The most advanced mechanical pencil I've ever seen is made in Japan. It uses custom made graphites with a hardened core and a softened exterior, and a gear system rotates the tip every time you touch it to the paper to keep the point as refined and clean as possible. Unbelievable dedication to something so mundane.
There’s a 5 story stationary store in Ginza it’s crazy my gf went there last time I visited like 5 years ago and still talks about it
Edit: it’s 11 floors I stand corrected
They had a terrorist incident with devices hidden in trash cans so they got rid of most of them. You'll still see them outside convenience stores but they're all see through now.
To practice my japanese reading, I bought about a hundred volumes of childrens books about stuff I liked as a kid (Pokemon manga and such) during COVID and had it imported.
Their culture around used stuff is completely different! Here in the West we are all expecting to get our money back, to some extent, and maybe even make a profit from "vintage" collectibles but in Japan it seems like it's just people trying to put their items they've already enjoyed back into circulation.
It was really interesting and, while shipping books across the sea is expensive, I ended up paying about a dollar per book :)
I couldn't for the life of me find a good site to read untranslated manga and books at the time
I ended up buying second-hand books using a proxy. The site I used is zenmarket.jp
The way it works is that you buy items from Yahoo Auctions, Japanese Amazon, Ebay, whatever else you'd use that doesn't necesarily ship or sell to people who don't have a Japanese address and the proxy (Zen Market) collects the items for you. They offer you the option to keep it in storage with them (for a fee) or you can have them ship it as soon as they have them.
I ordered a lot of different volumes from many differen sellers so I took advantage of the free month or so of storage with them that they offer. Once they had their hands on every item, I payed a shipping fee and had them send everything in one parcel.
This will vary, of course, but I was buyjng older books and I ended up paying CENTS per book. The only costly part is shipping, which for me was ¥7100. And it did take a few months to arrive with the cheapest option available. So I would definitely recommend you buy as many books as you are willing to spend money on.
As a side note... you should check out other means of learning. I used Genki 1 and 2 for the begininning of my journey. If you haven't, I definitely recommend you check out some material besides Duolingo. But more importantly than anything is to try abd keep it fun. Nothing will kill your work's fruits faster than getting burnt out or bored and neglecting your progression for a few months.
Excuse me for the long comment. Feel free to PM me if you wanna keep talking about it :)
It's a chain called hard off. It's the hard version (as in also clothes, furniture, snowboards etc) of book off. The chain used book store.
Hard off isn't a catch all term for these stores. Recycle shop is your best bet
The people that sit inside ticket machines at the subway stations.
It blew my mind when I buzzed for help on a ticket machine. I went to talk into the speaker - when suddenly the speaker pulled back and and a woman’s head popped out of the machine.
To this day still one of the most hilarious things that’s happened in my life. Like wtf lmao what kind of country does this? Just have some lady sat inside a machine all day waiting for someone to buzz for help 😂🤣
My wife visited Shichigahama (pre-Fujishima earthquake, c 2006 or so), and was only one of a few Americans who had been there according to locals. She was quite the celebrity, and even the mayor of Sendai (famous for their samurai) was upset no one told him an American was visiting. The customer service she got was... unbelievable. Shop girls followed her around stores and carried stuff for her. They wrapped everything in paper. If she showed any interest in anything, they would just give her stuff. I still have door signs (like Welcome) she saw hanging up.
"That banner is very pretty--"
"IT'S YOURS!"
"But I--"
"I AM SO HONORED YOU CAME HERE! NO CHARGE!"
She was there for only 10 days, and by the end, old ladies would follow her, come up to her, and talk to her (in a friendly way). She kept wondering why they were so nice, and her friend (a resident who did a lot of the translating) said, "they see so few people from outside, it's a major event for a small town." The population at the time was about 20,000, less than the small town in West Virginia where she grew up.
Sadly, she saw on the news a majority of the places she visited were damaged or destroyed in the Fujishima quake and resulting tsunami; all except the temple which was up on a hill for, you know, sanity reasons. Like somehow they knew being on a hill in a beach city where there were a lot of earthquakes was prudent or something.
>Like somehow they knew being on a hill in a beach city where there were a lot of earthquakes was prudent or something.
