Hi guys! We got a question from Christoph on Twitter. Christoph.. xD .. who linked an article on 9gag called, "25 Weird Things About Japan That Make You Say, " 'But Why?' .. .. and asked us if it's true. So, we're going to go through these things with you and let you know if they are in fact true. Melons are seriously f****** expensive.. We have cheap ones too so.. Fruits really expensive here..
Yeah.
but it's really good. You might spend extra on strawberries but they're always going to be good strawberries.. ..and none of the like completely watered down no-flavor strawberries you might get sometimes in America. How much does a melon actually cost? It really depends, but the cheap one would be around ten bucks.. to twenty? Japan loves coffee! Japan imports approximately 85% of Jamaica's annual coffee production. Actually, I don't know but it sounds like it's true and I like coffee. Who doesn't like coffee? The fact is that everyone likes coffee. I would in fact import 85% of Jamaica's coffee production myself. Because that's how much coffee I need to survive. Japan's literacy rate is almost 100% Yeah. Is that true? I think it's close to 100% Do Japanese.. Is that like something common that Japanese know? They're like, "Yeah, come visit us in Japan out literacy rate is a hundred percent!" I don't know how I know. I think I learned it in school. Part Two: Japanese are incredibly disciplined and devoted to education. Are we? I don't know. Is your education super important to you? Are kids like, "I really want to learn." Some people are really like that but I wasn't. I don't think it's that they're like devoted to education. I think it the way the system is set up here. You have to study a lot, because you have to compete with other students to get into high school.. .. and then you have to compete to get into a good university, and to some people a good university makes or breaks your entire life. So.. It's not that Japanese kids are like, "I really care about my education." I think the majority of us go to school and study kind of hard because we had to.
Yeah, I think they just have to. You have to wear special shoes in the bathroom.
Special shoes?
You go to someones house they might have bathroom slippers. Ah! Slippers..
Mhm.. We actually do have these slippers no one actually uses. My parents have one of these too and I've never used it. You'll go to places that have them. You do not have to use the bathroom slippers. Part Two: Many Japanese bathrooms don't have a separate area for the sower meaning the floor is often wet. Floors? Yeah? Isn't it.. what's weird about it? Okay so, if you come to Japan. The first time you're here. You're probably going to be in a cheap little apartment.. ..because you're studying abroad or you're an English teacher or something. Which means that your toilet, shower, and sink, may all be in the same room. You be like, "Oh, isn't that normal? That's what we do in America." We DO do that in America but in Japan you shower outside of the bathtub. So the floor of the room with the bathtub is supposed to get wet. Because that's where you shower and the actual bathtub itself is for clean bodies, to soak in a tub and just relax; like a hot tub. So, if you live in a cheap apartment, where they can't afford the space to separate the toilet and a sink from that room, then everything might get wet. But otherwise in normal houses and halfway decent sized apartments, like our apartment is small but we still have a separate toilet room. That's how it normally is. Our sink is in a separate room as well. And the bathroom is just a room by itself. With the bathtub and the shower outside of the bathtub and the whole thing is supposed to get wet. Yeah, it's meant to be wet. Young Japanese are increasingly interested in uneven or "snaggle" teeth, known as "yaeba." Okay, from the first place. Yaeba is not uneven teeth. It's the specific. What was it called? Canine? It's your canine. It's only the canine teeth.
Canine teeth.
Yeah. There's the misconception that Japanese people think that crooked teeth are cute, but it's not. Like, you can't go to Japan with like super messed up teeth and people will be like. "Kawaii!!" Alright, it's just your canines.
Yeah.
Just the little fang teeth. If those stick out then that could be considered cute. If you watch anime and you see the characters that have the little fangs. They're not fangs, that's yaeba by the way. The more you know. Slurping is a good thing in Japan. It means the food is delicious and it's a compliment to the chef. I wouldn't say it's a good thing. We just do it because that's how we grew up with. and..
mhm
compliment to the chef? I don't know. I've never even heard of it. I don't think we slurp to show our appreciation to the chef. When we eat, we just eat it like that. So slurping noodles is something that just; It's never been negative in Japan. So they're..
Or, some people say they slurp because it tastes better.
There's.. yeah. There's no issue with slurping noodles. So no one tries to stop themselves. So a lot of people do it just because that's tradition. Right? Yeah.. yeah.
