10 Things About Japan I'll Never Understand

yeah has gonna run this the enemy man I've been living in Japan now for the better of around three years yet with half of my family being from these lustrous lands of Japan I've had the privilege and the honor of having lived alongside Japanese customs and traditions and ways of being for basically my entire lifetime it's always been super interesting for me and I guess for a lot of other people who mean to know that I've had to live with these struggles and difficulties of trying to incorporate these otherwise very foreign customs and different traditions especially while living in Australia and try and seamlessly incorporate that into my half Japanese half Australian lifestyle and for the longest time I never really questioned these Japanese customs and traditions that I have had to grow up with it wasn't until I started doing series like what the [ __ ] Japan or Japanese 101 on this channel where I started to really think and question stuff like wait why do we have to take our shoes off when we enter a house hold on why do we bow to everybody instead of just giving them a handshake or even a hug why is manga and anime so [ __ ] good and it wasn't until I moved here away from my parents and getting the most firsthand of contacts with the way of living here in Japan that I started to realize the weird oddities and frustrations that have to do with living in Japan and living and accustoming yourself to Japanese traditions and lifestyles customs and traditions that have established themselves in this country for decades sometimes centuries and yet are traditions that the locals living here have never really questioned about concerning its validity and usefulness in the 21st century and so today in this video I thought I would list off just some of the weird strange and really pointless and useless customs and traditions in Japan that as a half Japanese man myself living with these customs for my entire lifetime I just don't really get so let's discuss 10 things about Japan I'll never understand let's go to kick things off let's talk about one of the biggest cultural barriers between Japanese way of being and Western foreigners who come to visit Japan tattoos although they are starting to ever so slowly get accepted by the most modern generation of Japanese youths the concept of tattoos is still considered controversial by a lot of the older locals here and one of the biggest clashes that a lot of Western travelers have to face when traveling to Japan is the outright segregation and separation of people with tattoos in certain places now I'm sure you're all aware of the long-running piece of advice when you come to Japan which is if you have a tattoo you can't go into an onsen or you know public baths in Japan bath houses I'm sure you've seen at least one video from your favorite J vlogger whoever that may be talking and discussing this particular topic in question but essentially the whole reason as to why that rule that customary started in Japan is because of the always causing problems goddamn Yakuza it boils down to the historical fact that in feudal Japan the only people who ever got tattoos especially those tattoos that cover their entire body were members of the Yakuza to represent their particular familiar and so local bath house owners at the time in order to not scare the crap out of local passers-by who just want to go in and enjoy a public bath outright band Yakuza members aka outright banned people with tattoos from local bath houses rule makes a lot of sense if you're a Japanese person from the 1700s because how many times can you personally say if you visited Japan or you yourself are a Japanese person watch this video how many times can you say that you have met or seen a Yakuza member just [ __ ] casually strolling on the street I have friends who have lived here for four months I have friends who have lived here for four decades none of them have met or seen a Yakuza member cuz I don't think y'all cuz the members are that stupid to just waltz into a public bathhouse to enjoy a bath when they part of a familiar that probably has enough money to just build their own private bath house at their Manor but the biggest annoyance that I have towards this stupid-ass custom is the fact that it applies to non Japanese people as well if you're a foreigner like you clearly don't look anything like a Japanese person you can't be a Yakuza member it's just not how it works Plus this dumb rule not only applies to bathhouses but also applies to things like public polls and even some beaches all because your tiny little Naruto tattoo you got when you were 15 years old might scare away an old innocent lady or a pregnant woman into thinking that you're part of the Yakuza look I'm sorry old woman and pregnant lady but your feelings bro people put in tattoos because it means something to them all because they want to use their body as a canvas they want to express their artwork through their entire body through tattoos sometimes people put in tattoos because it just looks done by the way nobody should be judging you in a public space for having a little bit of ink in your skin look Japan it feels so set on keeping this outdated custom at least make it exempt to foreigners like it's really annoying when I take around a friend from overseas who has never visited Japan before and I want to show them my favorite bath house but I can't let them through because they have a fun Goku tattoo on their shoulder like literally the only thing that is stopping me right now to go out and get a tattoo because I want a few tattoos is the fact that I love bath houses too much I love on sins too much but once they finally get rid of this outdated stupid-ass rule it's a wrap your boys covered in tats one thing that you have to watch out for when coming to visit Japan for the first time is that you need to prepare yourself for a lot of walking because I'm like a lot of Western countries out there the easiest form of transportation to look at every single nook and cranny and cool part of Japan is to use things like buses trains and more often than not to straight-up use your legs but hey I mean I'm all for it it's a hell of a lot more healthier than you know taking a car everywhere down to your local supermarket and it's a hell of a lot cheaper than catching an uber everywhere that's for sure plus you get to see all