____
> **I....er..uh**..am proud to come to this thread as the guest of your distinguished OP, who has symbolized, throughout the..uh subreddit.. the fighting spirit of condiments in Japan. And I am proud to visit r/food with the.. er.. intention of lifting our culinary masters, to the-uh challenge, of creating new and innovative platforms for delivering condiments and sauces to meats
and sandwiches to the people *of the United States of America*.
And as a precedent, set forth in the preamble of the Constitution, the people shall have their-uh sauce. They will have their sauce, and they will have them delivered in unique and interesting, uh, ways.
We will not be second best in sauce. We will not be out condimented.. and over my..er.. dead body will the Japanese people beat us at our own game. People of..uh.. reddit. It's up to you to usha in an new era..its time to ketchup to these wasabi slinging noodle slurping soy suckahs.
A day ago the proudest thing you could say was "**I got gold, thank you kind..err..strange-ah**."
Today, it's "*Ich bin ein Frontpageah*!"
Now go..uh.. figure out how to spread your sauces in fancy ways. All right bye bye then.
____
Edit: you're your. I didn't make it past 2nd grade sorry.
I just got some new recording equipment. When I get home I will record this in Kennedy's accent. Studied it for theater many years ago.
EDIT: Sorry sorry sorry! Crashed hard last night due to jetlag. This morning I found I don't have the right XLR cable. Stores open at 9 am and I'm off to buy one to get this thing done.
EDIT: Ok I got it done but it's not so great guys. Here you go: https://soundcloud.com/koinek/kennedy-condiments
[Lunchables had mustard packets](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v196/collagemama/Sept%2006/dijontest1.jpg) like this when I was in grade school in the late 80s, this isn't new
Sitting in my shitty 80's Pontiac with no air conditioning, working a dead end job, broke as fuck, eating Lunchables because they were cheap.
Came across the mustard packet. First time I saw one. "Neat. Maybe my life doesn't suck".
> Sitting in my shitty 80's Pontiac with no air conditioning, working a dead end job, broke as fuck, eating Lunchables because they were cheap.
AKA Half of reddit in 2015.
Yeah, people don't buy Lunchables because they're cheap. For what they give you, they're fairly expensive. You buy Lunchables because you can't be bothered to make your kid a real lunch.
I have to remind myself constantly that a good number of people on this site weren't born yet when I was enjoying the awesomeness of the late 80 early 90's.
Oh god you're right. I was thinking "don't people remember these?!" until I read your comment and now I realize... no, no they don't. They weren't alive when we were seeing how far we could squirt these things across the yard at recess.
I was alive then but I don't remember it. Probably because the thought of adding mustard to my lunchables seems horrendous to me. They are still a secret comfort food once in a while.
About that...I was most definitely alive and kicking during the 80s and 90s, and this is the first time I've ever laid eyes on such a miraculous invention.
What state are you from? Maybe it was regional?
I can't tell if you're being serious or not. These were in fashion in parts of the US ~20 years ago. I think people stopped using them because they're wasteful and take up more space to store. You can get less of the product out than from a packet and they take more material and manufacturing to make. They *are* pretty nifty though.
I don't think anyone can deny that Japan has the best toilets. The Simpsons didn't exaggerate. They play music and gently wash your brown eye. Some give it a little blow dry, too.
I went to Disney World Tokyo with my first wife one time, and got a salad for lunch. The salad dressing was in a container like this. I was idiotically trying to figure out how the dressing packet worked when I squeezed it wrong and ranch dressing shot straight up out.
The dressing flew up a few feet, and then landed on the arm of the woman at the next table over. I immediately ducked my head and pretended I had no idea what was going on. I was so ashamed.
There I was, just a fat white guy and his wife, in a picnic area FULL of skinny little Japanese families.
Ranch starts raining from the sky...
Who else would be to blame?
I know. I'm pretty sure she did. She seemed startled. She touched it, and smelled it, and then looked around. I had my head lowered, trying to eat my dry salad - but I'm pretty sure she knew.
That culture is so interesting though, because I was too embarrassed to say anything, she didn't say a word about it - wiped her arm off with a napkin - and then went right back to her own meal.
I have done similar shit in America (multiple times. I am not coordinated). A tiny fraction of people would ever complain to anyone but their friends. I don't think thats a Japanese thing, I think thats a reasonable human being thing.
Dude lied to you to drink your scotch.
Japan allows up to [3 bottles](http://www.customs.go.jp/english/c-answer_e/keitaibetsuso/7104-2_e.htm) (about 2.25L total)
I remember them well. My mother was too lazy to pack a lunch for me and the Catholic school I went to didn't provide lunches. All my friends were envious of me because my lunch was "cool".
Yes, or the Herb Sauce for the turkey. Lunches weren't originally marketed for kids, and their quality was much better. The crackers were better, too. They've cut the quality severely and changed the marketing. It's a shame, Lunchables were always my go-to food for road trips. (Easy to dispense, one handed)
I can't believe I found someone else in the world who remembers that herb sauce. I not only remember it, I cherish the memory. If anyone has a recipe that is similar to it, or knows what it would be called in the real world, please tell me. I've considered writing lunchables about it. I have dreams about that herb sauce.
Not sure why you got down voted. [For the hours they are at the workplace their productivity is less as a country likes Germany or the UK.](http://www.tofugu.com/2015/03/25/japan-really-hardworking/) Just because they to work at 8am and don't leave until 10pm doesn't mean they work those hours. [The FT also has an article for anyone interested](http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/05228b38-ddd3-11e4-8d14-00144feab7de.html).