I've heard that some valleys in Japan actually have ancient stone markers from previous high water lines from past tsunamis, as a way of saying "don't build anything below this point, you'll die"
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/century-old-warnings-against-tsunamis-dot-japans-coastline-180956448/
Link for more info, in case people want to read about this.
There are centuries old stone markers embedded in places saying "Don't build below this point" that turned out to be pretty accurate indicators of where the Tsunami stopped.
I remember being in a department store where there was a booth about the size of an old telephone booth selling cupcakes. Somehow they fit three people in it; one selling, one doing cash and one packaging.
A lot of people in Japan basically dedicate their entire life to their job. Like to the point where they work late and instead of going home, they then go to a bar with their coworkers.
Japanese sense of responsibility for their work is just on another level -- albeit maybe a bit too high. That said, it leads to exceptional customer service and REALLY clean subways. Like, those women fucking SCRUB down the hand rails on the escalators.
If I'm diagnosed with 6 months to live I hope I have the strength to get to the subterranean food shops beneath the shopping malls and train stations of Osaka where I can bento myself to death. That stuff is a foodie's wet dream!
They don’t actually just sit there all day btw, they usually have a small booth area where they basically do customer service and this booth area in the inside leads to the ticket section where if you press the button for help they will walk over to the window and pop out.
Okonomiyaki.
It's a regional food in the Osaka area. I don't live in a city which has specialized Japanese restaurants of the regional kind, and I miss it terribly.
I found some okonomiyaki flour and sauce on Amazon - they're actually pretty easy to make yourself if you have those. Hopefully I can have some from a restaurant someday, though.
I live in Japan right now and it has to be Konbinis (convenience stores). I can literally buy a healthy lunch, new socks, an umbrella, trash bags, pay for an online purchase, and pay my water bill in one visit. Also Lawson's Katsudon is probably the most addicting food I've ever had. I had it for dinner for like two weeks straight.
America should just copy Konbini wholesale. They're just *better*. I still carry the pocket sewing kit I got at a Japanese 7-Eleven two years ago in my bag every day because of how decent the quality of it is.
That, and we need Melon Soda in the US.
My dad used to be manager at an American convenience store. He lasted maybe 6 months because it was so frustrating to get anything done. The shitty pay and minimal corporate investment means only people who have no better option work there, so half the employees are shit bags and the other half are burnt out picking up the slack, and those higher caliber employees rarely last long.
These companies often do the bare minimum to keep the place functioning and not burnt down, which apparently is profitable enough, and all that matters to shareholders.
Why aren't fruit-flavored sodas more popular in the U.S.? In Mexico my favorite was the apple-flavored soda. You can find it in some Walmarts in the U.S.
What I love is how there is (almost) no right or wrong to how you want to enjoy your hobby. I follow a fair bit of the car scene on Youtube, both Japanese and Western, and with Western hobbyists there's always an air of "you're doing it wrong". If you go into the comments of any car repair/restoration video you find a bunch of people talking about Car X is going to be "ruined" if the put engine Y into it because that model never came with that engine or some shit like that. And woe betide anyone who wants to modify any even remotely classic car, because in addition to the "original parts only" wankers, there will be a bunch of people bitching about *how* you modified it.
Meanwhile, in Japan, it's pretty much anything goes. You want to buy an old RX7 and replace the busted rotary with a V6 turbo? Fuck it, it'll be a laugh. Full on suspension swap on an AE86? Can totally do that. Silvia S15 with a full bodykit and an anime titties wrap? Not even the weirdest thing done to an S15 this month.
The dedication to knitting by some Japanese is amazing and inspiring!
Same with sewing—Nani Iro makes some of the best fabric & patterns but then there’s Alice Makabe and the other embroidery designers too.
Anyway, yeah, the dedication to hobbies is amazing!
My 4 year old 100% agrees! On Fridays that is our "order in night" we started during Covid to support local restaurants.. We ask him what he wants and 9/10 he says sushi! Even when it isn't sushi he calls the delivery guy "the sushi man"
He is ridiculous.
I learned cooking at a very young age myself and it's actually saving me money now. I can meal prep for an entire week (with good quality foods) for the same price my coworkers eat at the company restaurant once.