sorts of small details that you wouldn't be able to experience from a rushing car window and yet even though this is a country where the average local Japanese person here walks 8,000 steps per day you almost never see any god damn benches to sit on and I just gotta ask why there are so many empty spaces even in like smack bang in the middle of inner-city Tokyo where I just look at and be like you know what that would be a [ __ ] fantastic place to put a bench right now because god damn my legs are about to crumble and yet the best you'll get is like two seats in a park bench like ten miles away from where you are look I realized that this doesn't really like any cultural anomaly that exists in Japan but it is a massive inconvenience especially from the way that you have to travel within Japan and it's especially frustrating how nobody in Japan really bats an eye about this problem I get that this is probably actually a marketing tactic for a lot of cafes and restaurants where if you're walking around a lot and you're tired and you want to sit down there are no benches so what do you do you go to your local Starbucks where you go to your local restaurant to sit down and pay for a 400 yen drink that you didn't really want in the first place but sometimes I don't want that Starbucks I don't want that 400 yen drink that I'd never really wanted I just want to sit down and enjoy people walking past me and I feel this is especially gonna be a problem as year in year out there are more and more foreigners who are visiting Japan and more and more foreigners who are leaving in Japan aka more and more lazy asses who need benches to sit on so Japan come on if you're gonna use any money to make from Tokyo 2020 put it into some benches boy if you're currently studying Japanese as you watch this video I'm sure this entry is gonna kick you right in the dick or vagina whichever one you have because even for someone like me who is a hundred percent fluent in Japanese like I have certificates to prove my fluency the concept of formal Japanese is an absolute hair pour and I'm not even talking about the fact that there's a difference between formal Japanese and informal Japanese no no that that's easy enough I'm talking more about the fact that there are there are three types of formal Japanese now I'm obviously not gonna go into the nitty-gritty details of the three types of formal Japanese but to grossly oversimplify they are namely pain Eagle King yoga and song giggle which are all formal types of Japanese but have completely different word structures sentence structures and even vocabulary that go with it like seriously there are so many literary rules and Cadence's between these three types of formal japanese that even Japanese people who were born and raised in Japan who can only speak Japanese and work in a formal Japanese workplace still have extremely hard times try to fully wrap their head around these three differences and here's the kicker do you know what the only purpose of having these three formalities are it's to make yourself or the other person feel more important or less important than they actually are that's it in other words nothing it's just overly confusing extremely frustrating and causes a lot of stress for young Japanese people who are fresh in the workforce who are basically forced to use and try and utilize these three different types of formal Japanese that they don't fully understand no wonder people hate learning Japanese as a second language hands up if you've heard of or know the meaning of the word triskaidekaphobia essentially it is the inherent fear or phobia of the number 13 yeah I know that actually exists what the fall surprisingly Japan actually has its own version of triskaidekaphobia with the number 4 in Japanese the number 4 pronounced Yong can also be pronounced as [ __ ] which is also the word for death in Japanese so with this correlation it actually isn't uncommon to say find an apartment complex that doesn't have any rooms with the number 4 attached to it it'll go 101 102 103 and the skip immediately to 105 in some extreme cases I've seen some buildings that have completely gotten rid of the fourth floor altogether like you'll step into the elevator and the buttons will read 1 2 3 5 now I don't know if I'm the first one to realize this but it's not the most stupid thing you've ever heard like really are you that scared of a number that you're going to get rid of it completely like what you found 4 years old because it wouldn't even be that bad and I would at least try and understand a little bit if they were consistent with their logic because believe it or not the number 4 isn't the only bad luck number in Japanese the number 9 is also the same pronounced commonly as QED it can also be pronounced as coupe which is another word for suffering or pain but I've almost never and I mean never seen an apartment complex that has gotten rid of the number 9 or a building that has gotten rid of the ninth floor apparently the Japanese are not cool with dying even though they have one of the highest suicide rates in the world and yet are ok with suffering and pain a little bit because that's life right not many of you may know the term used in the title of this point here but you've definitely seen these floating around all over Japan especially if you visited this country you Takada's are essentially these mascot characters that companies and services use to personify their company and service to a grander public with a purpose of making said company or service seem more friendly and open and cute and kaua e and look I get it it's a great marketing move I mean you know Western companies do it all the time look at the prequels guy or Ronald McDonald or any of these other creepy mascot characters but if there's one thing that Japan is really [ __ ] good at its being over excessive not only does every company and service imaginable have a utakata but even regions towns prefecture x' events you name it well 99% of the time have some kind of original utakata attached to it and when it gets to this point there are just way too many you taqaddas that I have to apparently try and remember and identify immediately like I'm sorry but I'm not gonna remember 300 different you taqaddas from 300 different situations that I experienced last year because most of these characters are either really crapoly designed and sometimes don't