NationStates Jolt Archive

God I laughed at this so hard, my abs hurt...

Mwahaha (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDSdcxzz6uE&mode=related&search=)

Anyway, besides spamming with funny Japanese videos, this thread is about Japanese people. Has anyone been to Japan? What's it like? Any funny stories? I know it's supposed to be reaaaaly different so going to somewhere so foreign should be fun & adventurous. Also Japanese people are supposed to be really friendly, always smiling? A bit weird (in a good way)? I know you should take stereotypes with a grain of salt but, last year, bunch of Japanese tourists (tho I'm not sure, they may be from somewhere else in Far East) came to me saying "photo...photo" while I was waiting for a bus in Toronto and I thought they wanted me to take a pic of them but it turned out I was supposed to be IN the pic! Tho, I later took their pic as well but that whole thing is still kinda mystery to me, albeit a funny one.

Thats mental, good job they have a good sense of humour as I could imagine if you did that to some people they would go sick.

My neighbors were host family to two Japanese nursing students. We had a big barbecue in our back yard the first week they were visiting. My mother brought out fixings for ice cream sundaes. Mom showed them how to use the Reddi Whip, and they were so excited by it, they would just put it on everything-soda, peanut butter sandwiches, cookies, etc. I think my neighbor had to buy those boxes of Reddi Whip from Costco.

Funny. I reckon this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UhPNUxqaOU) is funnier.

Oh that was funny LOLOL well done!

Never been to Japan but would love to go. Been to Seoul...that was interesting...and fun...

Funny. I reckon this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UhPNUxqaOU) is funnier.

LOL!

Somebody should tell NERVUN or Daillista about this thread. Or even Kiryu.

Has anyone been to Japan?
*dryly* You could say that...

What's it like?
Probably not like you think it would be. However, I do love it here.

Any funny stories?
Too many to relate. I've had some really fun times here, and some very confusing ones.

I know it's supposed to be reaaaaly different so going to somewhere so foreign should be fun & adventurous.
Actually I've never thought it was that different from the US. What gets you is finding something familar that's been warped to fit Japanese tastes (like seeing the new burger at McDonald's is made from shrimp, or the evil curry bread that looks like a innocent jelly donut).

Also Japanese people are supposed to be really friendly, always smiling? A bit weird (in a good way)?
Depends where you are. The people I've met in Nagano are very friendly and I rather like them. Some of the people I've met in Tokyo though... Oh, the smiling part may be due to embarrisment. Japanese smile and laugh when they're embarresed or nervous (Something that makes them smile and laugh even more) and if you look like they'll have to use English to talk to you... :D

I know you should take stereotypes with a grain of salt but, last year, bunch of Japanese tourists (tho I'm not sure, they may be from somewhere else in Far East) came to me saying "photo...photo" while I was waiting for a bus in Toronto and I thought they wanted me to take a pic of them but it turned out I was supposed to be IN the pic! Tho, I later took their pic as well but that whole thing is still kinda mystery to me, albeit a funny one.
*lol* Yeah, that happens to me a lot as well. It's like things are more real if you have someone else in the photo.

Somebody should tell NERVUN or Daillista about this thread. Or even Kiryu.

*appears*

I'm half Japanese, and I'm pretty sure my left side is as human as my right side. I go to Japan every summer and Japanese people are...normalish? My grandmother is kind and loving and a great cook, my grandfather is a bit of a bigot, but an inovative thinker and hard worker, my friends in Japan like to play soccer and videogames, and pwn at bike riding. Subways in Tokyo are a mess, no one is making babies in the city that my grandparents live in (Kiryu-shi). The national economy is in a bit of stagnation (from what my grandfather says). The landscape is pretty, people eat rice and fish as well as western food. Mcdonalds is weird and you can get sushi on a conveyer belt. There are lots of mountains. Hokaido is gorgeous. *shrugs* Any specific questions?

or the evil curry bread that looks like a innocent jelly donut).


Forget you, thats up there as being one of the greatest foods EVER.

.Actually I've never thought it was that different from the US. What gets you is finding something familar that's been warped to fit Japanese tastes (like seeing the new burger at McDonald's is made from shrimp, or the evil curry bread that looks like a innocent jelly donut).

Do you ever eat those rice patties that you wrap in sea weed with the mystery stuff in the middle? Because it was all well and good until I bit the mystery substance.