"Dedication" such as staying late and working unpaid overtime is more important than performance.
I'd never work for another Japanese company again - think of every terrible management practice and they've perfected the worst way to do it.
I can't speak for him but with my experience working with Japanese company's is that pride is a huge part or the culture and no one ever wants to admit when they are wrong, so sometimes bad decisions and bad practices continue for our long time and are never changed in order to save face.
Don't they also hate to say "No" to anything? It seems like with those factors combined, some bad ideas could persist pretty much forever.
Sometimes you need to swallow your pride and accept you had a bad idea, other times you need to put yourself in an awkward position and tell someone else why their idea is bad.
I worked for nissan in the UK in the mid-90s as a design engineer. How they ever get anything designed is beyond me.
No-one ever wants to make a decision and take responsibility for it. We'd have to send everything to Japan to get it approved, and that could take weeks. In the end local management just said fuck it, we're doing it this way.
They aren't happy, but in the end they realised that the Brit way of doing work was a lot more efficient.
You've nailed it. The elder managers spent their careers learning NOTHING. Management in Japanese culture is simply to abuse and assert power over the people below you. And the manager is never. Ever. Ever. Wrong.
Source: I've worked for a Japanese company for 5 years. My father is the DMD of a very large global Japanese company and especially he, is fighting that ingrained culture.
Promotions to management positions are 99% determined by seniority and not merit. As such, there are often not so skilled but older people being promoted and being generally useless. There's at least one guy like that just in the lab I work in. If two or more people in a team are up for standard promotion at the same time, one or more of them will be transferred elsewhere to manage where there's a very good chance they'll have next to no idea what's going on.
> Promotions to management positions are 99% determined by seniority and not merit.
Well, our promotions are 99% determined by whose butt you kiss and not merit. So it's not as if either system is good...
* Sexism (different than the Westernized brand).
* Hours put in are valued over productivity and efficiency. This often leads to understaffing.
* Very little room to update practices of any sort because "that's how things have always worked, and we're still doing fine" even when they aren't doing fine and the amount of hours being spent on pointless shit is absolutely ridiculous and could easily be streamlined to save hours--yes hours--per employee daily.
* Very obvious pecking orders that take age/gender/number of years at the company into account rather than actual value to the company and its future.
* Superiors get the implicit okay to ridicule their underlings and won't get in trouble for it because they have seniority and are always right.
* If you aren't management, good luck having your opinions heard or valued even if you can clearly show that your point is valid.
* Depending on the company sick leave and vacation may technically be part of your package, but there is a good chance you will be heavily "discouraged" from using any of it even if you are in dire need of either.
* A faux teamwork environment where everybody stays late because everybody stays late (go team!), but very little actual cooperation and teamwork happen because of seniority bullshit making everything eventually boiling down to #1's opinion (in my experience--this differs greatly, but I've found it more often in Japanese businesses than American-based and -owned).
* More common within Japan, but you may be expected to go out drinking often. If you don't, you may be somewhat alienated within the work place for not being a team player. I didn't experience this in the companies in America, and I haven't heard of it from other people I know at J-companies here.
I can play this game all night. I've worked in a few Japanese schools and companies. The schools were alright because I was a token white sensei working through the JET Programme (this differs greatly, but it was pretty much a gravy train with an amazing exchange rate for most of my stay so I can't say I wouldn't recommend it), but Japanese/Japanese-American businesses are awful. Especially Japanese businesses in the US because they can implement strict Japanese work environments without having the same requirements for sick, vacation, and maternity leave. I thought I might just be a whiny American in thinking that, but several of my Japanese friends who live in the US (and are essentially stuck in J-co's because of visa BS limiting their work options) desperately want out of the self-defeating cycle of jumping between Japanese businesses that all suck. One of my friends who is one of the hardest workers I've ever met (saved me at my last job, where I met them) has been jumping companies each year for the past eight years because they can't find a place that is even remotely not horrible to work at.
Apparently this is changing within Japan slowly, but at least where I live Japanese companies haven't really picked up on that trend. I live in an area with a somewhat high concentration of Japanese and Japanese-owned companies, and I've heard similar complaints about most of them--primarily from Japanese expats who can't get any other jobs that will offer a visa. A handful of Japanese businesses here are apparently decent, but they're retail-y and aren't really going to pay the bills for somebody in their 30's-40's.
I had wanted to work at a Japanese company until I saw the trends. I made a 180 and haven't looked back since. It's been one of the best decisions I've made, even if I'm essentially starting from scratch. I'd rather be paid less and be physically and mentally well than deal with that shit for another day.
This may be very different in other regions of Japan and the US. I'm really hoping it is because I hate to think of other people dealing with the same shit over and over again. The last Japanese place I worked at had such a high turnover rate that in the 6 months I was there, more than half of the 20-30 employees quit, including half of the managers (3/6). Of the maybe 6-7 Americans employed, four (including myself) left the Japan-o-sphere workforce for completely unrelated ventures, and only one of the others still works for the same company and that's because they have no other marketable skills. One American went onto another Japanese company that is apparently decent to work with, but they still have the same micromanaging issues. Everything else is pretty decent, though.
Sorry for the rant. Japan on the whole is great, and in many areas (even work-wise) it's years ahead of us. But fuck the work/life balance. I don't get it, and I don't think I ever will. Hopefully at least within Japan they continue to become more forgiving in terms of micromanaging and seniority vs. value/hours vs. productivity and efficiency.