serve any purpose whatsoever and the worst thing about it is when a company or a service or an event that has said utakata decides to make a physical costume of said utakata and stuff some unlucky employee into that - waddle around and try and be friendly for what reason none really like dude I don't care I'm not gonna go up to this weird ass designed costume and try and take a picture with it when I don't know what the character is in itself and all I can think about is how sorry I feel for the person stuck inside of that thing all day so I get the whole kawaii movement in you know companies and Japanese services and whatnot but just just just tone it down a little bit Japan please I can use a question for you at the beginning of the new year what do you guys do to celebrate some people go and relax with their family some people go on a vacation some people just you know take a well-deserved break from all of the hard work that they had to do last year but some people like the Japanese for instance send little postcards to their family members and their friends to wish them a very good luck for the year to come now look this is certainly a sweet sentiment like I'm not that much of a stone-cold [ __ ] to completely ignore that fact the problem is is that it's become so ingrained in the Japanese culture that it is almost become a requirement for people to send these postcards even if you don't want to we're living in an age now where most younger people have these things called smart phones and so it's really easy to just type up a New Year's message and send it off to your friends via text then to go down all the way to the post office to buy overly expensive postcards and send them to your family members from which they will probably throw away after a week it's a waste of time money and resources and I think is a custom that in Japan should probably get with the times and we should just get rid of I mean I know a lot of friends and families and even entire countries that have gotten rid of the entire concept of sending Christmas cards to their family members and friends so why can't Japan do the same thing with New Year's cards because I mean at least with Christmas cards there are these things called ecards which people send via email or via text and it's essentially the same thing just - the paper because we could be using those resources and money that we spent on a post card that will be thrown away off for a week on something like a gift that I can actually buy and is a little bit more tangent than say a piece of paper that says Happy New Year on it I don't want to do it anymore a lot of Japanese people don't want to do it anymore get rid of it yeah yeah you you read that correctly I wish I was making that up but I know for certainty that you have to pay a large sum of money to the newly weds and the groom when you attend a wedding because I had to do exactly that when I attended my friend's wedding here in Japan a couple of years ago now every country and culture has its own set of rules and customs when it comes to special events like this but at least in Japan it is a rule and a custom that you have to send 30,000 yen to the newly weds and groom to attend their wedding in some instances some weddings that are way more traditional than others if you forget that 30,000 yen then you actually don't even get to attend the wedding all because of the fact that it is considered rude that you didn't bring a gift now this may just be me talking from personal experience but I actually find it more heartless to give an envelope full of cold hard cash to the groom then it is for me to say take that cash and to go out and buy a tangible gift that I took the time to pick choose buy and wrap getting cold hard cash in a wedding is kind of like that one uncle that you get to meet on your birthday once a year who gives you like 50 bucks in an envelope and just says I you know what I couldn't be [ __ ] to think of a gift because I don't really care or know about you all that much so yeah go take that and buy whatever you want I don't give a [ __ ] like Japan not everything has to have these set rules and set customs you can be a little bit more flexible with this kind of stuff it's a celebration lighten up the mood already so you know how I've been saying in this video that Japan has rules and customs with everything well I I met that very literally because this is a country mind you that even has rules for where you must stand and sit in certain situations now of course in a casual setting with your friends or family you can sit or stand wherever the [ __ ] your heart desires but in Japanese business settings there are primarily two rules for standing and seating positions camisa and shamova terribly simplify the person who has the highest status in the company or circumstance must be situated in the camisa and the one with lowest status needs to be situated in the Somoza everybody else in between needs to sit or stand in a certain order between the two this includes meeting rooms restaurants elevators even taxis so that all I have to say is who the wife cares just let me sit or stand wherever the hell I want let the boss sit or stand wherever the [ __ ] he wants can I relax for even one goddamn second in this country again it just causes way too much unnecessary stress especially to those younger Japanese boys and girls who are starting out in the workforce here and it's just a huge waste of time like we have to fall in wait like is the boss really going to be that frustrated with me if he's standing in a particular space in the elevator no of course not who the hell would God Japan is so stupid sometimes Jesus Christ but while I rage out about standing and seating situations in Japanese business circumstances there was really nothing more defining on how stupid Japanese customs and traditions and just people can get especially when you're talking about Christmas and Halloween in Japan now I've already done a full what the [ __ ] Japan episode on the weird and bastardized edition of Christmas here in Japan so I'll leave that link in description below so you can just go and watch that so instead I'm gonna be touching more upon the concepts of Halloween here in Japan because man I hate Halloween here with every fiber of my being for the past couple of years Halloween has just turned into this giant riot of dumb Japanese teens and adults going