alt Hacker NewsIn cities, I agree that if you aren't used to it, it might be inconvenient.
However, 99% of hikers in Europe carry their own trash bags. It took off in the early 2000 and now it's almost a culture thing, especially amongst young hikers, and not having one is basically a social error (well, littering is, you can always ask people for an empty trash bag if you forgot yours). Honestly I can see why they choose that solution.
Hiking isn’t the same thing as walking around a town or city as a tourist.
I didn’t find the “carry your trash with you” to be too big of a hassle but what is truly barbaric is the social taboo on strolling through a park on a nice autumn day sipping your coffee!
Just since I’m posting here I did not experience what others have with the restrooms. The ones in the kobini were nasty and we often weren’t able to find public restrooms unless we happened to enter into a mall or somewhere like that where they seemed clean enough but not noteworthy. The Japanese excell in other areas of cleanliness though and you can be sure that many products will be aggressively double or triple-plastic wrapped.