Um, some people do it because they say it aerates the noodles and broth in your mouth. Just like wine tasting.
Like wine tasting, yeah. So it tastes better. So they say you should. And you're supposed to eat noodles like ramen right away when you get it. When it's still hot. Before the noodles become soggy. Because apparently that's bad. So if you're trying to eat super hot ramen. You kinda can't help but slurp it a little bit. So those are the reasons why they slurp. It's not a compliment to the chef. That is.. I don't know why this is so wide spread. I've looked this up in Japanese. Jun has looked this up in Japanese before. There is nothing on the Japanese side of the internet. Where any Japanese person has ever said, "It's a compliment to the chef." The only thing you will find if you look it up in Japanese is Japanese people responding to foreigners saying it's a compliment to the chef. And they're like, "What are you talking about? No it's not." If I want to say it's good. I just say it's good to the chef and that's how I always do. It was oishikatta desu. That's what I just say. Gochiso sama deshita!
Gochisousama oishikatta desu. KFC is the Christmas food of choice.
Kentucky fried chicken? Is that the Christmas food of choice?
[Laughs] It is. Like, around Christmas season when you turn on the TV. You see the KFC advertising all the time. It's a thing. Yeah
It is. It is. Sticking your finger in someone's butt is a pretty normal thing to do. It's called kancho and kids do it on the playground. Have you been kancho'd Jun?
I actually have and it's freakin painful! Please don't do it! Please people.. don't. The term kar·a·o·ke or karaoke means "empty orchestra." Yeah.
Yeah it does. Cuddle cafes are a thing.
What? What cafe?
Soineya
[Laughs] Did you guys know we have cuddle cafes in America too?
Really? Look it up on the internet. [Laughs] It's not like.. People say this about Japan. So they can be like, "Japan's so weird! Look what's normal over there!" This is not normal. It's just a thing you can find. You can find it in America too. Have you ever heard of anyone even mentioning cuddle cafes? I've never heard of the word Soineya.
[Laughs]
I don't even know that existed. There are no janitors in Japan's schools. Instead the kids clean up after themselves. I'm sure some schools have janitors and some students don't have to clean up after themselves. When I was in school I had to. Elementary school, junior high school, high school. I had to. Do you have to clean everything? Are there no janitors to do any of it? We.. I did have janitors but they clean specific places.
Ahh okay.
That students don't do. Normally the way you clean changes. Depending on the week.
It's like a rotation?
Rotation. I hated cleaning bathroom toilets. That's the worst spot.
So you really have to clean, like? What if there's a massive mess? What if people threw up in the bathrooms? Or diarrhea all over the place? You don't have to explain what I did okay?
[Laughs]
Let's just go to the next question.. Japanese women used to dye their teeth black.
Ohaguro? Yeah it's a thing.
White teeth were considered ugly. I don't know white teeth used to be considered ugly but ohaguro. The black teeth. It used to be a thing.
Mmkay. Falling asleep at work is a good thing.
[Laughs]
It means that you're working hard long hours. Because sometimes people work for 19 hours a day. So it's encouraged for you to nap, on the job.. Maybe we should just sleep then?
[Laughs]
No.. If you're boss sees you sleep. You get in trouble. The boss doesn't come around and be like, "Hey, Tanaka take a nap. You look tired." Maybe some bosses might do. It all depends.
Sounds like a nice boss.
Yeah. I would love this boss.
I want that boss.
[Laughing] Black face is a trend in Japan.
Black face?
But it's not offensive. It's called ganguro and it was makeup. Ohhh. Kinda died out a long time ago didn't they. So, ganguro both started and ended in the '90s.
[Laughs] It was '90s?
This is no longer a thing. Oh okay.
Yeah, I think you can still find people who do it. Every now and then but it's not common. It's not like..
I've seen (people) who get tanned really tan and brown but..
Yeah. So it's called ganguro. Means black face but it's not black. It's like a dark orange.
Mmm. It's like a tan.. Like a fake tan.. Like a Donald Trump tan.
[Laughs]
Yeah it's not really around anymore. Love hotels are popular here!
Ah yes, very popular.
Yeah they are.
It's all over Japan. Okay, here is the sad truth about Japan. If you are driving down the street and you see something that looks super awesome and amazing. Like you see a castle or something with all these lights. You're like, "That looks like the amazing place in the world! I want to go there!" It's either pachinko or a love hotel.
