I remember seeing a documentary about one of the top handmade Japanese knives. I was amazed that it's literally made in the craftsman's falling down house, on a normal street in a normal rural village. I wish I remembered the name of the brand. It's quite well known. The knives are beautiful, but the workshop is function over form to put it mildly (I seem to remember he didn't even have a floor in his workshop -- which makes a lot of sense, but still surprising).
Before a first moved to Japan a friend warned me that Japanese cities are generally ugly. You've got power and telephone wires everywhere. The buildings are old, rusting, and falling apart. There are weeds growing in cracks everywhere. But if you go inside a person's home, there is this amazing transformation. It's usually beautiful. Even in an old falling down home, the interior is often wonderful (of course everyone is different and especially elderly people often have difficulty cleaning their houses). This is often true of izakayas (bar/restaurants) as well. From the outside it looks utterly uninspiring, but it's often really amazing on the inside (although, not always ;-) ).
I never really had any expectations when I came here, so I was never disappointed. I know a lot of expats, though, who were crushed when they discovered that not everything in Japan is beautiful.