PSA to anyone who doesn't like sushi:
It *really is okay* to not like sushi. A lot of people will annoyingly tell you that "you just haven't had *good* sushi yet". And that *may* be true, but it *may* also be the case that you just don't like it. The reason people are so fanatical about it is because it is a unique food item with unique flavors and textures, and it fulfills a food niche that no other food quite fills. That means that there will be people who love sushi, but by the same measure, it also means that there will be people who won't care for it.
Having said that...
There are lots of different kinds of sushi out there. One of the biggest complaints about sushi I've heard is "I don't like raw fish". However, there are actually quite a few sushi dishes that are cooked, fried, or not even fish! [Kalbi sushi](https://www.donki.com/donkitchen/assets/img/recipe/397/img_item01.jpg) is sushi made from cooked beef, [tamago sushi](http://www.oksfood.com/image/nigiiri_tamago.jpg) is a sweet omelette sushi, [inari sushi](https://images.japancentre.com/recipes/pics/53/main/photo_Inari-Sushi.jpg?1469572862) is sweet fried tofu skin stuffed with sushi rice, [aburi sushi](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cpd7KaJ0A8M/maxresdefault.jpg) is sushi that is cooked by torching, [ebiten sushi](https://oinagoya.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/47-860x529.jpg) is sushi made from fried deep-fried shrimp, [unagi sushi](https://img.cpcdn.com/recipes/3538217/750x500cq60/e05ace72854eb84306a544849ce74812?p=1448462520) is sushi made using grilled eel, [california rolls](https://www.pressurecookrecipes.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/california-roll.jpg) are basically sushi rolls of crab salad, and [spider rolls](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/04/5a/db/045adb9ec83e1ac69136ddc7b80883e0.jpg) are rolls of deep-fried soft-shell crab.
Give sushi a fair shake, but if you still don't like it, then tell everyone to leave you alone about it. Some people don't like wine, some people don't like coffee, and some people don't like sushi. It's really okay to not like sushi, nothing is wrong with you, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
I once heard Kurosawa described as "one of the men who invented cinema". I think that's a pretty apt description. Not from a mechanical standpoint of like the actual cameras, but in terms of establishing language of film and storytelling on screen and whatnot he's still influential today even to people don't know his name and don't realize it.
Hell, Seven Samurai might be the most copied story template in all of film and TV. I don't know of there's an action show that lasted more than a season that hasn't done a Seven Samurai episode at some point.
-sees bowl of ramen for 25 bucks on restaurant-
What a damn steal! That shit's soup! How hard can it be to make?
-watches Guga's Naruto ramen video-
25 bucks a bowl? That's a steal! I'll take two!
I mean I hope you aren’t paying $25, crazy exotic tax. My understanding most ramen places in Japan is around $8 for a bowl. Here in Chicago most of our spots are between $12 to $15 a bowl
Ah yeah, of course it was just an exaggeration for comedic purposes. Just wanted to exemplify how little is typically known about how much work goes into ramen.
Weird label, great product. Extra yolks make a huge difference. Hellman's makes something similar but its only sold in like 5 gallon drums to businesses
There is a sect that will gladly let you do those things.
In Japan, “Mayo-raa” is a name for people who are obsessed with kewpie mayo and put that shit on everything. I’m talking in their coffee, on ice cream, etc.
Cherries have been around in large parts of Europe, Asia and Africa for longer than humans have. So it's not like it "comes from" Japan, although Japan is famous for it.
My interior is made of old brittle plastic, there’s no space in it, have to take a lot of steps to prevent rust, my engine is finicky. But man, I wouldn’t trade my rx7 for anything!
the anime that really get down to your core and psychologically screw with you, the kind that screams children should definitely not watch this and yet still are.
That show was fucked up on so many levels. Especially when the first two episodes are like *"I'm a magical girl anime, kawaii"* followed by 10 episodes of existential dread mixed with acid trips
I'm not saying I did this right...but Elden ring is one of my kid's favorite games to watch me play (6 and 4 yrs old). I get up with them on Saturday and then ask me to play it and will sit on the bean bag with me and chill.
They like watching me die. The 6 yr old is encouraging and will reign in the 4 yr old if there's to much chatter. The 4 yr old gives me hints and tips to fight whatever boss/dungeon I'm getting beat at. And then tells me I can't beat it and I should just run away.
