*How to properly get a seat on the train in Japan:* Step 1: Find an open seat Step 2: Offer the seat to an elderly person already standing Step 3: They will politely refuse Step 4: Take your seat
That's absolutely common in Czech Republic and from what I observed, in rest of the Europe too. But you can see it in any public transportation, not just trains. The only case where would noone blinks an eye if you wouldn't let sit anyone, even old people/pregnant women etc., is when you bought a specific seat in a train or a bus (that's only possible for those which run to other cities/countries, not for public transport within the city). Then it's solely up to you if you give up the seat for someone else, but some carriers charge extra money for reservation. And sometimes you cannot even buy the ticket without it.
One thing that frustrated me working and living in rural Japan, was that my Japanese colleagues were always too polite to correct my Japanese. Polite is nice but that doesn't help you learn..
Yeah, in a way it carries over to online too. So many times I see someone say something in English incorrectly, and when I politely correct them, others come along saying things like "Hey lay off maybe English isn't their native language" as if correcting someone equates to coming down on them.
Thats ironic. I once read about a girl in japan who commited suicide because she was bullied. She was bullied because she had trouble with the japanese language.
😂 that's my problem too as a former ESL teacher.. I hate correcting a student directly with their mistakes...i do it indirectly though without them noticing me that I am correcting their mistakes... I just hope they noticed it😆
I have a really bad handwriting and I wanted to become a doctor in Japan but that is a little hard cuz I don't have that big brain so I want be a M 1 A 2 N 3 G 4 A 5 A 6 R T 7 I 8 S 9 T.
As european can add that my father would probably fail in Japan because his handwriting was really bad and I inherit it. He was a leading engineer in a quite large company and was well known for his knowledge even amongst competing companies. Unfortaly for me I inherited only a bad writing. 😂
@@angelus_solus I speak 4 languages, not being a native English speaker and I would never give a flying fuck about (subtile) grammar mistakes if the shit I'm trying to express is understandable. Communication always works.
@@michaels3003 Yes. That takes five minutes and can be done at any time of the day. Security guards arrive with the cash, go in the back, put it in, leave. They don't need to close for that. Potential crimes overnight? Sure, in isolated areas but in cities where there is always people around? Like, why does it work well in every single country on Earth except Japan?
I've met waaaaay too many Mexicans that don't like spicy food. So I'm not even surprised anymore. There's even a couple of facebook groups dedicated to such a phenomenon.
@@RicardoSiah Maybe Shun could comment on that. I read somewhere that Japan seems very high-tech, but from a 1980's perspective. As if technology is everywhere but seems to be stuck in the late 90s.
Japan used to be the best technologicallly advanced country during the world war but they stopped inventing that much rn. So “lesser” countries like Vietnam and South Korea are catching up and surpassing them
For how tech savvy Japan is, a lot of their business practice is outdated in this age. I used to work for a real estate company in Tokyo, and we still have to make faxes or sign minor contracts on paper - and we would sign hundreds of those per day. We could've just gotten tablets and signed documents electronically, which would've saved tons on paper, printing, and storage. When I brought this up at a meeting, they looked at me as if I was some crazy radical and gave me like a 30 min speech on why the old system works. I think it's mostly because of how stubborn they are to change. Yes, it worked perfectly 30 years ago, but we aren't in the 20th century anymore.
I’m Japanese.I think so too very much. I can’t understand why Japanese people don’t use them.Maybe, they don’t like change. I’m not. Only a few of them are aware of that, though. By the way, Is my English strange?
@@オクラ大明神-o2n I would say it's good - I can understand you perfectly, but there are definitely places that you can improve on. For starters, try combining sentences so that you are not using multiple short sentences. とはいえ、僕の日本語が下手ので、けしてマウントを取るつもりではない
@@オクラ大明神-o2n "i think so too very much" doesn't sound natural, I'd write that as " I’m Japanese, and I agree with you." or "I'm Japanese, and I also notice that." or "I'm Japanese, and I also think about that very much." In "Maybe, they don’t like change. I’m not.", I'd rewrite that as "Maybe they don't like change, but I personally don't think like that." or "Maybe they don't like change, but I personally am not against change." So just like what the other person said, you need to improve on noticing when to combine sentences so that they sound more natural. Also to properly use some terms ("so too very" put together like that is odd, "I also think very much..." is better).
Japanese ppl: "Our people work like 16 hours 6 days a week and sometimes don't even have enough free time to go sleep at home." Also Japanese ppl: "The machines need their beauty sleep from 8pm to 7pm!"
The robots have taken over and are secretly promoting robot rights over human ones. The people running the show are either synths or brainwashed humans. Why rights for a vending machine even though robots aren't that prevalent in society? Its to set a precedent for the future.
Japanese rank 21st in the world for hours worked per annum. Most Japanese work 35~40 hours a week. Here's the data as compiled by OECD: data.oecd.org/emp/hours-worked.htm
@@TheCollectiveHexagon Yes, but to reduce the possibility of robbery, they don't restock the machines after midnight. They do it in the middle of the day. Then shut them down @ 6pm. I should say they "did" it in the middle of the day, as most ATMs are now 24 hours.
I would feel that way had I not grown up with the mother I did. She bought herself the Christmas gifts she wanted for herself every year when she did the shopping. Then she'd wrap them up, put our names on the from section of the card, and then jokingly announce stuff like "look what you got me for Christmas kids!"
"There's too much paperwork in Japan" - Because you haven't seen Italy... we have paperwork to keep track of paperwork used to keep track of other paperwork. In quadruple copy.
That actually sounds pretty funny. Do italians know the first paperwork that got tracked by paperwork that got tracked by paperwork that got tracked...?
Who the hell would imagine that the country with the most robots in the world, a country who develops a lot of tech every year, would want handwritten CVs
I sometimes think about that too. I've been to Japan for the first time in 2019 and what I noticed was how they're living in two different 'timelines' in one place. Like you mentioned they are very much out there in terms of technology, yet very traditional in terms of their interactions with each other. I'd like to comment on the writing vs printing thing. In my opinion at least, other than the handwriting thing, Japanese people tend to look at the smallest things and make meaning out of it. While it is convenient (and practical for most of us) to just print out a resume and hand it in, Japanese people might think that writing it by hand would make it seem more like you are very serious and sincere about applying for the position since you went through all the trouble of writing it instead of just using a printer. Much like how Japanese girls tend to make homemade chocolate for the guy they like on Valentine's Day rather than buy it from somewhere, or how home-cooked meals/lunches are very appreciated rather than store bought ones. It might be that they see value and sincerity in the extra effort instead of just doing stuff the easy way. It's interesting, but they need to loosen up too in some aspects. Homemade cooking and stuff are understandable, but writing a bunch of resumes? That's a big nope for my already crappy handwriting that gradually degrades the longer I write. 😂
@@PopCulturePooka To be fair, I still use the fax machine to place a few of my orders. It's just easy to do. I have to go into a custom app and write out a PO. Get that signed off, run it through a scanner, and then fax it off if it's one of the 2 places I fax to, everything else I order online. I still have to write up the PO's and get them signed off and scanned, and then those scanned, moved over to the right folder, and rename then with the PO#, who I order it from and what it's for. That way if need be, they can find a digital copy quickly, instead of looking through the paper copies. It does help me if I need to order the same part once again. I can generally find if from the name I called the file in the past of what it's for. I can then find who I ordered it from and the part number. We still live in a paper world. I still get my emails, but I generally ignore them for a while. Anything important I get texted on my phone.
@@jbdragon3295 Fair enough. There is still a time and place for faxes these day. But Japans obsession with fax machines is a bit of a long running joke among the expat crowd in Japan. Like, the Eikaiwa I worked for until early last year, to request holidays, you filled out a Word document form, printed it, got your branch managers hanko, faxed it to area manager for their hanko, who would fax it back for final sign off, then faxed to head office. Ridiculous when online forms exist. Sites like The Rising Wasabi constantly poke fun at the idea. It's kind of one of the shining examples of the inefficiency inherent in Japanese companies and bureaucracy.
The resume writing is definitely annoying. I remember sitting in a cafe in Tokyo and a girl next to me had just finished the whole page when her boyfriend came with a cup of tea.. and spilled a little drop on the side of the paper -- so a she had to write everything again. It's really crazy!
I know a guy who got mad when i folded an application as if they not except it for some reason. so now i try take a folder to a place to apply to store it so not fold any lol.
Every time I would stay in Japan with my wife, and we'd have to go to the local council office to fill out random papers. For hours! Literally doing nothing! Just shuffling papers, walking around getting papers, filling out papers, stacking papers! I'm like hey guys! What is this the 60s?! **EDIT - I just got back from my first trip to Japan in 4 years and I can report that nothing has changed at the local council office. Still piles of paper on all the desks, still took over an hour, still needed 5 different workers to complete the task!
@@adeptavatar9394 Japan has great capacity to innovate but they hold dearly to old traditions. This is what makes Japanese culture so rich and complex, and also why it is so hard to truly understand as an outsider. Another aspect is that Japanese culture has very strong cultural guidelines regarding questioning the established way of thinking. For example, try having a conversation with a Japanese person about why they call some green things blue!
Yeah I had that! My handwriting isn't the best but they told me to start the paperwork all over again but it was so frustrating as it was a small mistake and had to wait in the queue. It was suppose to take 30 min but I spent a total of 5 hours in there. What a nightmare!