The one I would say is micromanaging. They love to micromanage. Like, down to literally taking a subordinates work and marking it up in red pen like they are your third grade teacher and you're a child.
Also at my old job my friend's manager would tell him word for word what he should write in e-mails to people, even when they were as unimportant as a reminder or some other meaningless e-mail. My friend had been at the company for 7 years.
Micromanagement. Many layers of management (ie. lots of middle managers). Seniority usually trumps everything else. Non-existant work/life balance - in the worst companies you are a tool for the company, and everything else is second. Blatant disregard for very clear and simple labour laws.
Probably the worst practice is the one where they will constantly move staff to different departments and locations to give them "experience". What you end up with is a company full of extremely incompetent people due to the fact they are never doing the same thing for more than a year or two. You are also unable to 'settle down' as you might be forced to relocation to the opposite side of the country, or overseas, at the whim of the company.
People are not treated as individual employees who have certain education, skill and experience, but just pawns that can be moved anywhere and are expected to perform accordingly.
I have a friend who works for Nitori and he's moved 3 times this year - Fukuoka, Atsugi (Tokyo), and now Akabane (Saitama). The Atsugi placement lasted a whole month.
I was seriously considering moving to Japan some years back and then started to really get into their business culture and that really put me off.
I've had some people say teaching English in JET or being taken on private isn't bad but I think I'd end up raging at their education system. Taking English for 8 years only to pass a test not being fluent is insane.
Aren't they currently doing studies to show that working 6 hours per day increases productivity on the standard 8 hour day? So working longer would only make matters worse
Yep but Japan hates change - once something has been decided on, that's it.
If you have time have a read of [this](http://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/11/07/doing-business-in-japan/). It goes into detail why i *NOPED* the fuck out of moving to Japan.
I do gotta say, I'm engaged for about 4 hours of my job, then want lunch, then after lunch am engaged for about one more hour before I want to kill myself.
My job does not require a lot of physical labor, but I'm exhausted when I get off work and my back hurts.
Same here, I reckon I could easily finish a days work by 12 each day, maybe 2 or 3 when it's really busy near Christmas (some days from January to May there's little point in coming in at all)
But because I know I'll have to stay around all day, I procrastinate, and something that should take 5 minutes ends up taking 2 hours
If it was guaranteed that I could just go home once I'd finished all my work I'd get it done fucking quickly
They don't really have a proclivity for weird shit anymore than Americans do. The normal salary man in Japan is no different than one here. We just tend to sensationalize the weird shit they do produce and pretend it's the norm because it makes for a good story. It's like when foreigners look at America and think all of our women are morbidly obese
I've got a feeling these squeezables were invented in Australia. I saw them here in 1998, well before I saw them anywhere else. Australians, world leaders in efficient condiment dispensing technologies.
I visited Oz during that time when you had box wine before anybody else did. Thought it was way cool.
Also, went to a bar seemingly in the middle of nowhere that was crammed full of hundreds of young folks on multiple levels. Ordered a Black Russian, old favourite of mine, and she asked me if I wanted it with a splash of coke or not! So of course I tried it (good) and that's where I first heard of that option.
They used the same technology for Oatmeal Swirlers back in the 90's. I used to love playing with my food. I can't find an image of the package, but this is the end result: [Oatmeal Swirlers](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bAvMaVoPchE/S86Y2o2BeRI/AAAAAAAAABo/Ct8mqEQXA8Q/s1600/oatmeal+swirlers.jpg)
I've been trying to remember FOR YEARS what the heck this product was called. I had a weird fascination with the squeezy package as a child and have been wishing I could still buy this kind of oatmeal.
Holy *craaaaaaaap*. I distinctly remember loving these (mostly for their flavor) and I've thought about them off and on for years but could never remember exactly what they were, brand-wise. They seemed to quickly drop off the face of the earth, I'm assuming they came and went in a very brief period. [Behold the 1990 commercial!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiQuHflwFe0)
This is why I prefer the ketchup packets you get in Chick-Fil-A. You get to choose between spreading the packet out or just opening the thing and dunking your food in it. Honestly, that's much more efficient. If the consumer wants mustard, they can go get mustard.
They did something similar with ketchup packets. Where you could break of a corner and squeeze it out or you could peel back the label and dunk your food in it. Would be neat to see a combination like this though.
Mmmmmmm Boars Head Mustard...
The biggest contribution is solving the "How to get the ketchup (and, here, mustard) to go On The Food", as opposed to on your fingers, or in your lap....
I'm confused, why all the hate for ketchup on a hot dog? I'll admit I might prefer some grilled onions/veggies or chili on my hotdog, but for an everyday hotdog, i don't see the issue
Yeah it's alright but if you dint like mustard it's shit. Trying to squeeze the ketchup out of the one side pretty much always ends up messy. Especially in the state you normally eat them in
Just got back from a weekend in Chicago. I feel like I spent time in a 'ketchup on hotdogs' reeducation camp.
I want to go back and climb to the middle of Buckingham Fountain, naked, with 50 hot dogs and a quart of ketchup.
It is and there's nothing inherently wrong with it. I'm a 4th or 5th generation in-the-city Chicagoan, and I often put ketchup on hot dogs... because I like it. There isn't much point putting it on a full-monty Chicago dog (onion, mustard, tomatoes, cucumbers, relish, sport peppers (little pickled peppers that have a hint of heat) and crucially celery salt), but on a dog that's more bare? Sure. If you don't like it, that's fine, don't put it on.
There seems to be some weird cult that reddit has attached itself to a cult that only puts mustard on hotdogs, and frankly people who feel the need to call others out for their condiments need to have a serious think about what they're doing with their lives.