Forget you, thats up there as being one of the greatest foods EVER.
Before you get me wrong, I LOVE curry bread, I really do. It's just that it seems most gaikokujin introduction to the snack comes from one of the first trips we take to the local konbini when we still can't read katakana well enough to figure out that what looks like a jelly donut isn't filled with sweet jelly, but cold, spicy curry. It comes as a shock to the system to say the very least.

Once you know what it is, it's great.

Do you ever eat those rice patties that you wrap in sea weed with the mystery stuff in the middle? Because it was all well and good until I bit the mystery substance.
Onigiri? Yup, just without the nori (seaweed). They're the Japanese equivlent of a sandwich and usually really good (If you know what's in the middle).

That program is insane.

Here is more of the same:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJOweEVMjz4

Do you ever eat those rice patties that you wrap in sea weed with the mystery stuff in the middle? Because it was all well and good until I bit the mystery substance.
Was it red or brown or pink? Or other?
Before you get me wrong, I LOVE curry bread, I really do. It's just that it seems most gaikokujin introduction to the snack comes from one of the first trips we take to the local konbini when we still can't read katakana well enough to figure out that what looks like a jelly donut isn't filled with sweet jelly, but cold, spicy curry. It comes as a shock to the system to say the very least.
Thats great! :D :p And they should have konbini in America...The 7/11s aren't quite the same.
Once you know what it is, it's great.

Yes, yes it is....*is hungry*

There is, of course, this old favourite (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEKqU1fkYCI&mode=related&search=).

Sometimes, with the Japanese, it's best to just not ask.

Thats great! :D :p And they should have konbini in America...The 7/11s aren't quite the same.
I think they're going to. Japan Times said either Lawson's or 7-11 was going to try and bring Japanese style konbini to the US, the problem was how to get fresh food on time like they do in Japan.

I think they're going to. Japan Times said either Lawson's or 7-11 was going to try and bring Japanese style konbini to the US, the problem was how to get fresh food on time like they do in Japan.

This is awesomely good news. Err, how do they get fresh food on time in Japan, and why can't they do it here?

This is awesomely good news. Err, how do they get fresh food on time in Japan, and why can't they do it here?
They have the distrabution network set up in Japan, they don't have such a one in the US (Not to mention the difference in expectations between the two countires).

They have the distrabution network set up in Japan, they don't have such a one in the US (Not to mention the difference in expectations between the two countires).
That does make many senses. *nods*

Another quirk about Japan, no central heating, which my father is currently bitching about to my mom over the phone.

Another quirk about Japan, no central heating, which my father is currently bitching about to my mom over the phone.
Ooo! Can I join him? That's my favorite winter topic (actually it's been a very warm winter this year. We're getting up to 11c today, very strange).

Ooo! Can I join him? That's my favorite winter topic (actually it's been a very warm winter this year. We're getting up to 11c today, very strange).

He did mention it being warm. Damn weather being weird.
I've yet to go to Japan in the winter, or anytime besides august for that matter. I can only imagine it muchi(or shi?)-atsui to the extreme.

He did mention it being warm. Damn weather being weird.
Yeah, I guess the plum blossoms are out in Osaka (Have to ask Daillista to confirm that though).

I've yet to go to Japan in the winter, or anytime besides august for that matter. I can only imagine it muchi(or shi?)-atsui to the extreme.
Depends on where you go. When I'm down in Yamaguchi-ken for Oshougatsu, it's not that bad at all. It drops down into the low single digits, but never below freezing.

Nagano though... Friends of mine in the northern part of the ken have to keep their shampoo and toothpaste in the fridge at night to keep them from freezing solid by morning.

Yeah, I guess the plum blossoms are out in Osaka (Have to ask Daillista to confirm that though).
It's warm here too: http://www.flickr.com/photos/qualicum/349444459/ (my friend's father, he's a cool photographer[/shameless plugging of people I know])
Nagano though... Friends of mine in the northern part of the ken have to keep their shampoo and toothpaste in the fridge at night to keep them from freezing solid by morning.

That is trully insane. "that nice warm refrigerated toothpaste"...

....
Too many to relate. I've had some really fun times here, and some very confusing ones.


Tell one of em, or two...


...
*lol* Yeah, that happens to me a lot as well. It's like things are more real if you have someone else in the photo.

