoon-like image on both sides of the trucks. The trucks are clean and even the tires are washed daily and often more than once. I once saw a truck with a crew of two men. While one was gathering the trash, the driver was wiping down the tires. I also saw a bus driver do the same thing between runs.

   The brightly colored and cheerful uniformed drivers go about their business with speed, pride and dignity. Mounted external speakers play happy little tunes of recorded music and generally, familiar American tunes are among their favorites.

   Even though we saw clothes dryers for sale in stores, inside Laundromats and in the home where we stayed as guests in Goido, Japan, clothing is seen drying naturally from balconies of apartments and at other places of residence. The Japanese culture is very conservative and a natural resource is the presence of constant breezes. Thin bamboo uprights were strung with nylon cord over the top perimeters of balconies. This prevent pigeons or other birds from landing or roosting on the balconies. The balconies stay clean by the way!