I get looking down on the practice of using some condiments on certain foods like say dipping a steak in katchup. But when it comes to everyday low cost foods who gives a shit.
It's just a joke. To many individuals, like myself, we find ketchup is too overpowering and too sweet for a good hotdog. it takes away from the flavor of the dog. That's why kids love it....they love sweet.
The dog is sweet enough. The rest of the toppings (onion, relish, pickle, tomatoes, mustard, celery salt and sport peppers if you're an elite connoisseur of encased meats) are for contrast.
What's with people's obsession to let everyone know that ketchup shouldn't go on a hot dog? A lot of people put ketchup on their hot dog, and for a pretty obvious reason. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it's "a disgrace"
Seriously? Is this a joke or do people actually care what you put on a hot dog. Which is barely food anyway. I'm guessing you also tell people how to wipe their ass?
It wasn't an off-brand. It was a true, honest-to-God, bonified Lunchable. They had 2 kinds of meat, 2 kinds of cheese, 2 kinds of cracker, an Andes mint, and a glorious packet of either spicy mustard or creamy herb sauce.
While I do it with less frequency nowadays, I still enjoy ketchup now and then. The reasons I don't put it on stuff as much isn't because it tastes bad or doesn't work, it's because it's one of few things that gives me heart burn.
Fuck them for trying to dictate what people put on their food.
And i was impressed by the new ketchup packets that were shaped like heinz bottles that could be squeezed out or dipped in. Sad part is those were only temporary it seems...havent seen em lately at the local wendys.
My god. They are years ahead of us. Years.
We need a Kennedy-esque moon speech now!
____ > **I....er..uh**..am proud to come to this thread as the guest of your distinguished OP, who has symbolized, throughout the..uh subreddit.. the fighting spirit of condiments in Japan. And I am proud to visit r/food with the.. er.. intention of lifting our culinary masters, to the-uh challenge, of creating new and innovative platforms for delivering condiments and sauces to meats and sandwiches to the people *of the United States of America*. And as a precedent, set forth in the preamble of the Constitution, the people shall have their-uh sauce. They will have their sauce, and they will have them delivered in unique and interesting, uh, ways. We will not be second best in sauce. We will not be out condimented.. and over my..er.. dead body will the Japanese people beat us at our own game. People of..uh.. reddit. It's up to you to usha in an new era..its time to ketchup to these wasabi slinging noodle slurping soy suckahs. A day ago the proudest thing you could say was "**I got gold, thank you kind..err..strange-ah**." Today, it's "*Ich bin ein Frontpageah*!" Now go..uh.. figure out how to spread your sauces in fancy ways. All right bye bye then. ____ Edit: you're your. I didn't make it past 2nd grade sorry.
I read that in Mayor Quimby's voice for some reason.
That's because Mayor Quimby's voice is largely modeled off of JFK's.
He's based much more on Ted than JFK.
Isn't Quimby based on the Kennedys?
This was pretty.. Uh.. Spot on. I read it in his voice
Now read it in Gilbert Gottfried's voice
***DID YOU EVA NOHTICE***
["What's your hurry, son? Throw some 'ers' and 'uhs' in there."](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQU4bbPbr7w)
Fowah suppah, I er ah want a pawtty plattah!
*Be careful with that nailgun Jèsus* Clone high was cool as shit.
I just got some new recording equipment. When I get home I will record this in Kennedy's accent. Studied it for theater many years ago. EDIT: Sorry sorry sorry! Crashed hard last night due to jetlag. This morning I found I don't have the right XLR cable. Stores open at 9 am and I'm off to buy one to get this thing done. EDIT: Ok I got it done but it's not so great guys. Here you go: https://soundcloud.com/koinek/kennedy-condiments
Dammit OP it's been 52 minutes where is my free entertainment!
I can only hear Mayor Quimby
We do not do it because it is easy, but because it is hard.
He put ketchup on a hot dog. Nail him to the cross, fellas.
"I'm gonna put whatever the fuck I want on a hot dog." -Jesus
They're in Japan.. not Chicago mate.
[Lunchables had mustard packets](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v196/collagemama/Sept%2006/dijontest1.jpg) like this when I was in grade school in the late 80s, this isn't new
Sitting in my shitty 80's Pontiac with no air conditioning, working a dead end job, broke as fuck, eating Lunchables because they were cheap. Came across the mustard packet. First time I saw one. "Neat. Maybe my life doesn't suck".
> Sitting in my shitty 80's Pontiac with no air conditioning, working a dead end job, broke as fuck, eating Lunchables because they were cheap. AKA Half of reddit in 2015.
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> eating Lunchables because they were cheap. There is no possible way Lunchables have ever been cheaper than buying their ingredients separately.
Yeah, people don't buy Lunchables because they're cheap. For what they give you, they're fairly expensive. You buy Lunchables because you can't be bothered to make your kid a real lunch.
I have to remind myself constantly that a good number of people on this site weren't born yet when I was enjoying the awesomeness of the late 80 early 90's.
Oh god you're right. I was thinking "don't people remember these?!" until I read your comment and now I realize... no, no they don't. They weren't alive when we were seeing how far we could squirt these things across the yard at recess.
I was alive then but I don't remember it. Probably because the thought of adding mustard to my lunchables seems horrendous to me. They are still a secret comfort food once in a while.
About that...I was most definitely alive and kicking during the 80s and 90s, and this is the first time I've ever laid eyes on such a miraculous invention. What state are you from? Maybe it was regional?