Wait. They ask you to be in the pic while you are in Japan?
As for the real part, I can understand that. I've heard there are huge replicas of Dutch cities in Japan so maybe there are replicas of something Canadian and they want to show their friends the authenticity of the trip by having a pic with the blond local?
Or they may have wanted to point me at the pic and laugh at my confused pose in it...

That program is insane.

Here is more of the same:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJOweEVMjz4

LMAO!! Even their pranks are high tech....

There is, of course, this old favourite (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEKqU1fkYCI&mode=related&search=).

Sometimes, with the Japanese, it's best to just not ask.

OUCH!!! Fuck! What's the prize, a million dollar?

Tell one of em, or two...
When visiting a beautiful pagoda with my (then fiancee) wife and her family, she noticed this guy who was hovering around me looking very nervous and as if he kept wanting to ask me a question. She told him to go ahead and talk to me. The guy proceeds to give me a half an hour lecture on the history of Yamaguchi City, how it's like a little Kyoto, why it's like a little Kyoto, all about the area and so on. Then he gets around to asking me where I am from (The US) and then starts on another jaunt about how much he likes America and wants to go to the US. He finally sums up everything with one final question, "Where's the best place in America?" When I tell him that is a tough one, being that the US is so large and varried, he agrees to a list of the top five places. Then asks me if he could make them all in one weekend.

The weirdest thing would have to be the toilet at a bar called Hell though.

By some weird coincident, as I was reading this thread, a local teacher came up to me and gave me a box of Royce's chocolate chips.

That's Chocolate-covered POTATO chips.
These:
http://www.e-royce.com/servlet/layer3?pageid=25

What is with the Japanese and their need to take two perfectly acceptable Western delicacies and combine them into some weird mutant hybrid?
Curry ice-cream is another one.

(They were in fact rather nice. Just weird)

I know you should take stereotypes with a grain of salt but, last year, bunch of Japanese tourists (tho I'm not sure, they may be from somewhere else in Far East) came to me saying "photo...photo" while I was waiting for a bus in Toronto and I thought they wanted me to take a pic of them but it turned out I was supposed to be IN the pic! Tho, I later took their pic as well but that whole thing is still kinda mystery to me, albeit a funny one.

i had the same experience in rome. it was extremely weird. i had to pose with this asian girl with some fountains in the background.

there was also this japanese girl comming to my school for an exchange project or something. and she was kind of weird. at the end of the year she was here she had developed a drinking 'problem', she was drunk after one beer so she was almost constantly drunk when she went out.
she was also very impressed by our houses, because "they looked like from the cartoons". and she had never seen snow. also when i pulled a sweater or something over my head she had to laugh because that reminded her of a penis ?!?!
and she had some weird magazines, filled with ads for plastic surgery and other 'fashion' related stuff.
she was kind of fun.

What is with the Japanese and their need to take two perfectly acceptable Western delicacies and combine them into some weird mutant hybrid?
Ah, but you haven't lived until you have experienced a taco with a hot dog in the bottom of it.

There is, of course, this old favourite (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEKqU1fkYCI&mode=related&search=).

Sometimes, with the Japanese, it's best to just not ask.

Clearly there seems to be an almost goofballian influence on a certain segment of japanese television. :)

i had the same experience in rome. it was extremely weird. i had to pose with this asian girl with some fountains in the background.

there was also this japanese girl comming to my school for an exchange project or something. and she was kind of weird. at the end of the year she was here she had developed a drinking 'problem', she was drunk after one beer so she was almost constantly drunk when she went out.
she was also very impressed by our houses, because "they looked like from the cartoons". and she had never seen snow. also when i pulled a sweater or something over my head she had to laugh because that reminded her of a penis ?!?!
and she had some weird magazines, filled with ads for plastic surgery and other 'fashion' related stuff.
she was kind of fun.

So it was just one girl? Maybe she liked you. Mine was a whole group of tourists. And guess what, they were all smiling...:D

God I laughed at this so hard, my abs hurt...

Mwahaha (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDSdcxzz6uE&mode=related&search=)

That's not so bad. Try and find a video of the "happening" from this past New Years Kohaku Song Contest...

And the good old 11 PM Wide Show was a classic - a combination of Johnny Carson, The Man Show, and the Playboy Channel.

