No matter how much evidence i see showing how incredibly structured Japanese behavior is, I never stop being amazed. I swear that all little kids are brainwashed in preschool into doing the same exact thing in a given situation. It's absolutely amazing. So here's one piece of evidence. It's a picture. Here's the situation, a bunch of us are sitting around eating some chocolate covered almonds. Of course, because we're in Japan, each almond is individually wrapped.
Me, I was the American, so what do i do with the wrapper once I get the chocolate covered almond? Naturally, I crumple it up, or maybe fold it one time, or just leave it as is. The choices are many! The freedom to choose what i want to do with a used wrapper!
Not Japanese people. I looked around the table... and almost everyone (only one exception among 12 people), made the little wrapper bows you see in the picture! I only took a picture with 3 of them so that you'd get an idea of what i'm talking about. 11 of 12. They all folded the garbage in the same way. Why? The answer I got was, "To make it look pretty." I just don't get it. Make garbage look pretty? I just don't get it. Why would anybody bother to make garbage look pretty?

UPDATE 9/3: I'm pretty sure the link to the "one piece of evidence" works now to show a picture. If it doesn't well, leave a comment and I'll try to figure it out.