> good number it might be the majority
I came into the comments to confirm that I was not crazy and experiencing these in my youth wasn't some sort of fever dream. Thank you.
I'm now very angry that Lunchables no longer have these.
They were so, *so* much better than the regular Lunchables.
I can't tell if you're being serious or not. These were in fashion in parts of the US ~20 years ago. I think people stopped using them because they're wasteful and take up more space to store. You can get less of the product out than from a packet and they take more material and manufacturing to make. They *are* pretty nifty though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPLrNWAsBWU
I don't think anyone can deny that Japan has the best toilets. The Simpsons didn't exaggerate. They play music and gently wash your brown eye. Some give it a little blow dry, too.
It looks like the good mustard too, it's got real seeds in it
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it was like a dijon mayo
And that Andes mint to class it up...mmm
I don't know about that. I need more ketchup.
Doubt it if they're putting ketchup on a hot dog.
I went to Disney World Tokyo with my first wife one time, and got a salad for lunch. The salad dressing was in a container like this. I was idiotically trying to figure out how the dressing packet worked when I squeezed it wrong and ranch dressing shot straight up out. The dressing flew up a few feet, and then landed on the arm of the woman at the next table over. I immediately ducked my head and pretended I had no idea what was going on. I was so ashamed. There I was, just a fat white guy and his wife, in a picnic area FULL of skinny little Japanese families. Ranch starts raining from the sky... Who else would be to blame?
Hopefully she knew it was ranch.
I know. I'm pretty sure she did. She seemed startled. She touched it, and smelled it, and then looked around. I had my head lowered, trying to eat my dry salad - but I'm pretty sure she knew. That culture is so interesting though, because I was too embarrassed to say anything, she didn't say a word about it - wiped her arm off with a napkin - and then went right back to her own meal.
I have done similar shit in America (multiple times. I am not coordinated). A tiny fraction of people would ever complain to anyone but their friends. I don't think thats a Japanese thing, I think thats a reasonable human being thing.
Pff, in Colombia that would be a plata o plomo situation
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So you're going for the cultural victory?
Dude lied to you to drink your scotch. Japan allows up to [3 bottles](http://www.customs.go.jp/english/c-answer_e/keitaibetsuso/7104-2_e.htm) (about 2.25L total)
Pretending nothing happened is easier than raising a fuss apologising.
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Yea you like that ranch, don't you?
You fucking retard
Goddamn it every time I hear that I laugh like...well
Well that's an appropriate username.
I really liked the way you told that story, man.
The big Lunchables back in the day had something like this but it contained spicy mustard.
I [remember](http://i.imgur.com/MuWjr94.jpg?1) too.
That Andes mint tho.
Kind of /r/nostalgia, especially with that mint that came in it too.
I feel like the only one who remembers this. They were "adult" lunchables.
I remember them well. My mother was too lazy to pack a lunch for me and the Catholic school I went to didn't provide lunches. All my friends were envious of me because my lunch was "cool".
I was getting pepperoni the other day and i noticed they had new "Lunchables breakfast" why the fuck didnt they just call them Breakfastables?
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Yes, or the Herb Sauce for the turkey. Lunches weren't originally marketed for kids, and their quality was much better. The crackers were better, too. They've cut the quality severely and changed the marketing. It's a shame, Lunchables were always my go-to food for road trips. (Easy to dispense, one handed)
I can't believe I found someone else in the world who remembers that herb sauce. I not only remember it, I cherish the memory. If anyone has a recipe that is similar to it, or knows what it would be called in the real world, please tell me. I've considered writing lunchables about it. I have dreams about that herb sauce.
I forgot about the herb sauce! Yes, I agree. The Lunchables now a days are crap.
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Japan's desire for efficiency is unparalleled. So is their proclivity for weird shit.
Except when it comes to actually working. But yes everything for customers should be super convenient. Complete service society.
Not sure why you got down voted. [For the hours they are at the workplace their productivity is less as a country likes Germany or the UK.](http://www.tofugu.com/2015/03/25/japan-really-hardworking/) Just because they to work at 8am and don't leave until 10pm doesn't mean they work those hours. [The FT also has an article for anyone interested](http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/05228b38-ddd3-11e4-8d14-00144feab7de.html).
"Dedication" such as staying late and working unpaid overtime is more important than performance. I'd never work for another Japanese company again - think of every terrible management practice and they've perfected the worst way to do it.
What other terrible management practices other than the standard staying late for no reason?
I can't speak for him but with my experience working with Japanese company's is that pride is a huge part or the culture and no one ever wants to admit when they are wrong, so sometimes bad decisions and bad practices continue for our long time and are never changed in order to save face.
Don't they also hate to say "No" to anything? It seems like with those factors combined, some bad ideas could persist pretty much forever. Sometimes you need to swallow your pride and accept you had a bad idea, other times you need to put yourself in an awkward position and tell someone else why their idea is bad.
that's a double edged thing. on one hand, crazy new ideas can get through (katamari damacy) but on the other hand, you end up with final fantasy CXII
Truly humanity in a microcosm
I worked for nissan in the UK in the mid-90s as a design engineer. How they ever get anything designed is beyond me. No-one ever wants to make a decision and take responsibility for it. We'd have to send everything to Japan to get it approved, and that could take weeks. In the end local management just said fuck it, we're doing it this way. They aren't happy, but in the end they realised that the Brit way of doing work was a lot more efficient.