The gift thing sounds like it suuuuuuuuuucks, I hate receiving or sending gifts to people that mutually just dislikes or are indifferent towards one another. It's a waste of money, esp if it doesn't actually do anything to relations (despite the rationale)
Not the mention the fact that you may be receiving a shitty gift of something you may not even want/like, while you may have spend more time and effort buying something which may be more expensive or thoughtful towards the other person and for the other person not to really care… …I mean, it is one thing going through it like once every few years una gift exchange at work with a co-worker or colleague but it must suck to go through that every fricking year with "relatives" while in reality it is really someone you don't really know and who you don't even get to see nor appreciate or care about, I understand why it sucks for sure…
Nope ,it is really good if you think about it, if there are many relatives of yours that you do care about,visiting them or talking to them for no reason can be really hard,sending gifts is the most effective and quickest way to show that you do care about them, of course in some senarios it may seem annoying but ,you will feel it's value when it is not there
@@seven4280 The matter is not whether you send gifts to your relatives or not, it's a matter of rather being genuine and doing something out of pure care and love of others (family members in this case) and not because if is a tradition which you are tied to or because it is a duty…
Is that why my German father in law kept ALL HIS PAPER WORK from the time his family landed in Canada during WW2? It's a German thing? Lol.... 😘❤ RIP Opa.... We sure miss you...
In Japan and Germany paperwork is meant to improve organization, in Brazil there's a lot too, but it's meant to leech as much money from people as possible
Yeah, Papierkram AND cash. Very often you have to have cash in Germany. You can be happy if a debit card or EC gets accepted. Quite different to all surrounding countries in Europe.
I love that he's honest about what it's like living there and not in a romanticizing nature or overly negative. I find that American UA-camrs who live in Japan have a different perspective than someone who's lived there for a while/was born there. It's a major factor in why we experience cultural shock when visiting Japan and is a huge reason why a lot of people move back to the US.
Bruh I live in Costa Rica and Americans LOVE the places in here where there is literally nothing, like the nearest supermarket is miles aways and the streets are shit shows. For a Costa Rican living in a place like that is hell, but for them it is just the best place in the world... Obviously when you have tons of cash anywhere in the world is the best place in the world
@@luism2754 I don't know - I like going to a place far (but not too far) from civilization on vacation (for me, that's someplace in the Alps in Austria), but I definitely wouldn't want to _live_ there. So I kind of see both sides.
its like news... foreign news people who report negatively about your country don't really know what they are talking about. how can one tell how it really is in a country if they haven't even lived there for a few years? most of them haven't even really been to countries they report on... they have "local" PAID sources....
Im not a Japanese, however I've been living here in Tokyo for over a decade. And one thing that I still find weird is that the excessive amount of apologizing that the people do. As for the raw fish..I freakin' LOVE them ! 😘😘
My teacher lived in Japan for many years he had a "gift closet" his students, coworkers, bosses, wife's younger family would come and give him some little gift like soap, candies, etc right? But you cannot open them in front of the gifters, it's kinda rude, and you're expected to give a gift to anyone when you go to their homes. He never opened the presents except to check they wouldn't spoil and then just regift them.
It's a cultural thing many Asians still have Giving those gifts is like showing appreciation or respect, common when it comes to adults, especially if you haven't met them from a long time. A little show of appreciation isn't all at all wrong don't you think so? Honestly, that teacher is a lucky person as it means he/she is being accepted, and giving those gift away isn't at all wrong when you really don't need them. Can't deny that it's also a dying thing as it really did become something like a "Mandatory thing to do" rather than "giving gift to appreciate/show respect to people you care or are indebted to"
@@wellmakeitworth1316 firstly my teacher was not ungrateful. He was explaining the tradition to us and allowing us to hear a fun personal story from his past. He was originally from France, and lived in Japan in the 80's and everyone regifted non-perishables. The soaps, candles, the decorative paper bundles. They're all bought in bulk to give to hosts at parties. It isn't disrepectful.
I love Japanese people. Growing up in grade school I had two close friends that were Japanese. Jimmy is a first generation Japanese-American. Mark came straight from Japan and could hardly speak a word of English. Mark was brilliant in science and went on to do some interesting things in that arena. I was best man at Jimmy's wedding. I worked for a Japanese owned company for several years and had a close relationship with the GM. Japanese are loyal friends and their word is gold. I miss that kind of bond.
@@Cherry-jv1su older generation are sometimes racist against chinese people since they're pretty much competing to be the best in the asian countries, sometimes to korean people as well. depends where you live. a lot of japanese kids in the countryside are scared of americans because of guns and drugs and shit, i guess there's good reason for that. but i would as a country, no, japan is not a racist country . they have racist people like everywhere else, yes, but far less than america for example. also they're much nicer if you show that you know some japanese.
@@kentobreyfogle9598 ok that means they have reason for that I understand it thx for help bro i am really glad after reading your comment😊😃 Thx for giving me your time stay safe take care peace ✌️✌️
Having worked in Japanese company in the past, the number 1 practice I absolutely hate is having to act busy by staying in the office late even after you've completed all necessary task.
Yeah, it's weird how the Japanese can be so smart, and yet so unreasonable. The better way is obvious to many, and Microsoft (in Japan) has found great success by limiting the hours people can work. They love it so much that they produce MORE in less hours. It should catch on.
There's a good book, "Bullshit Jobs" by an anthropologist named David Graeber that talks about that phenomenon and why pointless things like that are so detrimental; if you get the chance I HIGHLY recommend it
The only thing I would probably hate in Japan is to work 10-12 hours every day plus traveling between home and workplace. It is insane to work that much every day, 8 hours of work a day is more than enough already!
*You hit two out of my big three:* • Salaryman working longer hours than the ATM. • Cost of network access-how convenient for the telcos that they can forget their senile nationalism just long enough to ignore how cheap, fast, and ubiquitous network access is _in Korea._ • KEY MONEY! Aaaaargh! I'm glad you didn't talk about it, my blood is already boiling
@@vadimsbelovs8208 *It's an institutionalised bribe* amounting to three- to six months' rent in large housing markets. It's quite distinct from (and required on top of) the deposit in that it is considered a gift to the landlord and is categorically non-refundable.
one of the greatest things about UA-cam is randomly finding some channel like this and enjoying the content and presenter. I have no idea how I got to this video, however I have the sneaking suspicion I'll be back ;)
As a Canadian who lived in Japan for a while, the #1 thing I hated the most was the fact that people can smoke in restaurants and bars. I'm used to smoking being banned in public places and it was really gross. #2 was probably the lack of online banking and having to pay bills at the ATM at 7-Eleven.
I went to a nightclub in yokohama in February and I smelled like smoke for days. It was insane being in that enclosed area FILLED with smoke for such a long time. Smokers would love it though.
they recently implemented a bunch of smoking laws, in tokyo most restaurants aren't allowed to have smoking areas unless they are completely separated from the non smoking now. outside of tokyo its a little more relaxed but there are still some laws that was recently added as well.
Japanese cash culture has had a huge effect on me here in Scotland. Because I grew up using cash in Japan, that is how I learned to manage my finances. I take money from an ATM, I know how much I have on me and how much I am spending/have spent. With a credit/debit card, especially with contactless payment, I worry I would be spending more money than I thought. All my friends in Scotland tease me because they all use online banking and E-pay apps, while I still whip out cash. Also you left out the thing I hated most about Japan - because it is a female only issue. Being groped on public transport! I am so happy to live in a country where I can take the train or subway into work without the 50/50 chance of being molested on my way to work. I dont miss that at all.
wait its just expected to have a high chance of being molested on a daily commute? Wow, yikes... If that happened in my country, the whole bus/train would stop and police would get the perp, along with being publicly shamed by other passengers. edit: typos
@Rezky Yes mainly because rush hour trains in Japan are so busy you are packed on so tightly you are all squashed together. In that environment, wandering hands are hard to track. No way of proving who the offender was as it could be any of the 15 people squashed in around you. It got so bad that train companies put on "female only" carriages, these fill up fast and if you miss getting on then you take your chances packed in with the other cattle. The Japanese word for these people is chaikan.
@Kaihlik Haha ScotRail gets a bad reputation but their trains are fast and comfortable. The ticket prices are just insanely high! Something wrong when a train ticket from Glasgow to Mallaig is the same as an air flight to Europe!
I think that's a worldwide thing. Same for Portugal. And the people working in the pharmacies can read them as if they're crispy clear. World mysteries.
@@andregon4366 indeed,I don't even know how they can read those weird scribbled lines all over the paper,but hey if it confirms that I need all this shit,I'm gucci (just don't expect me to be able to read it aswell :v also obligatory Portugal Caralho)
@@AstroMartine they have it because during med school they have to keep up with teacher teachings so basically they have to match their writing speed to the teacher monologue speed, specially in Portugal because it's ultra demanding and one of the highest course entry grades you can have; also most of our teachers don't give 2 shits about you...
@マナンナンアナメ I work with websites and let me tellyou that java and images websites died a long time ago, dont confuse them with JavaScript also if your browser is slow how about you get a new computer and better internet connection
I’ve had to navigate these 90s HTML websites for work and they are a f****ing nightmare! I work in digital marketing and know how to work the backend... I still scratch my head with those websites.
I understood how much paperwork there is in Japan after seeing that Naruto's Hokage desk is never empty and the guy has to live on cup ramen instead of his wife's fabulous cooking
Maybe it’s a safety thing ? 🤷🏾♂️🤷🏾♂️🤷🏾♂️ here in US it’s common to not visit the ATM at night…. It’s a easy place to get robbed…. Your back is turned… there’s a point where your wallet and cash is out so it’s easier to take…. I know crime in Japan is almost non existent especially compared to US but that’s like the only logical reason I can think of. And that transaction fee happens here too.. if I don’t want to pay it I have to find my banks atms
@@jordinhocharles There’s actually a lot of ATM’s in Japan. I don’t understand what people complain about. Every single conbini has one and conbini’s are 24/7 every single day of the week. I just don’t get it 😂 Also, most places actually accept card these days. Like 90% of places, in Tokyo anyway. Rural may be different.
I lived in Japan for 8 years and the thing that frustrated me the most was all things we HAD to pay... pension, health, residence tax, municipal tax, landlord gift money, etc etc. They were each so unjustifiably expensive! The pension system especially is daylight robbery.
