15 Astounding Things That Prove Japan Is a Hundred Steps Ahead of the World

You might already be aware of how Japan offers mind-blowing things that make us think the future is here, like their capsule hotels and the bullet train a.k.a. Shinkansen. But surely it doesn’t stop there. Japan keeps innovating and surprising us with more and more. Here is a whole list of things to show you how today’s Japan is already experiencing what tomorrow will look like for the rest of us.

Bright Side dove into Japanese culture one more time and we’ve discovered some of the coolest things that look like they came straight from the future.

1. This driverless roving sales vehicle in Japan.

2. To save space, cars are parked vertically in places like Tokyo.

3. While a bidet may seem ordinary, Japanese toilet seats offer a simple bidet even for home use.

4. A kindergarten with a playground on the roof! Check out this huge oval-shaped tree house!

5. These yellow street lines are designed to guide the visually impaired citizens.

6. This is what you see when you are inside a Japanese capsule hotel room.

7. They have 3D visuals instead of pictures on the menus. How can you not salivate while looking at these?

8. This cute Japanese drone is called Int-Ball, and it was designed as an autonomous AI camera that flies around the International Space Station by itself, taking pictures and video of the astronauts on board.

9. Virtual pilots competing in a drone race championship held in Sendai.

10. One of the fantastic futuristic boats that travel between Asakusa and Odaiba.

11. Don’t worry about a parking space for your bicycle because in Japan, there’s such a thing as underground bicycle parking.

12. The Japanese have come up with yet another futuristic-shaped fruit, the pentagon orange.

13. A Coke vending machine robot walking around outside of Shibuya Station in Tokyo.

14. This seemingly gravity-defying bridge is a real bridge in Japan. It looks a lot like a roller coaster, climbing up to the sky or coming down a steep slope.

15. Japan gives an edge (or 8) to an otherwise ordinary fruit.

Have you ever been to Japan? What feature of Japanese culture amazed you the most? Can you think of other astounding things from this country that make you think you’ve taken a glimpse into the future?