Has anyone been to Japan?

Nope. Never been there. Unless you count a year in Nagasaki, two years in Niigata, and almost thirteen years in Osaka.

What's it like?

"Japan is a small island country with four seasons." (only a few will really get that one...)


Any funny stories?

Maybe a few. ;)

How about the love hotel with the Hello Kitty Bondage room?
Or maybe menu roulette.
The toilet slippers story is usually good for a laugh. Most Japanese homes have a set of special slippers to use for the bathroom, which are usually just outside or inside the door. I was at a friends house one evening, and commented that after many years living here I had never made the common faux paux of forgetting to change back into the regular slippers after using the bathroom. About ten minutes later, someone went and immediately asked "Hey, where are the toilet slippers....?" Sure enough, I'd managed that faux paux.

I know it's supposed to be reaaaaly different so going to somewhere so foreign should be fun & adventurous.

Approached the right way, yes indeed.

Also Japanese people are supposed to be really friendly, always smiling?

Come ride a rush hour subway with me sometime. :(

A bit weird (in a good way)?

Just remember, to many cultures, you are very weird as well. ;)

I know you should take stereotypes with a grain of salt but, last year, bunch of Japanese tourists (tho I'm not sure, they may be from somewhere else in Far East) came to me saying "photo...photo" while I was waiting for a bus in Toronto and I thought they wanted me to take a pic of them but it turned out I was supposed to be IN the pic! Tho, I later took their pic as well but that whole thing is still kinda mystery to me, albeit a funny one.

My mom had a fun time with that when here thge second time. She always said sure, but I want a picture too. She has a photo album full of random pics of random Japanese as a result.

Somebody should tell NERVUN or Daillista about this thread. Or even Kiryu.

How did I miss it?

I'm half Japanese, and I'm pretty sure my left side is as human as my right side. I go to Japan every summer and Japanese people are...normalish? My grandmother is kind and loving and a great cook, my grandfather is a bit of a bigot, but an inovative thinker and hard worker, my friends in Japan like to play soccer and videogames, and pwn at bike riding. Subways in Tokyo are a mess, no one is making babies in the city that my grandparents live in (Kiryu-shi). The national economy is in a bit of stagnation (from what my grandfather says). The landscape is pretty, people eat rice and fish as well as western food. Mcdonalds is weird and you can get sushi on a conveyer belt. There are lots of mountains. Hokaido is gorgeous. *shrugs* Any specific questions?

:D BTW, if you don't mind my nosiness, which of your parents is Japanese?

Forget you, thats up there as being one of the greatest foods EVER.

Of course, IIRC, you like natto...

Do you ever eat those rice patties that you wrap in sea weed with the mystery stuff in the middle? Because it was all well and good until I bit the mystery substance.

Onigiri. ;) And the weirder, the better seems to be the rule at some of the local konbini. I'm expecting a bleu cheese onigiri anyday now.

Was it red or brown or pink? Or other?

Reminds me of my first real meal here. The various tsukemono (Japanese pickles, for the non-conversant) were described as "the green stuff, the pink stuff, and the yellow stuff."

Thats great! :D :p And they should have konbini in America...The 7/11s aren't quite the same.


Yes, yes it is....*is hungry*

That does make many senses. *nods*

Another quirk about Japan, no central heating, which my father is currently bitching about to my mom over the phone.

Yep. I had a really redneck friend from back home in Texas who was over here working construction after the Hanshin-Kobe earthquake, and he was constantly shaking his head at Japanese constructioin methods...

Ooo! Can I join him? That's my favorite winter topic (actually it's been a very warm winter this year. We're getting up to 11c today, very strange).

Indeed, indeed.

Yeah, I guess the plum blossoms are out in Osaka (Have to ask Daillista to confirm that though).


Depends on where you go. When I'm down in Yamaguchi-ken for Oshougatsu, it's not that bad at all. It drops down into the low single digits, but never below freezing.

Nagano though... Friends of mine in the northern part of the ken have to keep their shampoo and toothpaste in the fridge at night to keep them from freezing solid by morning.

Not that I know of, yet.

Clearly there seems to be an almost goofballian influence on a certain segment of japanese television. :)

We still have to get you over here for that mud festival. :D

We still have to get you over here for that mud festival. :D

South Korea has an interesting one too. :)