@@aerime I'm from Australia - at least here you and your employer pay into your own account. The trouble is that for young people in Japan they're not really guaranteed anything when they retire because the system relies entirely on the younger generations. My Japanese friends are genuinely worried about it and have their own savings as backup. Plus as a foreigner, if you return to your home country, you can only claim about half of what you paid over a maximum 3 years. Since I lived there 8 years, I lost 5 years of payments... i.e. A LOT
Excellent Shunchan, I learned a lot about not so well documented Japanese traditions from this video. Literally, everything you mentioned I had never heard before.
yeah, I never got the thing about idols' blood types being revealed for their fans to know. In Western culture, that would be stuff the top-tier obsessive stalker fans know.
"Because there are shitty people with beautiful handwriting, there are beautiful people *like me* with horrible handwriting" i have never related to something so much in my entire life
I have really good penmanship but I am a terrible worker I admit it, the writing thing is complete BS, if they went by penmanship I could land a nice cushy job
Graphology is actually a science; people with shitty handwriting are usually smart with an high IQ whereas people who write with nice big girlish letters are considered dumb and slow !
I always think it’s interesting when people talk about aspects of their country’s culture you don’t normally hear about. Still, I’d definitely love to travel to Japan when I can
Yes. I would hate all the traditions that *must* be adhered to. I don't think I could stand waiting for the lights to change, even though the road is perfectly clear and safe to cross.
I love fatty tuna! \(^w^) / I enjoy raw fish in general. But hey to anyone out there if you don't like it that's fine. :) 👍 lol, where I'm from I think the norm is people liking barbecue and tex mex food. I like those and other types of food but I enjoy asian food a heck of a lot more. I hope one day my husband and I can go to Japan enjoy the culture, sites, and cuisine.
Surprising. I have always thought that Japan is an extremely modern country, where everything is done as wisely and efficiently as possible. On the other hand, I think that the Japanese love traditions. That is another admirable thing. These two traits seem to collide and continue to compete with each other.
There’s a difference between practicing traditions and just being inefficient. Things like tea-pouring rituals and celebrating traditional festivals are good, but fuck the absolute fuck ton of unnecessary paperworks required for just about everything, like damn even a gym membership requires paperwork lmao what
My favorite parts: “You wanna date someone you need paperwork “ “These MOTHER FREAKING TOILETS” “I cannot do Asian squats” “Those atm machines need a break from being machines so they can be machines again in the morning “ “Aka people you don’t really know or care about” 😂😂😂😂😂😂 I personally love sushi but it is overrated 😭😭tbhh
Thankfully 7-11 ATMS are operating and bilingual 24/7. However, it seems (in my experience!) Lawson's ATMS only have English as menu option until about 11pm or so. Many times I have gone in to a Lawson after 11 and it says "No English service available!" Was there a little human inside translating and they go home at 11?!
@@roku_nine Fortunately, my bank is one of the 7-11 Bank partners and using it is same as using an ATM at my bank. However, it is kinda weird that there are various fee structures for: using non-bank ATM during hours the bank is open, using non-bank ATM after bank closes, using non-bank ATM for deposit vs withdrawal. I have even been to an ATM that charged a slightly higher ATM fee if you chose "English guidance" over just using it in Japanese.
That is the most arbitrary coding feature I’ve ever heard of??? Why make the extra effort to turn off access to the English language version at a certain time???
@@Yukimaru0 I dont understand, what that card has to do with the systematic problem of exploiting workers and the public mentality that supports it and causes countless suicides, depressions etc...
Mad respect he studied in America (learned a large amount of English) and figured out the one thing that links us all: I understand why my country does certain things, but its stupid and I hate it; but its home yo.
same with my mother! the forced being right-handed is the dumbest thing ever. I'm also left-handed, luckily I didn't have the re-education in this regard!
I live in Japan and I think the most frustrating thing is that there are no trash cans on the streets. Only at stations and convenience stores. And it also doesnt make any sense that you can smoke inside a restaurant but not on the street in the open.
I think they do that to keep the streets "clean". I visited Vienna( Austria) a while back and noticed that littering was more common near street corners. Coincidentally, this where they had garbage bins. This also applied to cigarette butts, they were more prevalent near cigarette refuse canisters they had attached to light posts and traffic signals. But, I don't know maybe I am full of it.
It never bothered me. Keep onto the trash until you come home or throw it out at a convenience store. They're literally everywhere after all. The smoking bothered me the most. I'm confused as to why in a country where places are small, lack windows and/or ventilation, smoking is totally a-ok.
The gift exchange thing reminds me of a thing that happened sometimes during Christmas here in the US (at least, I knew people that did it), where they sent out Christmas cards with a big family portrait on it to pretty much everyone they knew regardless of how close they were. I think that tradition isn't much of a thing anymore, especially not with the advent of the internet, but it was wild.
Ugh my family has a really annoying tradition of sending out thank you cards for every single xmas or birthday gift. I always refused and just got in trouble instead but what a complete waste of time. "Oh, thanks for the sweater that is ugly and doesn't even fit me, great aunt twice removed that I've literally never seen in my life". On to the next 40 cards to write.
As a foreigner living in Tokyo for over 7 years with three "looking for job" periods under my belt I can tell you the handwritten resume is the most annoying thing I've ever had to do in my entire life!! A lot of money spent on buying the resume sets and sending them through the post. The worst part is that 50% of the sent resumes don't even receive an answer (at least a rejection letter) and companies assume is okay to behave like jerks when you are already stressed enough not being able to find a job. The ATM comment was so on point :)))) I also know so many Japanese that live with this constant fear of "a big one" " a huge earthquake" that is due to happen. Just live your life and enjoy it! You are more likely to die while looking into your phone than from an earthquake...I've really enjoyed this video! Thank you!
I agree with the writing resumes being the “most annoying part”, but about costing too much money... seriously? It’s ¥110 for 10 to 20 sheets. Of course sending those shits costs far more, but the sheets per se are cheap. (Living in japan for 11 years here).
@@touya I was taught by my university professors in Japan and my Japanese friends experienced in looking for jobs in Tokyo not to apply on 100yen shop resume. Good quality ones cost 250-300yen (including taxes) for 5 x 2-pages sets. Adding the color photos for each sent resume and the postage fee and to some 30 companies (if you’re lucky) believe me it will cost you. You want a good job at a good company make the effort and do it right. My recent looking for job experience lasted months due to Covid19. Less than half of the sent resumes were online and I applied to 50-60 companies. From my own experience, sending out handwritten resumes costs money and when you don’t have it, well... You need determination and the sense of doing things right to find a good job in Japan. But then again, it is my own experience and not going to start some debate online for some resume SHEETS:))))
Thats a weakness of the japanese work phillosophy, do things because they always did them like that, even if they are less effizient and make no sense when there are other way better options avaiable.
@Blackdragon Sure, it sucks. But you know what sucks more? Spending all day being treated like a machine only to find out that the ATM machine has more off hours than you do!
The gift giving to relatives who live far away from you to say that you haven't forgotten about them . . . is part of tradition yes but if you connect with a certain family member who lives far away from you , you should send them something sweet/kind that you can keep the connection with them because when you get older it is helpful to have them to speak to and visit , so after I watched your video again this makes sense to me. . . Sending love from South Africa ✌️♥️🌹
About the handwriting resume part. I swear Doctors would be failing to get a job anywhere because if it is like here in Australia, Doctors hand writing is incredibly messy
Hah, this stereotype makes me cry because people refuse to believe some medical students or doctors belong to their profession just because they write well. While some doctors really have sloppy handwriting, others have bad handwriting on their scripts for one of the following reasons (I only speak from personal experience as a medical intern who was once a pharmacist): 1. (true in two countries where I've worked) Doctors don't know how to actually spell a drug (in cases where scripts are handwritten) so they just write the first two to three letters and wing the others with a scribble. That's the real secret to pharmacists being able to decipher doctor scrawls. 2. Doctors see too many patients; high turn-over leads to having to rush writing scripts, charting, patient intakes, et c. 3. Doctors developed carpal tunnel syndrome/repeated stress injuries on their writing hand due to writing too much, too fast. Medical school (especially before tablets and wireless digital note-taking) required us to write a lot of notes in rapid speeds. My handwriting is very legible (ask everyone I've done Pokemon Generation 6 redemptions for when I was in med school) but it went to crap whenever I was in a neuroscience class. 4. Some surgeons write scripts on their non-dominant hand so as not to strain their dominant hand and reserve it for surgical precision (not common practise, but some attendings do this.)
I'm not even fully Asian -- half-Chinese -- and my cousins and friends wonder what kind of an "Asian" I am that I don't like sushi and sashimi. I just like hot, cooked food... So, yeah... I'd also be that person sitting in the corner eating udon.
I mean, people associate raw fish with asia, cause it has been spread worldwide, while there are so many good hot dishes from asia that are absolutely delicious!
and lets be real... curry udon is the best. you could burry me in curry. or in udon. or in both. i dont care xD im no fan of sushi either. i do like fish but indeed not raw.
You likely got it right considering Japan's heydays were the 80's before the crash of their economy in the early 90's and the "Lost Decade" after it crashed.
just squat lower, im from malaysia Squat toilet and sitting ones still available even in high-end places , squat toilet bowl deaign is bigger here compared to Japanese narrow ones Squatting when diarrhea is actually more satisfying
Communicating is so exhausting in Japan. You have to speak to people in completely different ways depending on her/his dentity and status, even a "Good morning" or "Thank you" If you write E-mails in Japanese, almost half of the content is only for being polite and literally useless
That's something I noticed. You LITERALLY cannot talk to a person without automatically positioning yourself on some sort of social heirarchy in relation to them. It's extra weird to me as an Australian where EVERYONE calls each other by their first names, and are generally very egalitarian. Even a person doing a menial job like a cashier or cleaner, you still speak to them as a social equal, likewise the CEO or manager is still addressed as Clive or Mike or Jane or whatever, nor Mister or worse, Mr CEO or Mr President.