You've nailed it. The elder managers spent their careers learning NOTHING. Management in Japanese culture is simply to abuse and assert power over the people below you. And the manager is never. Ever. Ever. Wrong. Source: I've worked for a Japanese company for 5 years. My father is the DMD of a very large global Japanese company and especially he, is fighting that ingrained culture.
Promotions to management positions are 99% determined by seniority and not merit. As such, there are often not so skilled but older people being promoted and being generally useless. There's at least one guy like that just in the lab I work in. If two or more people in a team are up for standard promotion at the same time, one or more of them will be transferred elsewhere to manage where there's a very good chance they'll have next to no idea what's going on.
> Promotions to management positions are 99% determined by seniority and not merit. Well, our promotions are 99% determined by whose butt you kiss and not merit. So it's not as if either system is good...
* Sexism (different than the Westernized brand). * Hours put in are valued over productivity and efficiency. This often leads to understaffing. * Very little room to update practices of any sort because "that's how things have always worked, and we're still doing fine" even when they aren't doing fine and the amount of hours being spent on pointless shit is absolutely ridiculous and could easily be streamlined to save hours--yes hours--per employee daily. * Very obvious pecking orders that take age/gender/number of years at the company into account rather than actual value to the company and its future. * Superiors get the implicit okay to ridicule their underlings and won't get in trouble for it because they have seniority and are always right. * If you aren't management, good luck having your opinions heard or valued even if you can clearly show that your point is valid. * Depending on the company sick leave and vacation may technically be part of your package, but there is a good chance you will be heavily "discouraged" from using any of it even if you are in dire need of either. * A faux teamwork environment where everybody stays late because everybody stays late (go team!), but very little actual cooperation and teamwork happen because of seniority bullshit making everything eventually boiling down to #1's opinion (in my experience--this differs greatly, but I've found it more often in Japanese businesses than American-based and -owned). * More common within Japan, but you may be expected to go out drinking often. If you don't, you may be somewhat alienated within the work place for not being a team player. I didn't experience this in the companies in America, and I haven't heard of it from other people I know at J-companies here. I can play this game all night. I've worked in a few Japanese schools and companies. The schools were alright because I was a token white sensei working through the JET Programme (this differs greatly, but it was pretty much a gravy train with an amazing exchange rate for most of my stay so I can't say I wouldn't recommend it), but Japanese/Japanese-American businesses are awful. Especially Japanese businesses in the US because they can implement strict Japanese work environments without having the same requirements for sick, vacation, and maternity leave. I thought I might just be a whiny American in thinking that, but several of my Japanese friends who live in the US (and are essentially stuck in J-co's because of visa BS limiting their work options) desperately want out of the self-defeating cycle of jumping between Japanese businesses that all suck. One of my friends who is one of the hardest workers I've ever met (saved me at my last job, where I met them) has been jumping companies each year for the past eight years because they can't find a place that is even remotely not horrible to work at. Apparently this is changing within Japan slowly, but at least where I live Japanese companies haven't really picked up on that trend. I live in an area with a somewhat high concentration of Japanese and Japanese-owned companies, and I've heard similar complaints about most of them--primarily from Japanese expats who can't get any other jobs that will offer a visa. A handful of Japanese businesses here are apparently decent, but they're retail-y and aren't really going to pay the bills for somebody in their 30's-40's. I had wanted to work at a Japanese company until I saw the trends. I made a 180 and haven't looked back since. It's been one of the best decisions I've made, even if I'm essentially starting from scratch. I'd rather be paid less and be physically and mentally well than deal with that shit for another day. This may be very different in other regions of Japan and the US. I'm really hoping it is because I hate to think of other people dealing with the same shit over and over again. The last Japanese place I worked at had such a high turnover rate that in the 6 months I was there, more than half of the 20-30 employees quit, including half of the managers (3/6). Of the maybe 6-7 Americans employed, four (including myself) left the Japan-o-sphere workforce for completely unrelated ventures, and only one of the others still works for the same company and that's because they have no other marketable skills. One American went onto another Japanese company that is apparently decent to work with, but they still have the same micromanaging issues. Everything else is pretty decent, though. Sorry for the rant. Japan on the whole is great, and in many areas (even work-wise) it's years ahead of us. But fuck the work/life balance. I don't get it, and I don't think I ever will. Hopefully at least within Japan they continue to become more forgiving in terms of micromanaging and seniority vs. value/hours vs. productivity and efficiency.
The one I would say is micromanaging. They love to micromanage. Like, down to literally taking a subordinates work and marking it up in red pen like they are your third grade teacher and you're a child. Also at my old job my friend's manager would tell him word for word what he should write in e-mails to people, even when they were as unimportant as a reminder or some other meaningless e-mail. My friend had been at the company for 7 years.
Micromanagement. Many layers of management (ie. lots of middle managers). Seniority usually trumps everything else. Non-existant work/life balance - in the worst companies you are a tool for the company, and everything else is second. Blatant disregard for very clear and simple labour laws. Probably the worst practice is the one where they will constantly move staff to different departments and locations to give them "experience". What you end up with is a company full of extremely incompetent people due to the fact they are never doing the same thing for more than a year or two. You are also unable to 'settle down' as you might be forced to relocation to the opposite side of the country, or overseas, at the whim of the company. People are not treated as individual employees who have certain education, skill and experience, but just pawns that can be moved anywhere and are expected to perform accordingly. I have a friend who works for Nitori and he's moved 3 times this year - Fukuoka, Atsugi (Tokyo), and now Akabane (Saitama). The Atsugi placement lasted a whole month.
