1. You buy bread based on how thick you want
the slices to be. 2. If you’re worried about your cold groceries
on the trip home, most modern Japanese supermarkets have free dry ice machines for you to use,
specifically for that reason. 3. Convenience stores keep balls of paint underneath
their counters for workers to throw at thieves, marking their clothes and body to make it
easier for the police to catch them. I threw one of these at a thief once when
I was working at a conbini and because I was a pitcher I was able to hit him! But I don’t know if the police ever found him. 4. Everyone knows how common convenience stores,
aka conbinis, are. It’s said that you’re almost always within
walking distance of a conbini. Knowing that, there are actually more dental
clinics in Japan than there are conbinis. Twice as many, if you count each dentist. There’s even a whole Japanese Wikipedia
page called “The Problem of Too Many Dentists”. 5. You can order a smile for free at Japanese
McDonald’s, even as delivery. 6. Japan imported the culture of suits and ties
from Europe, meaning most Japanese tie stripes slant up to the right, the opposite of most
American ties, which slant up to the left. 7. School buses in Japan are mostly used for
kindergarteners only, and boi them’s some adorable buses. 8. Most Japanese streets don’t have names. Your address is instead determined by a block
and house numbering system. 9. There’s a package delivery company called
(Kuroneko) Yamato, which means black cat Yamato. Not only is their logo cats, but when they
leave an attempted delivery slip in your mailbox it has indentations cut out in the shape of
cat ears so that blind people can easily recognize the slip. 10. If you're not home when the mailman delivers
a package, they will leave a number for you to call, so they can redeliver within a 2
hour time window of your choosing. 11. If you call before 6pm-8pm (depending on the
company), they can often redeliver the same day. And while many numbers go to call centers,
some numbers call your mailman in their truck directly. 12. Japanese houses depreciate in value, like
cars. A standard Japanese house reaches negative
value, by the time it's 15-30 years old, meaning empty land is worth more than land with an
old house. 13. This is in part due to many reasons. Many houses in the past were built cheaply
in expectation of this cycle and then not well-maintained. Constant updated earthquake safety regulations
lead to newer houses being safer. And technology is always improving so newer
houses have better features, like better insulation and, in some cases, even central heating and
cooling! 14. While old houses were generally demolished
over time and then built anew, these days as housing quality increases, more and more
people are opting for renovating old houses or apartments rather than tearing them down. 15. Because of the aging population combined with
urbanization, small Japanese towns and villages are increasingly at risk of disappearing altogether. In 2015 Japan had an estimated 15,568 terminal
villages, or villages where more than 50% of the population is over the age of 65. That was 20% of the villages surveyed. Only 5 years before it was 15%. 16. There were also 801 villages where ALL of
the residents were aged 65 or older. And 306 villages where all residents were
75, or older. 17. Japan’s aging population has resulted in
changing infrastructure. They have car stickers that specifically mark
elderly drivers. They also have stickers for people who have
been driving less than a year. 18. Of course handicapped parking spots are a
thing, but some places also have designated spaces near the entrance for senior drivers. 19. Most expressways in Japan, which are often
suspended above ground, are heftily tolled. A trip from Nagoya to Tokyo, which is less
than the distance between Houston and Dallas, costs approximately $80 one way just to use
the expressway. 20. Almost everyone backs into parking spaces
in Japan. With smaller spaces you have more control
over backing in. And it’s safer pulling out in what are often
densely packed and highly populated parking lots. 21. Driver training costs roughly 2 - 4,000 dollars
and you have to go to a driver school for about a month. 22. You can shorten that to two weeks by going
away to an actual driver training camp. No seriously, you stay there overnight and
everything. 23. More people in Japan use trains as their primary
mode of transportation than any other country in the world—30.5% compared to the next
highest of 17.2% in Switzerland. 24. Construction barriers are often shaped like
cute animals. Because why not? 25. Many Japanese shopping centers these days
have electric car chargers near the entrance. There was a report that said there are now
more electric car chargers in Japan than gas stations, but that counted each charger separately
as well as personal chargers. But it’s still a good step in the right
direction! 26. In Japan, half the country’s electrical
grid operates at 50 Hz and half operates at 60 Hz. This is because when Japan began introducing
electricity to large cities, Tokyo purchased a 50 Hz generator from Germany and Osaka purchased
a 60 Hz generator from the US. Both systems eventually spread and now it’s