To be fair, in Mexico we have a somewhat similar culture, especially on corporate environments. It's VERY common to have a whole paragraph at the start of an email saying stuff like "I hope you're well and you were able to get some well deserved rest on this last weekend. It would be very kind of you if you could set aside some spare minutes of your precious time to do X, if that's not too much trouble" and all this over-polite shenanigans. As a foreigner living in Mexico, I've had countless discussions with people from my team saying that's just a waste of everybody's time, but they still do it out of tradition.
I have read that during the occupation period after the Pacific war, some GIs with a knack for language would become fairly fluent from listening to the conversations of bar hostesses. When they later spoke to Japanese men using the same style, the men would pretend not to understand partly because they didn't want to insult the American by laughing. It was very funny to hear a big strong warrior using the language of low status women.
@@calebfuller4713 In most (if not all) countries, reporters address government officials by their titles not by their nicknames like Joe, Jane, Betsy, etc. Likewise when addressing doctors or professors; their peers might use first names but most people say "doctor" or "professor". This is normal; weird is having no social hierarchy. Do you address your mother by her first name? I bet she uses your first name though.
Best video I have ever seen about Japan. I've been here for 16 years and agree with everything you said! I personally love Sushi but I get the pressure. New Subscriber.
ATM machines in Nihon: *Need a rest from being machines so that they can be machines again in the morning* ATM machines in my country: *Apparently, most of them are humans*
I think that if Japan gets rid of it's extremely toxic work culture (long unproductive hours, importance of the "social aspect" of work, overreliance on outdated hierarchies and technology...etc.) they'd be golden. There's so much that they get right.
I am an American electrician and we buy new robots from Japan to replace old antiquated robots then they sell the old robots back to Japan. Has always been strange to me they don't always use the labor saving equipment they make?
There's a more general problem that this is a subset of, peer pressure. Pressure from parents, pressures from teachers, pressure from classmates, pressure from coworkers, pressure from in-laws....it goes on and on. People in Japan often spend their lives living up to the expectations of others and quietly wishing they could just make their own decisions. That's the biggest drawback I saw when I lived there.
Great video Shun. I am a Japanese American who lived in Japan for 8 years. Although my Japanese American family practices a lot of old school Japanese ethics/traditions, I was very shocked that most Nihonjin's don't don mochi tsuki in Japan. It's pretty common here in Hawaii, even to this day. Keep up the great content. Every video I watch, I miss Japan! Super stoked you were one of those few Japanese who wanted to experience the American life... we have so much to learn from Japan.
I taught English in Japan back in 94 to 97. I'm really impressed with this guy's English and I can relate to everything he's saying. They even had those squat toilets in the middle school faculty bathrooms, too. Every time I was so afraid I was going to miss. I'd say the one thing I hated was how there was so much smoking in the faculty room at schools and they'd make a kid come in and clean out the ashes. All kids participate in sooji, a period during the day where kids cleaned the school which was a cool idea, but making the kids deal with that gross can of ashes and cigarette butts...ugh. Great experience overall though.
@@vishal0thomas The big companies reflect Japanese society as a whole. They teach kids to conform to Japanese society and it’s expectations regardless of whether they work for a big Company or not.
@@Kikan319 I'm talking about Shun specifically, not the entirety of the Japanese people that "don't" like it. Shun mentioned he can't eat raw fish and that's what I only meant in my comment
As an Indian, Pro of My Country: It is one of the oldest civilization of the world. Con of My Country: It is one of the oldest civilization of the world.
Jokes aside and this may seems rude, but if your country doesn't have those brainless shitty simps, your country could be the best Asian besides Japan and Singapore. Sorry for being rude
you and china need to get into a war to get rid of your excessive populations. seriously, guys, a billion and a half people each? only enough plumbing for 3 quarters of the country. stop having so many kids. you literally have as much population in your country as north central and south america and europe combined?!
@@jebes909090 Hey, don't blame us for having head start over most of the world by 1000s of years. This is what happens when you are an isolated civilization across the globe and nothing to do. 🤣🤣
It's funny though because I'm an American (non-weeb) who lived over there for a while. And I gotta say I had the same exact gripes as SHUNchan it's almost uncanny
My best friend has horrendous handwriting and she is such a wonderful person. Even if she was trying her best, the result would look like a 1st grader writing 😅
@Halo Kay Same dude, my grandma forced me to write right handed even though I'm actually left-handed, but I don't hold a grudge against her for doing it since it was a long time ago
i lived in Japan for 3.5 years. I absolutely loved it and miss living there, but the things i found most frustrating were: hanko- banks and businesses required a hanko which i obviously didn't have as a foreigner so it caused a lot of frustration, having to pull teeth to have a meaningful conversation- people were so reluctant to express their opinion which made creating real relationships difficult, and the prevalence of "outdated" thinking- it's still a pretty patriarchal society with restrictive gender roles and it generally welcomes "visitors" but not foreigners- my co-worker who was black had to deal with A LOT of shit that i never encountered because of her skin.
you are honest, as least you shared what you dont like about Japan, whereas many people hated their own country but dont dare to speak out, only talk they love their countries but in their hearts there are many things they hated their countries
Well, the thing about the squat toilets actually makes a little sense, since the squat position is the most healthy and natural posture to release the bowels. It's been studied the fact that the unnatural posture that the modern toilets make you do, could be the most common cause of constipation, hemorroids, and other bowel problems. So I guess those toilets are actually healthier to use. But they could come up with a solution to merge both toilets benefits as well.
In my humble opinion, raising legs with a footstool while sitting on a regular toilet seem more plausible than using squat toilet. I don't have healthy intestines, so it's possible to spray diarrhea all over the squat toilet and even away of it. With a footstool and a regular toilet, I don't need to have any concern about it, and it's even more natural, as you mentioned!
I see there are already a couple replies about it, but as soon as I read your post saying they should come up with a solution, I wanted to also reply that they did: footstools.
True. Squat toilets are the actual 'regular' ones for most of Asia whereas the ones Shun chan says are regular are actually called 'western'. I have both in my house and I generally prefer the western one (cuz it's better for using phone lol) but if it is occupied and I have to use the squat one, I actually feel my bowels emptying a lot more easily and at the end I feel completely empty compared to when I use the western toilet. Also, not being able to use phone means you don't waste time :P
“I think sushi and raw fish are overrated” dude I freakin love you like finally someone who gets it like for god sake it’s overrated and my frnds start cussing sayin whatchu talking about ugh
Doctors' handwriting says a lot about their personality and character. It says I'm too busy saving your effing life to worry about my effing handwriting. :)
I think he's misinterpreting why they want handwritten resumes. If you are manually handwriting all of those resumes, and in ink pen too, then it took you lots of time and effort. So therefore, by simply having a handwritten, ink resume, it says that you are willing to put in effort for a job. This sounds like the "boomer" way of thinking in the USA. It's all about hard work, and that's not really a bad thing at all, but you may be tossing out really great potential employees simply because they didn't want to conform to your "hard work" standards.
@@ShatteredGlass916 the squat position is the correct one but the squat toilet is unnecessary i use a small stepping stool in the bathroom to raise ur legs a bit i would say much better than a better toilet seat or a squat toilet.
Doing business with older Japanese people was often difficult for me. They were not open to adjust their strategies to fit the target country's habit and culture. There were a lot of unnecessary rules and they were especially anal when it comes to things like brand guidelines. It's almost like I'm saying "hey, this is how you get more money in my country" and they replied "no, we use our way, who cares about more money" (and I was like why were you expanding in the first place?) Having said that, I did have a couple of good experiences with the younger, smaller companies, they were punctual, detailed & very open
I'm more surprised at the fact that he is giving a clear and direct opinion. Don't get me wrong, I don't like it when people do not speak their minds, even if I don't agree. I don't want to be tiptoeing around, I think is more mature to be able to talk about differences without a problem. A disagreement shouldn't be a moment to collide, it should be a moment to learn something new. How can people be tolerant or critic if they don't practice it? That's the thing that surprised me the most about Japan. Though, the thing I may like the most is the "mind your own business" mindset they've got, that's totally a thumbs up.
The mind your own business thing is nice until you realize how much it extends to people ignoring domestic violence, sexual harassment and other bullshit.
"Mind your own business" only applies when it would be troublesome or "shameful" to get involved in a situation. This is why people usually don't speak up when someone is being harassed on the street or on the train. But then Japanese folks will randomly ask some of the most boundary-violating inappropriate questions when they feel like it - the complete opposite of minding their own business. It boils down to a general lack of empathy for the situations that others are experiencing.
I completely agree with you. To have a progressive Society this is needed. The problem is in America at least from my experience everyone is deep inside their feelings. Feelings are more important than facts. How ignorant is that
Joshua Chandra I think that’s just common everywhere you go. People care most about their own feelings since it’s not always possible to understand other people. So we just end up with endless cycles of hurt.
handwritten resume?! oh god, i would be unemployed in Japan lmaoo but seriously, it's funny that Japan is generally seen as a 'high-tech' country, but in reality there are still many parts which are old fashioned. I also heard that they prefer sending fax instead of using e-mails in offices, if I remember correctly 😱 On a side note, can't wait for SHUNchan to get to 100K subscribers! 💯💪 let's go!
In Australia I've got an Unlimited calls and texts plan for US$7 a month. That's BYO phone of course. It's pretty handy when your closest family member lives 2,200km away.
*How to properly get a seat on the train in Japan:*
Step 1: Find an open seat
Step 2: Offer the seat to an elderly person already standing
Step 3: They will politely refuse
Step 4: Take your seat
Ayeyi Art , this is how it's done, Son! On buses in Chicago I still do. May you be blessed for your kindness.
@@auberjean6873 God bless you too!!!
@@jonathannuamah3296 Thanks! Need all the help I can get these days! Be well.
Lmao
That's absolutely common in Czech Republic and from what I observed, in rest of the Europe too. But you can see it in any public transportation, not just trains.
The only case where would noone blinks an eye if you wouldn't let sit anyone, even old people/pregnant women etc., is when you bought a specific seat in a train or a bus (that's only possible for those which run to other cities/countries, not for public transport within the city).