[Laughing] It's the most disappointing thing ever!
She's not even (exaggerating.)
No they have castles. They don't even look like Japanese castles.
[Crying]They look so amazing! I just want to go into a castle! Why does it have to be a love hotel? It looks really magical.
They are really popular and I think it's because a lot of people don't move out their families house until they get married. and the walls are really thin at a lot of houses here. You can hear everything. No ones bringing their girlfriend back home to their house with their parents. So you have to go to a love hotel. Learning to prepare fugu is serious business. It takes eleven years of training to become a fugu chef. The blowfish?
Mhm.
Uh, I don't think it will take eleven years to become a chef but it is a serious matter. Unless you serve it properly you can kill people. I know this because of The Simpsons. [Laughs]
Jun told me before at some restaurants if you want to become a chef. You have to do a lot of other duties first. So you spend years washing rice or washing dishes. It's really common for a sushi restaurant.
So like, if you want to train you have to prove yourself? He's like, "First wash this rice for five years." I mean.. They don't tell you that but..
[Laughs] Can you buy fugu yourself?
I think so, or you can fish and just cook it yourself. If you wanted to. You don't have to study for eleven years to catch fugu yourself?
[Laughing] I mean eleven years.. No. Japan has a big naked festival called Hadaka Matsuri.
Yeah. It's all over Japan. Actually yeah they have a bunch of them. They're all different. We actually even made a video about this too.
Yeah! We do. I really like the one we have the story is kind of cool. There's a suicide forest called Aokigahara.
I think that's true. I've never been there but I've heard of it. Many Japanese men refuse to leave their rooms, it's called hikikomori. [Laughing]Many Japanese men? I don't know exactly how many there are. Yeah I mean in America the image of people who don't leave their houses is like someone who's agoraphobic. So they have an actual phobia of being outside. I think this is more about people who are kind of like depressed and they just don't want to deal with life. Okay
Which is kind of easy these days. With video games and ordering food. I could totally see myself being a hikikomori. If I wasn't afraid of death and trying to get the most out of my life as possible. I would totally just sit in my room and play video games and never leave it ever. You can sleep in a capsule hotel.
Yeah, it's a thing. Raw horse meat called basashi is popular and a delicacy. You can definitely eat raw horse meat in Japan. Especially at a izakaya.
Mhm. It's just a thing. It's food you can get here.
One of the options.
Yeah. The worlds most expensive tuna fish was auctioned at Tsukiji for $735,000.
[Laughs] Very expensive. Jun.. Jun chef. Sensei.. Jun-sensei.
Hai. What makes a tuna fish worth $735,000?
I think it's just a way to advertise the restaurant who bought the tuna. Like we got. We payed this much for this tuna. Come to our restaurant. I guess.
[Laughs] It's definitely overpriced Would you go to a restaurant if they were like, "Come try this tuna fish. It's worth $735,000." Would you go there?
I might.. I might.
Maybe I would. Maybe that's good advertisement. Maybe, it works! Japan has an island full of rabbits called Ōkunoshima.
Uh, yeah.
Yeah, it's true. They have the worlds shortest escalator it's only five steps.
Why is that weird? I don't know. If I..
Isn't it helpful? Especially if you have giant luggage. I don't know if that is the shortest one. Yeah, they do have a lot of small escalators but it's not weird. It's because if you're traveling in Japan and you're dragging giant luggage around the train stations. You want the freakin escalator. Trust me I would totally take the five step escalator. It's worth it. Japan has the oldest company in the world. It's called Kongō Gumi and it was founded in 578 AD. Is that the construction company?
Yes it is and I know that because I looked it up before we filmed this video. Is that weird though?
Yeah okay so this article was called 25 Weird Things about Japan.. but that's because it's click bait and that's how you have to title articles these days if you want people to click on them. Which is also the title of this video.
[Laughing]
Thank you for clicking this video. Is that click bait then? If we're responding to this does that mean that our video is click bait now? Well we're answering questions so.
I don't know.
So originally.. Okay, well anyway!
I hope we answered the question.
Yeah. If you guys have anymore questions for us ask us on Twitter. #askRnJ We're going to make some Q&A videos. Thanks for watching. See you later.
Bye.
