>One other thing I would like to import: the widely available, clean bathrooms all over the place. That was super nice.
Don't forget how almost every public restroom even has a washlet.
But we can't have these things in the US. Americans can't even be bothered to flush the toilet, and like to scrawl graffiti on bathroom walls. The only way we'd have the super-clean public bathrooms of Japan is to keep them locked, or have a pay-per-use scheme with cameras monitoring them to see who pees on the toilet seat without cleaning it.
Even pay-per-use won't solve that problem though. Have you ever been unfortunate enough to use a truck-stop shower? Not an experience I would recommend; after several weeks of motorcycle camping I started to think I would be better-served renting a cheap motel room.
The pay-per-use wouldn't solve the problem alone, but it'd keep some of the riff-raff out of there. But you'd need camera monitoring, and probably have it require the use of a credit card (so you know who used it, instead of just having a grainy picture of some person you can't identify), to make sure the bathroom stays clean.
Americans can't be bothered to pay for a janitor. Airports are a near constant flow of people using the bathroom, and they are fine because it's someones job to regularly come in and clean the resulting mess.
Janitors can't do anything about graffiti. There's no graffiti in Japan like there is in America; it's a cultural difference. People there are trained from a very early age in school to not destroy or disfigure things needlessly. Americans aren't taught any such thing, because we think that parents should be the only ones to teach values, not schools.
Don't forget how almost every public restroom even has a washlet.
But we can't have these things in the US. Americans can't even be bothered to flush the toilet, and like to scrawl graffiti on bathroom walls. The only way we'd have the super-clean public bathrooms of Japan is to keep them locked, or have a pay-per-use scheme with cameras monitoring them to see who pees on the toilet seat without cleaning it.