Then it's solely up to you if you give up the seat for someone else, but some carriers charge extra money for reservation. And sometimes you cannot even buy the ticket without it.
"Apparently those ATM machines need a rest from being machines so that they can be machines again in the morning" - SHUNchan, Age of corona.
Age of Corona 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
now, we don't want a machine uprising, do we?
I had this same thought when half of the self check out stations in my grocery store were closed!
@@nicktankard1244 machines rights. don't want to overwork them.
Robots during the Robot uprising seeing Japan:
"Aha, we like you, we overthrow you last."
that moment when a vending machine gets more sleep than average japanese worker
HAHAHAHA
haha oh the irony
Daaammnn HAHAHA
surprisingly japanese and americans works nearly the same amount, and americans actually have less vacation time.
For the sake of truth, Vending machines are usually 244/7 there. Only ATMs need to sleep.
One thing that frustrated me working and living in rural Japan, was that my Japanese colleagues were always too polite to correct my Japanese. Polite is nice but that doesn't help you learn..
Yeah, in a way it carries over to online too. So many times I see someone say something in English incorrectly, and when I politely correct them, others come along saying things like "Hey lay off maybe English isn't their native language" as if correcting someone equates to coming down on them.
how about you pay your colleagues to correct you, with money or food.
Thats ironic. I once read about a girl in japan who commited suicide because she was bullied. She was bullied because she had trouble with the japanese language.
I agree. Too polite is not polite but disrespectful and annoying for lying in someone’s face just to make them feel good!
😂 that's my problem too as a former ESL teacher.. I hate correcting a student directly with their mistakes...i do it indirectly though without them noticing me that I am correcting their mistakes... I just hope they noticed it😆
Oh, those people with horrible handwriting, commonly known as DOCTORS
That is an interesting idea - they might select doctors based on their bad handwriting!
I’m a jobless teenager and have terrible handwriting
@@gman0047 then if you're living in Japan, ure in deep trouble. but lucky for you Japan have a truck kun so you can get isekaied to another world. :p
As a doctor's child, I can confirm they indeed have such a horrible handwriting, even thier children's handwriting is unreadable
I have a really bad handwriting and I wanted to become a doctor in Japan but that is a little hard cuz I don't have that big brain so I want be a M 1 A 2
N 3 G 4 A 5 A 6 R T 7 I 8 S 9 T.
Doctors around the world with horrible handwriting would starve in Japan 😂
unless they bring pharmacists with them ha!
@@sugepoola surely they could pay for someone to handwrite them all but seriously?
GOOD ONE!!! BRILLIANT!😂😂😂
As european can add that my father would probably fail in Japan because his handwriting was really bad and I inherit it. He was a leading engineer in a quite large company and was well known for his knowledge even amongst competing companies. Unfortaly for me I inherited only a bad writing. 😂
That's not cool they can educate themselves on the subject matter buy it wrong to judge them in a matter
"Apparently those ATM machines need a rest from being machines so that they can be machines again in the morning"
aww the japanese are so considerate even to objects
It's ATM....that's all. "ATM machine" is essentially saying "automatic teller machine machine". Learn how to speak English.
@@angelus_solus yeah I know. I'm just repeating it as quote exactly like what he said
@@angelus_solus
I speak 4 languages, not being a native English speaker and I would never give a flying fuck about (subtile) grammar mistakes if the shit I'm trying to express is understandable. Communication always works.
Best quote in the video
"ATM machines need a rest from being a machine, so that they can be machines again in the morning" that line made my day!!!!!!!!!!! lol
and the fact that he said this with a straight face. how is this not a meme circulating around yet
Somebody needs to put cash in them, right? Or maybe to prevent potential crimes overnight? Empty or locked out machine = no money to steal.
@@michaels3003 Yes. That takes five minutes and can be done at any time of the day. Security guards arrive with the cash, go in the back, put it in, leave. They don't need to close for that. Potential crimes overnight? Sure, in isolated areas but in cities where there is always people around? Like, why does it work well in every single country on Earth except Japan?
😂😂😂
My favorite quote from this lol
Being Japanese and not liking raw fish is like being Mexican and not liking spicy food. My wife is one of those Mexicans, lol
and i'm french and i don't like " bouillabaisse" even if i'm near marseille... there is every taste in the world!
I love spicy food
You beat me to it! I was about to comment the same thing.
My husband too! He can’t handle spice hardly at all!
I've met waaaaay too many Mexicans that don't like spicy food. So I'm not even surprised anymore. There's even a couple of facebook groups dedicated to such a phenomenon.
Can we appreciate how much time and work he's put into adding subtitles for an 11 minute bideo
That's not him... It's automatically translated.
That's why some of it are wrong...
@@sherling9730 No they're on the video not cc
bideo
still laughing at the bideo thing
Bideo ⭐️
Outside of Japan: Japan is so high tech.
Meanwhile in Japan: people handwriting their resume and withdrawing money to pay for everything thing.
And all business still being conducted by fax
.... and they still squat to shit
@@Seboss38 what.. so Indonesia is more modern than japan *mind-blowing*
@@RicardoSiah Maybe Shun could comment on that. I read somewhere that Japan seems very high-tech, but from a 1980's perspective. As if technology is everywhere but seems to be stuck in the late 90s.
Japan used to be the best technologicallly advanced country during the world war but they stopped inventing that much rn. So “lesser” countries like Vietnam and South Korea are catching up and surpassing them
For how tech savvy Japan is, a lot of their business practice is outdated in this age. I used to work for a real estate company in Tokyo, and we still have to make faxes or sign minor contracts on paper - and we would sign hundreds of those per day. We could've just gotten tablets and signed documents electronically, which would've saved tons on paper, printing, and storage. When I brought this up at a meeting, they looked at me as if I was some crazy radical and gave me like a 30 min speech on why the old system works.
I think it's mostly because of how stubborn they are to change. Yes, it worked perfectly 30 years ago, but we aren't in the 20th century anymore.
I’m Japanese.I think so too very much.
I can’t understand why Japanese people don’t use them.Maybe, they don’t like change. I’m not. Only a few of them are aware of that, though.
By the way, Is my English strange?
@@オクラ大明神-o2n I would say it's good - I can understand you perfectly, but there are definitely places that you can improve on. For starters, try combining sentences so that you are not using multiple short sentences.
とはいえ、僕の日本語が下手ので、けしてマウントを取るつもりではない
@@kidaf thanks!
@@オクラ大明神-o2n "i think so too very much" doesn't sound natural, I'd write that as " I’m Japanese, and I agree with you." or "I'm Japanese, and I also notice that." or "I'm Japanese, and I also think about that very much." In "Maybe, they don’t like change. I’m not.", I'd rewrite that as "Maybe they don't like change, but I personally don't think like that." or "Maybe they don't like change, but I personally am not against change." So just like what the other person said, you need to improve on noticing when to combine sentences so that they sound more natural. Also to properly use some terms ("so too very" put together like that is odd, "I also think very much..." is better).
@@felizminasilva6468 thanks!
Japanese ppl: "Our people work like 16 hours 6 days a week and sometimes don't even have enough free time to go sleep at home."
Also Japanese ppl: "The machines need their beauty sleep from 8pm to 7pm!"
The robots have taken over and are secretly promoting robot rights over human ones. The people running the show are either synths or brainwashed humans. Why rights for a vending machine even though robots aren't that prevalent in society? Its to set a precedent for the future.
@@danshakuimo :O
Japanese rank 21st in the world for hours worked per annum. Most Japanese work 35~40 hours a week. Here's the data as compiled by OECD: data.oecd.org/emp/hours-worked.htm
@@gordonbgraham Can't you take a fucking joke...
@@bruhwow A joke? Sure...A fucking joke? Not always
Japan: one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world
Also Japan: ATM's need to sleep at night
ಠ_ಠ
🤣🤣🤣🤣
They need to be re-stocked, because they don't actually print the money they dispense
@@gordonbgraham isnt it the same on all ATMS?
@@TheCollectiveHexagon Yes, but to reduce the possibility of robbery, they don't restock the machines after midnight. They do it in the middle of the day. Then shut them down @ 6pm. I should say they "did" it in the middle of the day, as most ATMs are now 24 hours.
@@gordonbgraham Ah is that why. I've heard people will just get excavating equipment (lying all over the place) and rip ATM machines apart.
The gift exchanging thing is exactly how I feel about Christmas gifts.
I would feel that way had I not grown up with the mother I did. She bought herself the Christmas gifts she wanted for herself every year when she did the shopping. Then she'd wrap them up, put our names on the from section of the card, and then jokingly announce stuff like "look what you got me for Christmas kids!"
@@Andrea-hw7xf 😭😭😭😭
@@iBoolGuy we thought it was pretty funny
@@Andrea-hw7xf
Aww :')
Too many ppl do it just because they have to, ruining the whole tradition.
Japanese marketing strategy: "Never change a running system."
basically that’s Japan in any occasion
shoganai :)
"There's too much paperwork in Japan" - Because you haven't seen Italy... we have paperwork to keep track of paperwork used to keep track of other paperwork. In quadruple copy.
Same thing in Greece. Only now due to covid have they started to make all sort of applications and stuff in digital form.
That actually sounds pretty funny. Do italians know the first paperwork that got tracked by paperwork that got tracked by paperwork that got tracked...?
We have XXI century. Time to change this old-fashioned paperwork.
You remembered to do the paperwork to write this right?
Welcome to India.
Who the hell would imagine that the country with the most robots in the world, a country who develops a lot of tech every year, would want handwritten CVs
Unimaginable😉
Dude... they still use fax machines for EVERYTHING. Email? What's that? We better print this document and fax it.
