I’m a moderate environmentalist one so my tips may come across as tame!
**At Osaka Castle and other attractions, you’re given a plastic bag for your shoes when going indoors. These bags go to the landfill. They will not be reused for other tourists.**
What the venues do: You’re not allowed to wear shoes so you must remove them for a very short tour (usually you can finish walking around in 20 mins).
**What I did:** I used my own plastic bag or my backpack’s rain cover to hold my husband’s and my shoes. A friend told me she brought a bag clip to clip her shoes to her bag.
I would say that out of 100 tourists, my husband and I were the only ones who tried to combine our shoes by using a single plastic bag or decline the bag totally.
**Many restaurants use disposable cutlery.**
**What I did:** I brought a metal spork and my husband had a plastic one. No issues using them. The shop owners don’t mind. You just have to make yourself feel comfortable that you’re not using chopsticks.
**Many food stalls use plastic bags.**
**What I did:** I brought my own sandwich bag. But if it was wet, I would request the stall owners to use any plastic bag I already had from other stalls. Sometimes they insist on giving a new one, but insisting back that they use my bag usually works.