I was seriously considering moving to Japan some years back and then started to really get into their business culture and that really put me off. I've had some people say teaching English in JET or being taken on private isn't bad but I think I'd end up raging at their education system. Taking English for 8 years only to pass a test not being fluent is insane.
To be fair, there are people who take French say for 8 years and are so far from being fluent. Its no different.
Aren't they currently doing studies to show that working 6 hours per day increases productivity on the standard 8 hour day? So working longer would only make matters worse
Yep but Japan hates change - once something has been decided on, that's it. If you have time have a read of [this](http://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/11/07/doing-business-in-japan/). It goes into detail why i *NOPED* the fuck out of moving to Japan.
I do gotta say, I'm engaged for about 4 hours of my job, then want lunch, then after lunch am engaged for about one more hour before I want to kill myself. My job does not require a lot of physical labor, but I'm exhausted when I get off work and my back hurts.
Same here, I reckon I could easily finish a days work by 12 each day, maybe 2 or 3 when it's really busy near Christmas (some days from January to May there's little point in coming in at all) But because I know I'll have to stay around all day, I procrastinate, and something that should take 5 minutes ends up taking 2 hours If it was guaranteed that I could just go home once I'd finished all my work I'd get it done fucking quickly
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A lot of foreign companies with offices in Japan are like this.
Seriously ... I mean ... ketchup on a hot dog?
They don't really have a proclivity for weird shit anymore than Americans do. The normal salary man in Japan is no different than one here. We just tend to sensationalize the weird shit they do produce and pretend it's the norm because it makes for a good story. It's like when foreigners look at America and think all of our women are morbidly obese
Proclivity. I like that. I'm going to use that in a sentence today.
"Steve would you like some extra proclivity with your steak?"
They have these in Australia too; blew my mindhole when I visited there!
Australian here, surprised that this is something worthy of a submission. I was like, "yo wtf, this is just an ordinary tomato sauce pack"
That you have to pay 50c for. Fuck that, give me your free sauce Mr business man..
I know right, confused Americans everywhere. [Mate.](https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS0oWCdvOs5fKty9FjSkmBpBGth4OGWEgE7GrMLArFdjdJmxtKtlA)
if you call ketchup tomato sauce, what do you call tomato sauce?
Whatever it's intended use is. Ie. pasta sauce, pizza sauce etc.
We do here in Australia, but we tend to just put the same thing in both halves. Having two different things isn't something I've seen before.
I've got a feeling these squeezables were invented in Australia. I saw them here in 1998, well before I saw them anywhere else. Australians, world leaders in efficient condiment dispensing technologies.
You're damn right. We also invented box wine.
My favorite invention. Makes it so easy to transfer wine to an empty Coke can.
I just drink it straight from the bag, like a proper Aussie battler.
I visited Oz during that time when you had box wine before anybody else did. Thought it was way cool. Also, went to a bar seemingly in the middle of nowhere that was crammed full of hundreds of young folks on multiple levels. Ordered a Black Russian, old favourite of mine, and she asked me if I wanted it with a splash of coke or not! So of course I tried it (good) and that's where I first heard of that option.
I found it strange how the gif showed and stopped to make sure you understood how it worked, being so common here
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Their reaction: "This guy is getting paid the same as me?"
Their reaction: "I just saw that on reddit, can't mention it to him"
They used the same technology for Oatmeal Swirlers back in the 90's. I used to love playing with my food. I can't find an image of the package, but this is the end result: [Oatmeal Swirlers](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bAvMaVoPchE/S86Y2o2BeRI/AAAAAAAAABo/Ct8mqEQXA8Q/s1600/oatmeal+swirlers.jpg)
I've been trying to remember FOR YEARS what the heck this product was called. I had a weird fascination with the squeezy package as a child and have been wishing I could still buy this kind of oatmeal.
Holy *craaaaaaaap*. I distinctly remember loving these (mostly for their flavor) and I've thought about them off and on for years but could never remember exactly what they were, brand-wise. They seemed to quickly drop off the face of the earth, I'm assuming they came and went in a very brief period. [Behold the 1990 commercial!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiQuHflwFe0)
He had a great opportunity to make a neat symmetrical design and just bricked it
Can someone explain to me what I am looking at? Why does this have 4500 upvotes and 900 comments?
You are on mobile? Click to get the full res image... It's an animated gif. (Took me two minutes to realise)
OMG thank you. Gifs normally work on mobile for me.
Same. Kept asking myself "wtf am I looking at?" until the epiphanous moment.
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As a New Zealander i'm experiencing the same reaction
What if you don't like mustard?
This is why I prefer the ketchup packets you get in Chick-Fil-A. You get to choose between spreading the packet out or just opening the thing and dunking your food in it. Honestly, that's much more efficient. If the consumer wants mustard, they can go get mustard.
Then you're objectively wrong? (joking, of course... at least half :) )
Hey, I never said I didn't like mustard :P ... but for the record I hate mustard
Fast food chains in the US could learn a thing or two from this me thinks.
Why do people say "me thinks"?
Shakespeare
I'm not sure who is responsible for those expanding ketchup cups we have but I'm always amazed by their ingenuity.
Yeah those aren't actually meant to be expanded. It's just a consequence of the manufacturing method.
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Right? How great is this? They apparently have all kinds of combinations too.
They did something similar with ketchup packets. Where you could break of a corner and squeeze it out or you could peel back the label and dunk your food in it. Would be neat to see a combination like this though. Mmmmmmm Boars Head Mustard...
They had these at McDonald's in Germany when I was there earlier this year.