I sometimes think about that too. I've been to Japan for the first time in 2019 and what I noticed was how they're living in two different 'timelines' in one place. Like you mentioned they are very much out there in terms of technology, yet very traditional in terms of their interactions with each other. I'd like to comment on the writing vs printing thing. In my opinion at least, other than the handwriting thing, Japanese people tend to look at the smallest things and make meaning out of it. While it is convenient (and practical for most of us) to just print out a resume and hand it in, Japanese people might think that writing it by hand would make it seem more like you are very serious and sincere about applying for the position since you went through all the trouble of writing it instead of just using a printer. Much like how Japanese girls tend to make homemade chocolate for the guy they like on Valentine's Day rather than buy it from somewhere, or how home-cooked meals/lunches are very appreciated rather than store bought ones. It might be that they see value and sincerity in the extra effort instead of just doing stuff the easy way. It's interesting, but they need to loosen up too in some aspects. Homemade cooking and stuff are understandable, but writing a bunch of resumes? That's a big nope for my already crappy handwriting that gradually degrades the longer I write. 😂
@@PopCulturePooka
To be fair, I still use the fax machine to place a few of my orders. It's just easy to do. I have to go into a custom app and write out a PO. Get that signed off, run it through a scanner, and then fax it off if it's one of the 2 places I fax to, everything else I order online. I still have to write up the PO's and get them signed off and scanned, and then those scanned, moved over to the right folder, and rename then with the PO#, who I order it from and what it's for. That way if need be, they can find a digital copy quickly, instead of looking through the paper copies. It does help me if I need to order the same part once again. I can generally find if from the name I called the file in the past of what it's for. I can then find who I ordered it from and the part number.
We still live in a paper world. I still get my emails, but I generally ignore them for a while. Anything important I get texted on my phone.
@@jbdragon3295 Fair enough. There is still a time and place for faxes these day. But Japans obsession with fax machines is a bit of a long running joke among the expat crowd in Japan. Like, the Eikaiwa I worked for until early last year, to request holidays, you filled out a Word document form, printed it, got your branch managers hanko, faxed it to area manager for their hanko, who would fax it back for final sign off, then faxed to head office. Ridiculous when online forms exist.
Sites like The Rising Wasabi constantly poke fun at the idea.
It's kind of one of the shining examples of the inefficiency inherent in Japanese companies and bureaucracy.
The resume writing is definitely annoying.
I remember sitting in a cafe in Tokyo and a girl next to me had just finished the whole page when her boyfriend came with a cup of tea.. and spilled a little drop on the side of the paper -- so a she had to write everything again. It's really crazy!
I know a guy who got mad when i folded an application as if they not except it for some reason. so now i try take a folder to a place to apply to store it so not fold any lol.
🤣🤣🤣
Is the labour market so competitive in Japan that they fuss over time-consuming and inefficient things like writing up your resumes by hand?
Every time I would stay in Japan with my wife, and we'd have to go to the local council office to fill out random papers. For hours! Literally doing nothing! Just shuffling papers, walking around getting papers, filling out papers, stacking papers! I'm like hey guys! What is this the 60s?! **EDIT - I just got back from my first trip to Japan in 4 years and I can report that nothing has changed at the local council office. Still piles of paper on all the desks, still took over an hour, still needed 5 different workers to complete the task!
I can imagine you just screaming this
@@chels1801 They just need a more streamlined and automated system for some of these processes.
@@adeptavatar9394 Japan has great capacity to innovate but they hold dearly to old traditions. This is what makes Japanese culture so rich and complex, and also why it is so hard to truly understand as an outsider. Another aspect is that Japanese culture has very strong cultural guidelines regarding questioning the established way of thinking. For example, try having a conversation with a Japanese person about why they call some green things blue!
Ang imagine the person that has to read all that ? 😂
Yeah I had that! My handwriting isn't the best but they told me to start the paperwork all over again but it was so frustrating as it was a small mistake and had to wait in the queue. It was suppose to take 30 min but I spent a total of 5 hours in there. What a nightmare!
The gift thing sounds like it suuuuuuuuuucks, I hate receiving or sending gifts to people that mutually just dislikes or are indifferent towards one another. It's a waste of money, esp if it doesn't actually do anything to relations (despite the rationale)
Not the mention the fact that you may be receiving a shitty gift of something you may not even want/like, while you may have spend more time and effort buying something which may be more expensive or thoughtful towards the other person and for the other person not to really care…
…I mean, it is one thing going through it like once every few years una gift exchange at work with a co-worker or colleague but it must suck to go through that every fricking year with "relatives" while in reality it is really someone you don't really know and who you don't even get to see nor appreciate or care about, I understand why it sucks for sure…
Gifting in general is good. What I don't like is the fact that you're expected to gift and to gift back if you received one
@@raddox7 Totally agree!!!
Nope ,it is really good if you think about it, if there are many relatives of yours that you do care about,visiting them or talking to them for no reason can be really hard,sending gifts is the most effective and quickest way to show that you do care about them, of course in some senarios it may seem annoying but ,you will feel it's value when it is not there
@@seven4280 The matter is not whether you send gifts to your relatives or not, it's a matter of rather being genuine and doing something out of pure care and love of others (family members in this case) and not because if is a tradition which you are tied to or because it is a duty…
"There's to much paperwork in Japan"
As a German, I feel that.
Is that why my German father in law kept ALL HIS PAPER WORK from the time his family landed in Canada during WW2? It's a German thing? Lol.... 😘❤ RIP Opa.... We sure miss you...
Passierschein A38
Let me enjoy my PAPIERKRAM!
In Japan and Germany paperwork is meant to improve organization, in Brazil there's a lot too, but it's meant to leech as much money from people as possible
Yeah, Papierkram AND cash. Very often you have to have cash in Germany. You can be happy if a debit card or EC gets accepted. Quite different to all surrounding countries in Europe.
I love that he's honest about what it's like living there and not in a romanticizing nature or overly negative. I find that American UA-camrs who live in Japan have a different perspective than someone who's lived there for a while/was born there. It's a major factor in why we experience cultural shock when visiting Japan and is a huge reason why a lot of people move back to the US.
Bruh I live in Costa Rica and Americans LOVE the places in here where there is literally nothing, like the nearest supermarket is miles aways and the streets are shit shows. For a Costa Rican living in a place like that is hell, but for them it is just the best place in the world... Obviously when you have tons of cash anywhere in the world is the best place in the world
@@luism2754 I don't know - I like going to a place far (but not too far) from civilization on vacation (for me, that's someplace in the Alps in Austria), but I definitely wouldn't want to _live_ there. So I kind of see both sides.
its like news... foreign news people who report negatively about your country don't really know what they are talking about. how can one tell how it really is in a country if they haven't even lived there for a few years? most of them haven't even really been to countries they report on... they have "local" PAID sources....
Im not a Japanese, however I've been living here in Tokyo for over a decade. And one thing that I still find weird is that the excessive amount of apologizing that the people do.
As for the raw fish..I freakin' LOVE them ! 😘😘
Yes raw fish is one of the reasons why I wanna live in Japan
@@Miggus7362 work culture *ahem*
@@duckster8288 but raw fish
My teacher lived in Japan for many years he had a "gift closet" his students, coworkers, bosses, wife's younger family would come and give him some little gift like soap, candies, etc right? But you cannot open them in front of the gifters, it's kinda rude, and you're expected to give a gift to anyone when you go to their homes. He never opened the presents except to check they wouldn't spoil and then just regift them.
It’s such as waste - bet most of it ends up in landfill 🙄
@@HInc7647 it's just like all of the handwritten resumes, every country has it's traditions that create waste.
its called cultural differences. You should try it. when in Rome do what Romans do.....
It's a cultural thing many Asians still have
Giving those gifts is like showing appreciation or respect, common when it comes to adults, especially if you haven't met them from a long time.
A little show of appreciation isn't all at all wrong don't you think so?
Honestly, that teacher is a lucky person as it means he/she is being accepted, and giving those gift away isn't at all wrong when you really don't need them.
Can't deny that it's also a dying thing as it really did become something like a "Mandatory thing to do" rather than "giving gift to appreciate/show respect to people you care or are indebted to"
@@wellmakeitworth1316 firstly my teacher was not ungrateful. He was explaining the tradition to us and allowing us to hear a fun personal story from his past. He was originally from France, and lived in Japan in the 80's and everyone regifted non-perishables. The soaps, candles, the decorative paper bundles. They're all bought in bulk to give to hosts at parties. It isn't disrepectful.
I love Japanese people. Growing up in grade school I had two close friends that were Japanese. Jimmy is a first generation Japanese-American. Mark came straight from Japan and could hardly speak a word of English. Mark was brilliant in science and went on to do some interesting things in that arena. I was best man at Jimmy's wedding. I worked for a Japanese owned company for several years and had a close relationship with the GM. Japanese are loyal friends and their word is gold. I miss that kind of bond.
I heard that Japanese people are racist towards other country's people is that true bro or not?
@@Cherry-jv1su older generation are sometimes racist against chinese people since they're pretty much competing to be the best in the asian countries, sometimes to korean people as well. depends where you live. a lot of japanese kids in the countryside are scared of americans because of guns and drugs and shit, i guess there's good reason for that. but i would as a country, no, japan is not a racist country . they have racist people like everywhere else, yes, but far less than america for example. also they're much nicer if you show that you know some japanese.
@@kentobreyfogle9598 ok that means they have reason for that I understand it thx for help bro i am really glad after reading your comment😊😃
Thx for giving me your time stay safe take care peace ✌️✌️
Having worked in Japanese company in the past, the number 1 practice I absolutely hate is having to act busy by staying in the office late even after you've completed all necessary task.
Yeah, it's weird how the Japanese can be so smart, and yet so unreasonable. The better way is obvious to many, and Microsoft (in Japan) has found great success by limiting the hours people can work. They love it so much that they produce MORE in less hours.
It should catch on.
There's a good book, "Bullshit Jobs" by an anthropologist named David Graeber that talks about that phenomenon and why pointless things like that are so detrimental; if you get the chance I HIGHLY recommend it
The only thing I would probably hate in Japan is to work 10-12 hours every day plus traveling between home and workplace. It is insane to work that much every day, 8 hours of work a day is more than enough already!