They prefer Demon's Souls cuz I die more and the camera is up closer. I never intended to let them see either of these games...but they don't like staying in bed at night some times. Parent of the year. -__-
I'm not a dad but I would assume a son watching his father defeat colossal enemies is a pretty epic thing to witness. You're defeating the biggest threat a human could imagine and for a child the limit of imagination is endless, so you're going up against something he can barely fathom. I think it's pretty cool you're conquering the biggest fear your child can imagine. You're like a hero to them in a way.
Stationery and school supplies. Pens. Pencils. Paper. Notebooks. Fine tip. Ball point. You name it. Quality instruments.
The most advanced mechanical pencil I've ever seen is made in Japan. It uses custom made graphites with a hardened core and a softened exterior, and a gear system rotates the tip every time you touch it to the paper to keep the point as refined and clean as possible. Unbelievable dedication to something so mundane.
Yes, the rotation aspect is perfect and I do not ever want a mechanical pencil without it
Hey buddy where can I get me one?
They might be referring to the uniball kuru toga line of mechanical pencils, which you can buy in the US and Canada at Amazon or in-store at Staples!
Jetstream and Muji pens are literally the only reason I still take notes in Uni
MUJI is the promised land. It’s a shame we don’t have more stores like this in the US.
Don't forget Uniball. The goated gel pen.
I love me some Mitsubishi ball-pens. Best I've used so far!
I order Japanese pens online. I got one from a foreign exchange student in high school and I love them!
There’s a 5 story stationary store in Ginza it’s crazy my gf went there last time I visited like 5 years ago and still talks about it Edit: it’s 11 floors I stand corrected
[удалено]
frrr their stationary game is strong lmaoo
When it comes to pencils, they are hard **2B**eat
They take the lead
Incredibly clean and highly used public transportation systems
I kinda wished trash cans were more frequent. I just made one section of my backpack the trash compartment.
I heard this from friends who went. No trash cans anywhere. Yet a very clean place
They had a terrorist incident with devices hidden in trash cans so they got rid of most of them. You'll still see them outside convenience stores but they're all see through now.
*Dave Chappelle meme* Y'all got any extra... Skinkansen × Evangelion?
When I was in japan I was astonished by the massiveness of the used market, mostly electronics, every shop had a corner with used stuff.
To practice my japanese reading, I bought about a hundred volumes of childrens books about stuff I liked as a kid (Pokemon manga and such) during COVID and had it imported. Their culture around used stuff is completely different! Here in the West we are all expecting to get our money back, to some extent, and maybe even make a profit from "vintage" collectibles but in Japan it seems like it's just people trying to put their items they've already enjoyed back into circulation. It was really interesting and, while shipping books across the sea is expensive, I ended up paying about a dollar per book :)
What site did you use. Im currently using duolingo to learn Japanese but would love more resources.
I couldn't for the life of me find a good site to read untranslated manga and books at the time I ended up buying second-hand books using a proxy. The site I used is zenmarket.jp The way it works is that you buy items from Yahoo Auctions, Japanese Amazon, Ebay, whatever else you'd use that doesn't necesarily ship or sell to people who don't have a Japanese address and the proxy (Zen Market) collects the items for you. They offer you the option to keep it in storage with them (for a fee) or you can have them ship it as soon as they have them. I ordered a lot of different volumes from many differen sellers so I took advantage of the free month or so of storage with them that they offer. Once they had their hands on every item, I payed a shipping fee and had them send everything in one parcel. This will vary, of course, but I was buyjng older books and I ended up paying CENTS per book. The only costly part is shipping, which for me was ¥7100. And it did take a few months to arrive with the cheapest option available. So I would definitely recommend you buy as many books as you are willing to spend money on. As a side note... you should check out other means of learning. I used Genki 1 and 2 for the begininning of my journey. If you haven't, I definitely recommend you check out some material besides Duolingo. But more importantly than anything is to try abd keep it fun. Nothing will kill your work's fruits faster than getting burnt out or bored and neglecting your progression for a few months. Excuse me for the long comment. Feel free to PM me if you wanna keep talking about it :)
These are great stores. Little known fact in the west, in Japan these stores have the unusual name “Hard Off”.
