Japan is an advanced land of electronics and inventions. In most ways it is a completely Westernized country with many Western customs in place. However, different cultures stick to different practices, and some practices in Japan are unique only to the Japanese. Here's a list of 10 fun facts about Japan that distinguishes it from anywhere else and makes it more unique:
1. The Japanese hamburger steak is not a hamburger and not a steak. It's a type of meat ball served with yakiniku sauce. The Japanese use the word hambaaga (hamburger) to refer to the common hamburger, while the words hambaagu and hambaaga steaky (hamburger steak) describe the abovementioned meat ball.
2. Some Western hand gestures have different meanings in Japan. For example, the hand gesture in which you curl the thumb and pointing fingers together to form a circle will be interpreted as "Ok", "Perfect" or "Good" in the West. However in Japan (and a few other Asian countries, but not all) this hand gesture means "money" and is usually shown with the palm of the hand facing up instead of down.
3. There are no trash cans in the streets of Japan. Japanese are used to keeping their garbage with them and disposing of it when they reach their homes or workplaces. The lack of trash cans around can be very inconvenient for tourists though. The only places where you will find trash cans in the streets are in front of convenient stores. You can also find trash cans inside train stations, usually near the bathrooms.
4. Japanese super markets try to reduce the use of plastic bags. After passing them through his or her price scanner the cashier in the super will always arrange the products you bought back inside a shopping basket in a space-saving way so as to prevent you from using an excessive amount of plastic bags. In most super markets you do not have the freedom to take as many plastic bags as you want. Instead the cashier will hand you as many bags as s/he believes you need. Usually the first bag is given for free and from the second bag onwards you will need to pay a nominal fee (between 5 to 10 yen) for each new bag. The abovementioned measures effectively discourage you from using more bags than needed and encourage you to bring your own bag or use the plastic bags you got to their limit.
5. Japanese stores use excessive amount of plastic bags. Big chains usually reside in a building with several floors. Each floor is dedicated to its own specific product categories and has its own cashier. You must pay for the item you want to buy on its respective floor, after which it will be packed in a plastic bag and closed off with a sticker seal. This creates a huge waste of plastic, as you will effectively have a different bag for each floor even though you are essentially buying everything in one store.
6. When sick Japanese leave their house they wear a mask. This mask has no beneficial traits for the wearer and is instead used to notify people around the wearer that s/he is sick. The mask also helps minimize the chances of bystanders being infected by disease-relaying actions such as sneezing and coughing. That said, not all the Japanese who wear these white masks are actually sick. Some of them suffer from pollen allergy and wear their masks in specific seasons - when high concentrations of such pollens can be found in the air - to avoid breathing them.
7. The English word maniac in Japanese (pronounced as maniaku) is used by people to point their own super-specialized hobby interests. For example a person might not find the book he was looking for in a book store and then admit that "I'm probably too maniac to have found the book I'm searching here". In this example he is referring to himself as a maniac, which means the book he was looking for was probably a very rare book which only very hardcore people search for (hence why it can't be found in a regular book store). There is no direct curse word similar to the English word maniac in Japanese and the verb twisted (kurutteiru) is usually used instead.
8. When using escalators Japanese that want to stand in place while the escalators are rising will always align to the left. People who are in a hurry to climb will align to the right and keep walking. The only exception to this rule is the city of Kyoto in which people in a hurry align to the left while all the other cling to the right. The alignment to the left is a rule of the thumb in Japan and is also used in hallways and staircases in train stations. Even on the street, where they are not bound by a specific rule, most Japanese will subconsciously align to the left of the sidewalk while walking.
9. There are no uniform sizes for clothes in Japan. Although most stores offer the seemingly uniform sizes of S, M, L and XL in actuality there are no uniform sizes to these marks in Japan. This effectively means an M sized shirt in one store might be labeled as S in the adjacent store. An L sized shirt in Japan might prove to be an M sized shirt in American standards. This factor might confuse tourists who shop for clothes in Japan.
10. There are very few ancient structures remaining in Japan. This partly stems from World War 2 in which all of Japan except Kyoto was bombarded. For this reason many cities, including Tokyo, were burnt to the ground and many landmarks lost. However, there is another reason for the lack of ancient structures: Due to traditional Japanese customs old temples are periodically burned and are replaced by identical copies. Although most of Japan's temples and shrines look old and were constructed in traditional building methods they were in fact built during the last 100 years. There are also many old castles that have been lost due to war, earthquakes and neglect. Most of the castles in Japan today are replicas created using modern materials and machinery. Currently there are only 12 castles in the whole of Japan which were built before the 20th century.
Nadav Rotchild has a master's degree in Asian Studies and has lived and studied in Tokyo, Japan. He is the founder of Anime Reviews - a website dedicated to the coverage of Japanese popular culture mediums such as anime, manga and Japanese figures.
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