*You hit two out of my big three:*
• Salaryman working longer hours than the ATM.
• Cost of network access-how convenient for the telcos that they can forget their senile nationalism just long enough to ignore how cheap, fast, and ubiquitous network access is _in Korea._
• KEY MONEY! Aaaaargh! I'm glad you didn't talk about it, my blood is already boiling
@@vaffangool9196 What do you mean by key money?
@@vadimsbelovs8208
*It's an institutionalised bribe* amounting to three- to six months' rent in large housing markets. It's quite distinct from (and required on top of) the deposit in that it is considered a gift to the landlord and is categorically non-refundable.
**laughs in trucker**
In Malaysia, I came late at work but go back on time. As long as I got my job done, nobody cares 🤪
When I first looked at this guy I thought he was wearing a high visibility vest.
Damn.. I assumed he was.. I saw your comment and then replayed the video to check and found he's wearing a T-shirt .. damn!
Work safety fashion
I didnt realize he wasnt until i read your comment lol
he stole it from me😉
Same
one of the greatest things about UA-cam is randomly finding some channel like this and enjoying the content and presenter. I have no idea how I got to this video, however I have the sneaking suspicion I'll be back ;)
As a Canadian who lived in Japan for a while, the #1 thing I hated the most was the fact that people can smoke in restaurants and bars. I'm used to smoking being banned in public places and it was really gross.
#2 was probably the lack of online banking and having to pay bills at the ATM at 7-Eleven.
I went to a nightclub in yokohama in February and I smelled like smoke for days. It was insane being in that enclosed area FILLED with smoke for such a long time. Smokers would love it though.
Maybe having to pay bills at the ATM is why they aren't open all hours of the day? Although that still doesn't make sense.
Um There's no online banking?
I learnt something new 'bout Japan
they recently implemented a bunch of smoking laws, in tokyo most restaurants aren't allowed to have smoking areas unless they are completely separated from the non smoking now. outside of tokyo its a little more relaxed but there are still some laws that was recently added as well.
Japanese Doctor resumes be like: I can't read a single character on this page... YOU'RE HIRED!
lol
Boss: Congratulations Ito! You got the job.
Applicant: it clearly says Hitashi sir.
Boss: 😳....perfect!
Japanese cash culture has had a huge effect on me here in Scotland.
Because I grew up using cash in Japan, that is how I learned to manage my finances. I take money from an ATM, I know how much I have on me and how much I am spending/have spent.
With a credit/debit card, especially with contactless payment, I worry I would be spending more money than I thought.
All my friends in Scotland tease me because they all use online banking and E-pay apps, while I still whip out cash.
Also you left out the thing I hated most about Japan - because it is a female only issue. Being groped on public transport!
I am so happy to live in a country where I can take the train or subway into work without the 50/50 chance of being molested on my way to work.
I dont miss that at all.
wait its just expected to have a high chance of being molested on a daily commute? Wow, yikes...
If that happened in my country, the whole bus/train would stop and police would get the perp, along with being publicly shamed by other passengers.
edit: typos
Akiko Fukuwara 福原 秋子 wow that sounds terrible is it a rights issue or social.
@Rezky
Yes mainly because rush hour trains in Japan are so busy you are packed on so tightly you are all squashed together.
In that environment, wandering hands are hard to track. No way of proving who the offender was as it could be any of the 15 people squashed in around you.
It got so bad that train companies put on "female only" carriages, these fill up fast and if you miss getting on then you take your chances packed in with the other cattle.
The Japanese word for these people is chaikan.
Akiko Fukuwara 福原 秋子 gross, for all of ScotRails faults at least that isn’t a thing here.
@Kaihlik
Haha ScotRail gets a bad reputation but their trains are fast and comfortable.
The ticket prices are just insanely high!
Something wrong when a train ticket from Glasgow to Mallaig is the same as an air flight to Europe!
Medical doctors in the US wouldn't get hired ever based on handwriting.
Same in India
I think that's a worldwide thing.
Same for Portugal.
And the people working in the pharmacies can read them as if they're crispy clear.
World mysteries.
@@andregon4366 indeed,I don't even know how they can read those weird scribbled lines all over the paper,but hey if it confirms that I need all this shit,I'm gucci
(just don't expect me to be able to read it aswell :v also obligatory Portugal Caralho)
same everywhere I guess. I think it's a thing about doctors having ugly handwriting.
@@AstroMartine they have it because during med school they have to keep up with teacher teachings so basically they have to match their writing speed to the teacher monologue speed, specially in Portugal because it's ultra demanding and one of the highest course entry grades you can have; also most of our teachers don't give 2 shits about you...
2 more to add to this excellent list: excessive wrapping of literally everything. and Japanese websites look and function like the freakin 90s.
not to mention the overkilling of animation and overuse of macromedia before the website goes to the main page. (-。－；)
@マナンナンアナメ I work with websites and let me tellyou that java and images websites died a long time ago, dont confuse them with JavaScript
also if your browser is slow how about you get a new computer and better internet connection
Or 80s! Ffs lol (I’m Japanese)
The extra plastic wrapping!!! Omg, seeing bananas wrapped in plastic kills me 😭
I’ve had to navigate these 90s HTML websites for work and they are a f****ing nightmare! I work in digital marketing and know how to work the backend... I still scratch my head with those websites.
I understood how much paperwork there is in Japan after seeing that Naruto's Hokage desk is never empty and the guy has to live on cup ramen instead of his wife's fabulous cooking
holy crap
@@iwrsiyanawar1289 indeed
Whoa... Spoilers there. What Narito Married!?! Haven't watched it in a while
@@LordsXO that is old news come on
@@nelsonzou3890 I was joking around. I know about Boruto.
The ATM thing was so weird in Japan. It was like they hid them and made them purposely difficult to find.
Maybe it’s a safety thing ? 🤷🏾♂️🤷🏾♂️🤷🏾♂️ here in US it’s common to not visit the ATM at night…. It’s a easy place to get robbed…. Your back is turned… there’s a point where your wallet and cash is out so it’s easier to take….
I know crime in Japan is almost non existent especially compared to US but that’s like the only logical reason I can think of.
And that transaction fee happens here too.. if I don’t want to pay it I have to find my banks atms
@@jordinhocharles It just means banks in Japan are too powerful to keep high cost for usage and low cost for operating.
@@hidingindanielsroom7268 they should use a power button
Apparently there is a real stigma surrounding money over in Japan so I don't know if that is something to do with it.
@@jordinhocharles There’s actually a lot of ATM’s in Japan. I don’t understand what people complain about. Every single conbini has one and conbini’s are 24/7 every single day of the week. I just don’t get it 😂
Also, most places actually accept card these days. Like 90% of places, in Tokyo anyway. Rural may be different.
i haven't watched the video yet, but how dare you have an opinion
edit: finished the video and how dare you disrespect ham like that
didn't disrespect ham. he doesn't want to send ham to ingrates.
the first time i saw one of these videos and actually agree with most things
Maybe he is jewish/Muslim lol
I lived in Japan for 8 years and the thing that frustrated me the most was all things we HAD to pay... pension, health, residence tax, municipal tax, landlord gift money, etc etc. They were each so unjustifiably expensive! The pension system especially is daylight robbery.
landlord gift money??
But they have an aging population to take care of, and they generally have a pretty good pension system compares to other countries
@@aerime I'm from Australia - at least here you and your employer pay into your own account. The trouble is that for young people in Japan they're not really guaranteed anything when they retire because the system relies entirely on the younger generations. My Japanese friends are genuinely worried about it and have their own savings as backup. Plus as a foreigner, if you return to your home country, you can only claim about half of what you paid over a maximum 3 years. Since I lived there 8 years, I lost 5 years of payments... i.e. A LOT
The small population growth, i.e. so called aging population and a high cost of living are some of the reasons. You need to make more babies.
@Anna S. I don't need to hear anything from any Germans about population control lol
Excellent Shunchan, I learned a lot about not so well documented Japanese traditions from this video. Literally, everything you mentioned I had never heard before.
1:52 "Because apparently your handwriting says so much about your personality and character".
Yes, and apparently your type of blood too!
yeah, I never got the thing about idols' blood types being revealed for their fans to know. In Western culture, that would be stuff the top-tier obsessive stalker fans know.
I guess in the West we have birth signs instead, which are every bit as nonsensical but you will get lots of side-eye if you say that out loud.
@@Taschenschieber Do you mean Astrology?
@@karekarenohay4432 Astrology related but more specifically known as horoscopes.
Fuck, guess i have to work with my hand writing then.
"Because there are shitty people with beautiful handwriting, there are beautiful people *like me* with horrible handwriting" i have never related to something so much in my entire life
I have really good penmanship but I am a terrible worker I admit it, the writing thing is complete BS, if they went by penmanship I could land a nice cushy job
i remember having a teacher bringing an other teacher to translate my writing
Graphology is actually a science; people with shitty handwriting are usually smart with an high IQ whereas people who write with nice big girlish letters are considered dumb and slow !
@@etow8034 heh I like your analogy but i'm sure it's incorrect, more likely if anything I would say lazier
I do as well lol
I always think it’s interesting when people talk about aspects of their country’s culture you don’t normally hear about. Still, I’d definitely love to travel to Japan when I can
It's the one place I've always wanted to go.
Yes. I would hate all the traditions that *must* be adhered to. I don't think I could stand waiting for the lights to change, even though the road is perfectly clear and safe to cross.
@@Cheepchipsable Incredible how this country has turned into a nation of whiny toddlers who don't want to follow even the simplest rules.
@@Cheepchipsable my dad got in a car crash by doing a U-Turn when the road was "clear and safe"
BRUH U GOT ME DEAD AT "so they can be machines again in the morning" bruuhh lmfaooo
They need to rest
Shun: raw fish is overrated
𝘍𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘺 𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘢 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘵
Hey!