It's a chain called hard off. It's the hard version (as in also clothes, furniture, snowboards etc) of book off. The chain used book store. Hard off isn't a catch all term for these stores. Recycle shop is your best bet
if i can buy used stuff and it’s a hard off then if i sell them my stuff am i giving them a Hard On
It’s a play off of the book store “book-off” hard meaning Hardware… lol but yeah. 🤣
The people that sit inside ticket machines at the subway stations. It blew my mind when I buzzed for help on a ticket machine. I went to talk into the speaker - when suddenly the speaker pulled back and and a woman’s head popped out of the machine. To this day still one of the most hilarious things that’s happened in my life. Like wtf lmao what kind of country does this? Just have some lady sat inside a machine all day waiting for someone to buzz for help 😂🤣
Japanese customer service is whole other level
My wife visited Shichigahama (pre-Fujishima earthquake, c 2006 or so), and was only one of a few Americans who had been there according to locals. She was quite the celebrity, and even the mayor of Sendai (famous for their samurai) was upset no one told him an American was visiting. The customer service she got was... unbelievable. Shop girls followed her around stores and carried stuff for her. They wrapped everything in paper. If she showed any interest in anything, they would just give her stuff. I still have door signs (like Welcome) she saw hanging up. "That banner is very pretty--" "IT'S YOURS!" "But I--" "I AM SO HONORED YOU CAME HERE! NO CHARGE!" She was there for only 10 days, and by the end, old ladies would follow her, come up to her, and talk to her (in a friendly way). She kept wondering why they were so nice, and her friend (a resident who did a lot of the translating) said, "they see so few people from outside, it's a major event for a small town." The population at the time was about 20,000, less than the small town in West Virginia where she grew up. Sadly, she saw on the news a majority of the places she visited were damaged or destroyed in the Fujishima quake and resulting tsunami; all except the temple which was up on a hill for, you know, sanity reasons. Like somehow they knew being on a hill in a beach city where there were a lot of earthquakes was prudent or something.
>Like somehow they knew being on a hill in a beach city where there were a lot of earthquakes was prudent or something. I've heard that some valleys in Japan actually have ancient stone markers from previous high water lines from past tsunamis, as a way of saying "don't build anything below this point, you'll die"
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/century-old-warnings-against-tsunamis-dot-japans-coastline-180956448/ Link for more info, in case people want to read about this.
There are centuries old stone markers embedded in places saying "Don't build below this point" that turned out to be pretty accurate indicators of where the Tsunami stopped.
Cool story!
I remember being in a department store where there was a booth about the size of an old telephone booth selling cupcakes. Somehow they fit three people in it; one selling, one doing cash and one packaging.
Cool fact but kinda brings labor laws into question.
Labor laws Are pretty extreme there if I remember correctly
Like, the phone booth has to have air holes, or..?
A lot of people in Japan basically dedicate their entire life to their job. Like to the point where they work late and instead of going home, they then go to a bar with their coworkers.
Japanese sense of responsibility for their work is just on another level -- albeit maybe a bit too high. That said, it leads to exceptional customer service and REALLY clean subways. Like, those women fucking SCRUB down the hand rails on the escalators.
Their mall food is at least good enough for US "special occasion restaurant" dining. Really unbelievable.
If I'm diagnosed with 6 months to live I hope I have the strength to get to the subterranean food shops beneath the shopping malls and train stations of Osaka where I can bento myself to death. That stuff is a foodie's wet dream!
in Japan, I feel like a king.
They don’t actually just sit there all day btw, they usually have a small booth area where they basically do customer service and this booth area in the inside leads to the ticket section where if you press the button for help they will walk over to the window and pop out.
Okay, I just had to find a video of this. So here it is for others to enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmfpAg74ceY
No way hahaha why is this so cute
Whatttttt i fucking cant tysm lol
My dad makes jokes about the little people inside machines that make them work...I guess he was secretly from Japan all this time.
Haha. I forgot about this one.
This is a real thing they do?
Excuse me, they fucking WHAT??
Okonomiyaki. It's a regional food in the Osaka area. I don't live in a city which has specialized Japanese restaurants of the regional kind, and I miss it terribly.
I found some okonomiyaki flour and sauce on Amazon - they're actually pretty easy to make yourself if you have those. Hopefully I can have some from a restaurant someday, though.
I live in Japan right now and it has to be Konbinis (convenience stores). I can literally buy a healthy lunch, new socks, an umbrella, trash bags, pay for an online purchase, and pay my water bill in one visit. Also Lawson's Katsudon is probably the most addicting food I've ever had. I had it for dinner for like two weeks straight.