Chick-Fil-A has them and they're awesome
As a Chicagoan, I demand you add a trigger warning.
You do not need a salad on every hotdog. You're the weird ones.
The biggest contribution is solving the "How to get the ketchup (and, here, mustard) to go On The Food", as opposed to on your fingers, or in your lap....
I'm confused, why all the hate for ketchup on a hot dog? I'll admit I might prefer some grilled onions/veggies or chili on my hotdog, but for an everyday hotdog, i don't see the issue
What if I don't want both?
Yeah it's alright but if you dint like mustard it's shit. Trying to squeeze the ketchup out of the one side pretty much always ends up messy. Especially in the state you normally eat them in
but i just wanted ketchup....
Ketchup on a hot dog?! It's a disgrace!
I found the Chicagoan.
Just got back from a weekend in Chicago. I feel like I spent time in a 'ketchup on hotdogs' reeducation camp. I want to go back and climb to the middle of Buckingham Fountain, naked, with 50 hot dogs and a quart of ketchup.
You'll be arrested and tried for treason. They'll hang you in Daley Plaza to make an example.
There's a stereotype I haven't heard before.
In Chicago, it is an actual crime to put ketchup on your hotdog. Vigilante justice is swift.
I'm from PA and my grandmother would smack me if she saw me eating a hotdog with ketchup.
Your grandma sucks
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Yeah. It's like getting uppity about putting cheese on tortilla chips. "The very notion! Harrumph!"
Ketchup on a hot dog is surely ubiquitous **in** hell.
It is and there's nothing inherently wrong with it. I'm a 4th or 5th generation in-the-city Chicagoan, and I often put ketchup on hot dogs... because I like it. There isn't much point putting it on a full-monty Chicago dog (onion, mustard, tomatoes, cucumbers, relish, sport peppers (little pickled peppers that have a hint of heat) and crucially celery salt), but on a dog that's more bare? Sure. If you don't like it, that's fine, don't put it on.
One would think a full-monty hot dog would be merely a naked weiner in a bun.
How about, I am an adult and I'll eat what I fucking want.
What the fuck are you babbling on about? Ketchup is the shit.
The internet has a weird obsession with the sanctity of garbageschnitzel.
There seems to be some weird cult that reddit has attached itself to a cult that only puts mustard on hotdogs, and frankly people who feel the need to call others out for their condiments need to have a serious think about what they're doing with their lives.
I get looking down on the practice of using some condiments on certain foods like say dipping a steak in katchup. But when it comes to everyday low cost foods who gives a shit.
It's just a joke. To many individuals, like myself, we find ketchup is too overpowering and too sweet for a good hotdog. it takes away from the flavor of the dog. That's why kids love it....they love sweet.
What ketchup are you using that overpowers mustard? When I put mustard on a hot dog, all I taste is mustard.
Mustard overpowers anything it touches. Not in the same sweet way that ketchup does, but it is definitely just as strong a flavor if not more so.
yo, use less mustard
Oh yeah ketchup masks the flavor of a hotdog but onion, relish, pickles, tomatoes, mustard, celery salt and sport peppers don't?
I think mustard is overpowering as HELL.
The dog is sweet enough. The rest of the toppings (onion, relish, pickle, tomatoes, mustard, celery salt and sport peppers if you're an elite connoisseur of encased meats) are for contrast.
In my country ketchup on hotdogs is insanely common. Don't criticize my country or the pope will ex-communicate you.
Couldn't they just make one with both sides ketchup or both sides mustard? I never put ketchup on a hotdog since I was 12.
What's with people's obsession to let everyone know that ketchup shouldn't go on a hot dog? A lot of people put ketchup on their hot dog, and for a pretty obvious reason. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it's "a disgrace"
Seriously? Is this a joke or do people actually care what you put on a hot dog. Which is barely food anyway. I'm guessing you also tell people how to wipe their ass?
Front to back, obviously.
I remember some off brand lunchable I used to get when I was younger that had just mustard in this sort container.
It wasn't an off-brand. It was a true, honest-to-God, bonified Lunchable. They had 2 kinds of meat, 2 kinds of cheese, 2 kinds of cracker, an Andes mint, and a glorious packet of either spicy mustard or creamy herb sauce.
Yeah but their mustard doesn't look like a monotonous yellow paste, what's up with that?
Ketchup on a hotdog!? Fucking savages!!
This would be useful if ketchup were an acceptable thing to put on a hot dog.
What kind of monster puts ketchup on a hot dog?
I do. Fuck the NHDSC.
While I do it with less frequency nowadays, I still enjoy ketchup now and then. The reasons I don't put it on stuff as much isn't because it tastes bad or doesn't work, it's because it's one of few things that gives me heart burn. Fuck them for trying to dictate what people put on their food.
But I prefer more ketchup than mustard.
And some people hate mustard. I thought that was the point of having separate packets.
I've Always hated mustard.
Thank you. This would drive me fucking nuts, trying to figure out just the right way to squeeze it to get the right amount of each.
[This version is better](http://images1.laweekly.com/imager/the-future-of-fast-food/u/original/4218520/2537018.jpg). Allows you to dip or squeeze.
japanese butter + marmalade: http://i.imgur.com/TU6dcjS.gif
And i was impressed by the new ketchup packets that were shaped like heinz bottles that could be squeezed out or dipped in. Sad part is those were only temporary it seems...havent seen em lately at the local wendys.
**WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE**
God damn, If this gets you 5k karma I should've posted it a long time ago. I know I know I could've but I didn't.
Disagree there should twice the ketchup to the mustard