around getting drunk tipping trucks over doing shady illegal [ __ ] on the streets endangering innocent passers-by and causing a large amount of traffic accidents all across the country and not only does it turn the beautiful and lovely city of Shibuya into what I can only describe as a hell on earth but it also just completely misses the point of Halloween as a holiday literally nobody is out trick-or-treating and those that are in costume addressing as [ __ ] as possible for a quick and spooky Halloween one-night stand now look I wasn't much of a Halloween person growing up in Australia because we don't really celebrate Halloween in Australia I mean some families do my family just wasn't really wonderful Halloween all that much but after looking at how the other half of my heritage treats Halloween let's just say uh I didn't really miss out on much and finally one of my biggest grievances that I have about the Japanese culture as a Japanese man living here is the concept of Samuel which for those of you who don't know is the Japanese word for staying back and working now sure many of you are aware of the absolutely insane work culture that Japan has if the previous entries on this list didn't already prove otherwise but one thing I can say is the absolute root of the evil root of the problem is the entire concept of a sung yeol now I made a what the [ __ ] Japan episode quite a while ago with my buddy guys in Goomba as to how this concept of Zhang Yao is essentially causing people in Japan to overwork themselves to literal death link to that in the description but there are actually many types of Zhang you'll hear in Japan that go from the somewhat logical to the absolutely absurd I for one fully understand if for example you had to stay back and finish off a project that you need to get done on that day if it was completely your responsibility to get that one thing done by the end of the day then yeah you are pretty much obligated to stay back and finish it off without the extra paying hours because it's essentially your fault that you're staying back but then Japan decides to take that concept like six million steps further with the idea of nobody's ano this happens when you are completely finished with your work and you decide to end it for the day it's just like you know what I finished with all my work I'm done time to go home yet everybody around you all of your cent buyers and co-workers and your bosses around you are still staying back and so to maintain the respect for your peers and co-workers you are socially obligated to stay back with them until all of them decide that it's time to leave that it's time to go home in other words you are trapped in your office not because you're a responsible adult who has finished everything that they needed to do for that day but because you're Sam pies and your bosses are irresponsible and incompetent adults who are not able to finish their work within the day and thus you are the one as an underling who has to pay for the consequences of their inadequacy like just golf I don't care if my boss isn't finished with his [ __ ] I'm finished with my [ __ ] let me go home it's a waste of space causes unnecessary stress and it just serves no benefit to either party seriously if there's one thing I want from the Japanese culture that needs to change is its work culture get rid of this hierarchical status system and just treat everybody like everybody else like the West DOS maybe then you'll actually get some work done instead of having to stay back and pretend like we're getting work done I actually experienced you nobody's on your first hand when I intern at a Japanese IT company some years ago and it was it was agony to say the least the worst part is that I wasn't even allowed to sit down and like check and browse my Twitter like I had to sit there and pretend like I was working because we were in a work environment was still I actually got asked to start doing [ __ ] for tomorrow today while everybody was staying back with no extra pay so if I'm having to stay back anyway even though I finished work because everybody around me is incompetent that they can't get their work done then what the [ __ ] is the point seriously Japan you are literally killing people out here with this whole overworking culture just relax guys so yeah there yeah those were 10 things about Japan that I as a half Japanese man will just never understand obviously there are more than 10 things in Japanese customs and traditions and culture that I will never understand but these 10 were probably the most important and some of the most I guess relatable topics for even for someone who doesn't really know a whole lot about Japanese customs and traditions let me know what you guys think about any of the things that I said in this video and hey while we're at it you know every single culture in every single country from all over the wall has different types of customs and traditions sometimes those that you know locals of that country don't necessarily agree upon so if you do live overseas whatever country you may live in let me know if there are any local customs and traditions and cultural things in your country that you as a local of that country just don't understand I think you'll be really interesting to kind of share that considering we do have a worldwide audience that gathers to my chat and I appreciate that so let's have a discussion let's have a fun little comparison so let me know any of that kind of stuff all in the comments below in these guys thanks for watching and I've seen the next one like if everybody enjoys subscribe for a new banner keep watching anime Johnny [Music]

Channel: The Anime Man

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Keywords: anime, manga, theanimeman, reviews, discussions, music, let's, play, walkthrough, playthrough, funny, moments, epic, fail, commentary, live, reaction, Japan, Japanese, The Anime Man, thean1meman, 10, Things, About, I'll, Never, Understand, WTFJapan, culture shock, weird, strange

Id: ZFZhPAOuJRM

Length: 24min 59sec (1499 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 11 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Raizzor]

Not only that it is hard, but there are situations where people will deliberately break grammar rules to form sentences which are technically ungrammatically but sound more formal due to the usage of double Keigo forms.