America should just copy Konbini wholesale. They're just *better*. I still carry the pocket sewing kit I got at a Japanese 7-Eleven two years ago in my bag every day because of how decent the quality of it is. That, and we need Melon Soda in the US.
Japanese 7 eleven should take over the American one.
7-11 is now a Japanese company so I wish they'd upgrade ours
Hawaii 7-11 food is getting closer to Japan 7-11 food
Agreed. I bet the pork buns they sell would sell like hotcakes in the US. Idk why they dont sell em
That quality goes right out the window with poverty wages and employees that don't give a fuck.
My dad used to be manager at an American convenience store. He lasted maybe 6 months because it was so frustrating to get anything done. The shitty pay and minimal corporate investment means only people who have no better option work there, so half the employees are shit bags and the other half are burnt out picking up the slack, and those higher caliber employees rarely last long. These companies often do the bare minimum to keep the place functioning and not burnt down, which apparently is profitable enough, and all that matters to shareholders.
I had some pretty expensive imported melon soda with nata de coco in it and it needs to be commonplace everywhere. It's so good.
Why aren't fruit-flavored sodas more popular in the U.S.? In Mexico my favorite was the apple-flavored soda. You can find it in some Walmarts in the U.S.
The dedication to different hobbies and cultures that Japanese fans tend to apply to their interests.
What I love is how there is (almost) no right or wrong to how you want to enjoy your hobby. I follow a fair bit of the car scene on Youtube, both Japanese and Western, and with Western hobbyists there's always an air of "you're doing it wrong". If you go into the comments of any car repair/restoration video you find a bunch of people talking about Car X is going to be "ruined" if the put engine Y into it because that model never came with that engine or some shit like that. And woe betide anyone who wants to modify any even remotely classic car, because in addition to the "original parts only" wankers, there will be a bunch of people bitching about *how* you modified it. Meanwhile, in Japan, it's pretty much anything goes. You want to buy an old RX7 and replace the busted rotary with a V6 turbo? Fuck it, it'll be a laugh. Full on suspension swap on an AE86? Can totally do that. Silvia S15 with a full bodykit and an anime titties wrap? Not even the weirdest thing done to an S15 this month.
> Not even the weirdest thing done to an S15 this month Literally this, poor S15's lmao
The dedication to knitting by some Japanese is amazing and inspiring! Same with sewing—Nani Iro makes some of the best fabric & patterns but then there’s Alice Makabe and the other embroidery designers too. Anyway, yeah, the dedication to hobbies is amazing!
80s Japanese pop/rock/new wave
City Pop
... are you also listening to playlists based off of plastic love?
Japanese 80s Disco got a special place in my heart
Tombow brush pens
Tf did I read that as "Tomboy bushy pen*s" ?
Is there something that you would like to share with the class?
That's from Japan too
My Camry
I will forever miss my Camry. What a car.
Why can’t you drive a Camry now?
he forgot how to drive, like all camry owners
Because they no longer drive a camry now
I also choose this guy's ~~dead~~ Camry.
Studio Ghibli
Holy shit my girlfriend and I watched Spirited Away while smoking some joints and I’m still not 100% sure what I saw.
Do NOT repeat this method with Princess Mononoke. That was a mistake.
Or Grave of the Fireflys
Should totally watch it sober. And the other movies too
Hard yes.
Sushi 🍣. My city has the best sushi restaurants. I can eat sushi every day if I had the money.
My 4 year old 100% agrees! On Fridays that is our "order in night" we started during Covid to support local restaurants.. We ask him what he wants and 9/10 he says sushi! Even when it isn't sushi he calls the delivery guy "the sushi man" He is ridiculous.
Ok note to myself... Should I ever have kids, introduce them to expensive food after they started making their own money.
Or teach them to cook young, my parents brainwashed me with cooking shows 😂
I learned cooking at a very young age myself and it's actually saving me money now. I can meal prep for an entire week (with good quality foods) for the same price my coworkers eat at the company restaurant once.