too expensive to switch one over. During the earthquake and tsunami of 3/11,
this meant that the southern half of Japan couldn’t provide backup power to the northern
half because of the incompatible grids. 27. In the past some electrical equipment like
microwaves couldn’t be used in the other half of the country, but these days most products
have been designed to work on both a 50 and 60 Hz system. 28. The Japanese music industry is the second
highest grossing music industry in the world after the US. 29. This is spurred by the fact that Japanese
people buy more physical CD’s and music DVD’s than any other country in the world. 72% of music sales in Japan are still physical,
compared to only 15% in the US. 30. In the land of the rising sun, the sun literally rises AT 4:30 AM in cities like Tokyo and Nagoya in the height of summer. 31. Bamboo is one of the fastest growing plants
in the world and some species of Japanese bamboo can grow up to a meter a day in its
early growth. 32. New bamboo shoots are also incredibly strong
and capable of growing through wood, stone, and sometimes even concrete. This combined with its fast growth have led
to rare but very real cases of Japanese people waking up in the morning to find a bamboo
shoot growing in the middle of their house. 33. Hydrangeas were first cultivated in Japan,
and as a result Japan has a much larger variety of hydrangeas than America. You’ll find them along roadsides all over
the country. 34. The name of this Japanese species of hydrangea,
which Jun used in his cooking video, is Dance Party! 35. Many common Japanese monsters in anime and mythology are based off of real animals and insects. 36. There are so many cicadas in Japan that they
come out every year. The sound of cicadas is the quintessential
sound of summer. You’ll notice them often in the background
of TV shows, anime, and video games to establish the summer setting. 37. Because cicadas are so omnipresent, the average
Japanese person is probably able to identify at least 6 different species by their songs. Abura-zemi Kuma-zemi Tsukutsukuboushi Minmin-zemi Niinii-zemi Higurashi 38. Japan has only two native species wild cats,
which are both found only on remote islands so you’re probably never going to run into
any of them. They are the leopard cat on Tsushima island,
and the Iriomote cat on Iriomote island. 39. Japan has been rabies-free since 1957, and
as a result if you want to bring a pet into the country it requires a 6 month quarantining
process to make sure it doesn’t have rabies. 40. Japan has almost no general practitioners. This means that when you go to the doctor
you’re almost always going directly to a specialist. 41. 77% of Japanese people have a gene variation
that gives them both dry earwax and significantly decreased body odor. 42. Japanese over the counter drugstore medications
come in three categories based on how disruptive the side effects are. Category 1 drugs, like Loxonin (a pain medication),
can’t be bought unless you consult the in-store pharmacist first, even though it’s technically
an over the counter medication. 43. The birth control pill wasn’t legalized
until 1999 due to questions concerning the safety, and partly because of that only 1-3%
of Japanese women use it even today. 44. Carrying swords around in public was made
illegal in 1876 in an effort to remove power from the samurai class. 45. Today, it remains illegal to own a sword in
Japan unless the sword is licensed by the government. 46. Only Nihonto, or Japanese swords, either antique
swords or swords made by registered smiths can be licensed, meaning it is entirely illegal
to own foreign-made swords in Japan. 47. Japanese sword smiths can’t change the methods
they use to make swords, meaning even modern swords are still made the same way as Japanese
swords of the past. 48. The steel used to make Japanese swords, tamahagane,
is also produced the traditional way. There is a position called murage who is the
manager of this process. One of his jobs is to judge the temperature
of the fire by eyesight, and because of this, historically many of them eventually went
blind. 49. In the Meiji period, because it became so
difficult for people to carry swords, and for manufacturers to make swords, the demand
dropped significantly and many prominent sword smiths switched to making kitchen knives that
have no such regulations. 50. And because the technology used to create
kitchen knives has continuously improved over time, now Japanese cooking knives can be made
sharper than katana swords. Thank you to Skillshare for sponsoring this
video! Skillshare is an online learning community
that offers thousands of classes for basically everything you can imagine, from creative
projects to cooking classes, professional design and business classes, and even Japanese
lessons! Rachel actually got ideas and recipes for
my birthday presents from Skillshare last year and honestly I loved them. Anyone can take a class, try a project, or
even sign up to teach classes. Once you become a member you can take an unlimited
number of classes and premium membership is less than $10 a month. The first 1,000 people to sign up with our
link below can get a free two month trial! Thank you for watching!
no. 51 japanese cant spell facts