Which side of the road to walk on?

So I am here in Japan since Monday, and I will stay here for 1 year. I walk everywhere and in school they told us to always walk on the left side. Is that right? Schouldn't I walk that way that I'm facing the traffic?

If you walk along a road without sidewalk, you should walk on the right, facing traffic.

If there are sidewalks, I observe that a majority of people walking on busy sidewalks will keep to the left, behaving like cars on the road. You will bump into less people if you keep to the left.

As uji says walking on the right facing traffic is the common sense approach apart from blind corners of course - but don't expect to see most people doing this. Same goes for side walks, walk on the left and most places designate the right for cyclists, but once again they take no notice anyway.

Above all else i would recommend you get used to walking in a perfectly straight line without wandering, as cyclists take no prisoners and don't care in the slightest if they knock you over, break your arm or otherwise injure you.