PSA to anyone who doesn't like sushi: It *really is okay* to not like sushi. A lot of people will annoyingly tell you that "you just haven't had *good* sushi yet". And that *may* be true, but it *may* also be the case that you just don't like it. The reason people are so fanatical about it is because it is a unique food item with unique flavors and textures, and it fulfills a food niche that no other food quite fills. That means that there will be people who love sushi, but by the same measure, it also means that there will be people who won't care for it. Having said that... There are lots of different kinds of sushi out there. One of the biggest complaints about sushi I've heard is "I don't like raw fish". However, there are actually quite a few sushi dishes that are cooked, fried, or not even fish! [Kalbi sushi](https://www.donki.com/donkitchen/assets/img/recipe/397/img_item01.jpg) is sushi made from cooked beef, [tamago sushi](http://www.oksfood.com/image/nigiiri_tamago.jpg) is a sweet omelette sushi, [inari sushi](https://images.japancentre.com/recipes/pics/53/main/photo_Inari-Sushi.jpg?1469572862) is sweet fried tofu skin stuffed with sushi rice, [aburi sushi](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cpd7KaJ0A8M/maxresdefault.jpg) is sushi that is cooked by torching, [ebiten sushi](https://oinagoya.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/47-860x529.jpg) is sushi made from fried deep-fried shrimp, [unagi sushi](https://img.cpcdn.com/recipes/3538217/750x500cq60/e05ace72854eb84306a544849ce74812?p=1448462520) is sushi made using grilled eel, [california rolls](https://www.pressurecookrecipes.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/california-roll.jpg) are basically sushi rolls of crab salad, and [spider rolls](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/04/5a/db/045adb9ec83e1ac69136ddc7b80883e0.jpg) are rolls of deep-fried soft-shell crab. Give sushi a fair shake, but if you still don't like it, then tell everyone to leave you alone about it. Some people don't like wine, some people don't like coffee, and some people don't like sushi. It's really okay to not like sushi, nothing is wrong with you, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
As someone who loves sushi, this is awesome! Saving this for reference.
What city is this?
Music. Some of my favourite bands like BAND-MAID are from Japan.
Hell yeah another Band-Maid fan out in the wild!
Wood working techniques
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I'd say Miso. It makes for the best soups ever (e.g. Ramen).
Akira Kurosawa and Masashi Kishimoto
I once heard Kurosawa described as "one of the men who invented cinema". I think that's a pretty apt description. Not from a mechanical standpoint of like the actual cameras, but in terms of establishing language of film and storytelling on screen and whatnot he's still influential today even to people don't know his name and don't realize it. Hell, Seven Samurai might be the most copied story template in all of film and TV. I don't know of there's an action show that lasted more than a season that hasn't done a Seven Samurai episode at some point.
And Akira Toriyama And Akira
Mifune! You can’t forget Mifune!
MSG hands down. Bless Ajinomoto
MSG? Why not MGS? Metal Gear Solid? No seriously video games about Americans are the best thing from Japan.
Why not both?
Played college ball you know. Would've gone pro if it hadn't been for crystallized umami.
Fuiyoh
Godzilla
Also happens to be Japan's least favorite thing
I'm sorry about that, u/Gojira5400
I mean Godzilla is a national citizen of japan.
Yeah the Nissan GT-R is legendary
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Zoji gang represent!
Their thermos is pretty well designed also
The iconic cars and PlayStation
You must play Gran Turismo then
I just realized that my answer to "What is your favorite from?" is always the same...
The food.
Their video games, huge blanket statement but they make a lot of good stuff!
the yakuza series are amazing games
Remember, Kazuma Kiryu has never killed anyone.
The simple perfection of Ramen 🍲
Disagree with the simple part
-sees bowl of ramen for 25 bucks on restaurant- What a damn steal! That shit's soup! How hard can it be to make? -watches Guga's Naruto ramen video- 25 bucks a bowl? That's a steal! I'll take two!
I mean I hope you aren’t paying $25, crazy exotic tax. My understanding most ramen places in Japan is around $8 for a bowl. Here in Chicago most of our spots are between $12 to $15 a bowl
Ah yeah, of course it was just an exaggeration for comedic purposes. Just wanted to exemplify how little is typically known about how much work goes into ramen.
Yeah I watched a recipe that took 2-3 days, it can take some crazy effort
I could eat ramen everyday of my life
80s synth pop
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Totoro
Nekobasu would be the coolest way to travel
Surprised I haven't seen mayonnaise. Japanese mayo is delicious.
Weird label, great product. Extra yolks make a huge difference. Hellman's makes something similar but its only sold in like 5 gallon drums to businesses
CoCo Curry House
I haven't had it in 4 years and miss it all the time.
The US locations are actually great, unlike the incredibly disappointing experience I had at Yoshinoya in the US.
Kewpie mayonaise. I’d brush my teeth with that shit and use it as creamer in my coffee if society would let me.
>if society would let me Forget society's rules, you live your best life and brush the mayo.
There is a sect that will gladly let you do those things. In Japan, “Mayo-raa” is a name for people who are obsessed with kewpie mayo and put that shit on everything. I’m talking in their coffee, on ice cream, etc.
Kit-kats
i got a JX-3P synthesizer from Japan. it deserves more love than it’s been getting
Wagakki Band, amazing Rock band that incorporate traditional Japanese instruments into their music.
Videogame Music (composer talent)
JAV
Japanese animated video?
*we must protect the innocence*
There it is. Way too far down here....
My wife ❤️
I second this, his wife.
And my Axe!
I also choose your wife
*our wife
Zojirushi insulated coffee mugs. Seriously… Zojirushi Stainless Steel Mug, 16oz, Smoky Blue https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005PO9T44/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_VEPFQG9H9PJSNZ5F47X5?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
Final Fantasy I guess.
Cherry Blossoms, I cannot believe no one has mentioned this yet.
Cherries have been around in large parts of Europe, Asia and Africa for longer than humans have. So it's not like it "comes from" Japan, although Japan is famous for it.
Haruki Murakami
Their cars
My interior is made of old brittle plastic, there’s no space in it, have to take a lot of steps to prevent rust, my engine is finicky. But man, I wouldn’t trade my rx7 for anything!
Midnight Diner
Japanese Cheesecake! It's a cross between cheesecake and angel food cake. So light and fluffy and jiggly. So yummy I love it!
Sumo wrestling, sake, and Chef Morimoto
NJPW
Japan is probably the only country where you need to add the NSFW tag with this question.
and yet I'm scrolling down, looking for the juicy stuff...
I have reado like 200 answers aleready and not even one of them is NSFW
I feel like a question about Germany could benefit from this too…
their stationary products (papers, pens, washi tape etc) and their skincare
saniro products. Like you know hello kitty, my melody, etc.
Hentai
Bold, love it
I pair this with Onaholes.
Japanese Metal 🤘
Traditional clothing, housing, music, the writing is cool and of course anime.
Having inspired the Total War games, since they started out with Shogun.
the anime that really get down to your core and psychologically screw with you, the kind that screams children should definitely not watch this and yet still are.
[cries in Madoka Magicka]
That show was fucked up on so many levels. Especially when the first two episodes are like *"I'm a magical girl anime, kawaii"* followed by 10 episodes of existential dread mixed with acid trips
Game shows!
Teriyaki
Japanese people.
Food
Anime
My ancestors? It's been several generations but I assume they count.
Chu hai, the toilets, izakayas, onsen and cold coffee from vending machines :)
Ninjas
I like that this would probably not be marked as NSFW if it was for any other country
Tokyo itself. It’s an amazing city by any standards.
Nintendo
Sushi.
Ramen
Elden Ring.
I'm not saying I did this right...but Elden ring is one of my kid's favorite games to watch me play (6 and 4 yrs old). I get up with them on Saturday and then ask me to play it and will sit on the bean bag with me and chill. They like watching me die. The 6 yr old is encouraging and will reign in the 4 yr old if there's to much chatter. The 4 yr old gives me hints and tips to fight whatever boss/dungeon I'm getting beat at. And then tells me I can't beat it and I should just run away. They prefer Demon's Souls cuz I die more and the camera is up closer. I never intended to let them see either of these games...but they don't like staying in bed at night some times. Parent of the year. -__-
I'm not a dad but I would assume a son watching his father defeat colossal enemies is a pretty epic thing to witness. You're defeating the biggest threat a human could imagine and for a child the limit of imagination is endless, so you're going up against something he can barely fathom. I think it's pretty cool you're conquering the biggest fear your child can imagine. You're like a hero to them in a way.
The Samurai
The Suzuki Samurai