I love fatty tuna! \(^w^) /
I enjoy raw fish in general. But hey to anyone out there if you don't like it that's fine. :) 👍 lol, where I'm from I think the norm is people liking barbecue and tex mex food.
I like those and other types of food but I enjoy asian food a heck of a lot more. I hope one day my husband and I can go to Japan enjoy the culture, sites, and cuisine.
OMG i too think sushi is overrated. Don't get me wrong, sushi is ok, but i will not go to places that overcharge for it.
I used to think sushi is overrated. Then I visited Japan and tried the real sushi.
Surprising. I have always thought that Japan is an extremely modern country, where everything is done as wisely and efficiently as possible. On the other hand, I think that the Japanese love traditions. That is another admirable thing. These two traits seem to collide and continue to compete with each other.
Literally! I went there on one of the most modern looking streets and there was an old temple literally around the corner
I like that! Past and present collide. I wish my country was like that.
@@miradaewhitespell2790 past and present dont collide where you live?
There’s a difference between practicing traditions and just being inefficient. Things like tea-pouring rituals and celebrating traditional festivals are good, but fuck the absolute fuck ton of unnecessary paperworks required for just about everything, like damn even a gym membership requires paperwork lmao what
@@justs_ even dating require paperwork there
My favorite parts:
“You wanna date someone you need paperwork “
“These MOTHER FREAKING TOILETS”
“I cannot do Asian squats”
“Those atm machines need a break from being machines so they can be machines again in the morning “
“Aka people you don’t really know or care about” 😂😂😂😂😂😂
I personally love sushi but it is overrated 😭😭tbhh
If you love sushi(like me as a half japanese) why do you say it's underrated?
What about the part "When I die I die"
@@hanhan.o_0 yaaay another half Japanese! I love sushi too
@@metallique7680 Do you? Don't you mean Sushi is underrated? :P
I tasted sushi once and it was too spicy for me, I’m pretty sensitive to spicy foods (I know it’s pathetic)
"It's just raw fish and rice put together how good can it be" 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣
"It's just rice and rawfish put together"
"This tea is just HOT LEAF JUICE"
*sad Iroh noises*
Delicious tea or deadly poison?
How can my own family say such a thing!!
It's not even LEAF JUICE, it is hot water and leaves! I challenge you to put a pound of leaves into a juicer and drink the result ;-)
Juice is juice, broth is broth
Thankfully 7-11 ATMS are operating and bilingual 24/7. However, it seems (in my experience!) Lawson's ATMS only have English as menu option until about 11pm or so. Many times I have gone in to a Lawson after 11 and it says "No English service available!" Was there a little human inside translating and they go home at 11?!
They're trying to tell you it's your bedtime
But there's still fees for using outside normal hours & fees for using different bank atm
@@roku_nine Fortunately, my bank is one of the 7-11 Bank partners and using it is same as using an ATM at my bank. However, it is kinda weird that there are various fee structures for: using non-bank ATM during hours the bank is open, using non-bank ATM after bank closes, using non-bank ATM for deposit vs withdrawal. I have even been to an ATM that charged a slightly higher ATM fee if you chose "English guidance" over just using it in Japanese.
That is the most arbitrary coding feature I’ve ever heard of??? Why make the extra effort to turn off access to the English language version at a certain time???
I have never even looked for the 'English' option on ATMs lol. I only ever want to withdraw cash and that's like... uhhh, 5 buttons even in Japanese.
I probably won't like the staying after office hours / unpaid overtime just because your boss/peers are still in the office
Totally, this sounds like very unhealthy and unneccessary torture to me.
Just use the gaijin card and leave when your work is done.
@@Yukimaru0 I dont understand, what that card has to do with the systematic problem of exploiting workers and the public mentality that supports it and causes countless suicides, depressions etc...
If I can stay in office and play Dota, I don't mind staying till the next day.
I would tell the boss if he wants me to stay seriously think about OT or I'm outy when the time clock tells me I can go.
Mad respect he studied in America (learned a large amount of English) and figured out the one thing that links us all: I understand why my country does certain things, but its stupid and I hate it; but its home yo.
His English is excellent.
Handwriting... I was born left handed, schools forced me to be right handed.. My handwriting has never improved since the third grade :(
same with my mother! the forced being right-handed is the dumbest thing ever. I'm also left-handed, luckily I didn't have the re-education in this regard!
Me too.
Same my hw sucks I cant write with either hands now both of its hw sucks and looks ugly 😭
My handwriting is really bad also. Though I am right-handed.
You cannot be born left handed. It is proven that humans can use both hands just as well.
"I'm pretty optimistic about it"
”When I die, I die”
O - OPTIMISM
@@odinigh286 Not always true. But people die if they are killed.
@@icipher6730 Heard they're dead for the rest of their lives :P
agree, its more of a stoic view
Defintely the optimistic version. Try: when I die I'll go to Hell for a number of minor sins.
@@benyahun or Taoist
“I’m pretty optimistic. When I die, I die.”
Girl, same.
i came to the comment section to find this comment
literally me
Apparently optimism means something different where I come from.
I think he meant to say realistic or that he's a realist.
He meant optimistic as in he is not going to worry about it, he will just live a positive life and accept whatever happens.
Your English improved so much in the past 3 years. Great job. I hope in 3 years I will be able to speak Japanese
"You even need paperwork to date"
A Japanese exchange student once said she'd date me but there's to much paperwork involved once lol
Bruh thats wrong...you don't need paperwork to date..that's a straight up red flag
the ultimate way to friendzone someone
@@ellam225 nah, I think that position still belongs to "you're like a brother to me" unless the live in Alabama
@@DefinitivelyNotCthulhu ah yes
Paperwork for what? Go to dinner together? You dont neeed paper why should you?
" it's still just the rice and raw fish put together"
Fair point, can't argue with that
I live in Japan and I think the most frustrating thing is that there are no trash cans on the streets. Only at stations and convenience stores. And it also doesnt make any sense that you can smoke inside a restaurant but not on the street in the open.
I think they do that to keep the streets "clean". I visited Vienna( Austria) a while back and noticed that littering was more common near street corners. Coincidentally, this where they had garbage bins. This also applied to cigarette butts, they were more prevalent near cigarette refuse canisters they had attached to light posts and traffic signals. But, I don't know maybe I am full of it.
It never bothered me. Keep onto the trash until you come home or throw it out at a convenience store. They're literally everywhere after all.
The smoking bothered me the most. I'm confused as to why in a country where places are small, lack windows and/or ventilation, smoking is totally a-ok.
most of the trash cans in Japanese cities were removed because of the sarin gas attacks of 1995
Thank Aum Shinrikyo. I noticed they disappeared after that Sarin gas attack.
@@justakerbal4340 so I was right....I was full of it
The hand written resume, squat toilet and ATM machine's operating hours are hilarious!
a squat toilet shit where do I get one just kidding
The gift exchange thing reminds me of a thing that happened sometimes during Christmas here in the US (at least, I knew people that did it), where they sent out Christmas cards with a big family portrait on it to pretty much everyone they knew regardless of how close they were. I think that tradition isn't much of a thing anymore, especially not with the advent of the internet, but it was wild.
Really? Damn, my family and like half the people I know still do this every year I guess it’s not as common as I thought. 😂
YES My step siblings do this every year and I always feel mildly ashamed that I don't have a spouse or children so I can't really send one back lol
Ugh my family has a really annoying tradition of sending out thank you cards for every single xmas or birthday gift. I always refused and just got in trouble instead but what a complete waste of time. "Oh, thanks for the sweater that is ugly and doesn't even fit me, great aunt twice removed that I've literally never seen in my life". On to the next 40 cards to write.
I've always thought it was so cute seeing family taking photos with matching sweaters to send to their family :) I've only seen that in movies btw.
@@leavesofecstasy6405 Just send one back anyways? Make your own tradition.
As a foreigner living in Tokyo for over 7 years with three "looking for job" periods under my belt I can tell you the handwritten resume is the most annoying thing I've ever had to do in my entire life!! A lot of money spent on buying the resume sets and sending them through the post. The worst part is that 50% of the sent resumes don't even receive an answer (at least a rejection letter) and companies assume is okay to behave like jerks when you are already stressed enough not being able to find a job. The ATM comment was so on point :)))) I also know so many Japanese that live with this constant fear of "a big one" " a huge earthquake" that is due to happen. Just live your life and enjoy it! You are more likely to die while looking into your phone than from an earthquake...I've really enjoyed this video! Thank you!
We too worry about “the big one” in CA. And I’m kinda lowkey curious lmao.
I agree with the writing resumes being the “most annoying part”, but about costing too much money... seriously? It’s ¥110 for 10 to 20 sheets.
Of course sending those shits costs far more, but the sheets per se are cheap.
(Living in japan for 11 years here).
@@dieinfire920 Only ¥110? Thank god. OP had me worrying a bit about the prices (hopefully going to be in Nagoya in the next 2 years)
@@touya I was taught by my university professors in Japan and my Japanese friends experienced in looking for jobs in Tokyo not to apply on 100yen shop resume. Good quality ones cost 250-300yen (including taxes) for 5 x 2-pages sets. Adding the color photos for each sent resume and the postage fee and to some 30 companies (if you’re lucky) believe me it will cost you. You want a good job at a good company make the effort and do it right. My recent looking for job experience lasted months due to Covid19. Less than half of the sent resumes were online and I applied to 50-60 companies. From my own experience, sending out handwritten resumes costs money and when you don’t have it, well... You need determination and the sense of doing things right to find a good job in Japan. But then again, it is my own experience and not going to start some debate online for some resume SHEETS:))))
Thats a weakness of the japanese work phillosophy, do things because they always did them like that, even if they are less effizient and make no sense when there are other way better options avaiable.
ATM be like: we need rest too, duh. Being a machine sucks
*lights an electronic cigarrette*
@Blackdragon Sure, it sucks. But you know what sucks more? Spending all day being treated like a machine only to find out that the ATM machine has more off hours than you do!
*Goes withdraw cash on the atm*
"Naw dog, I'm pooped, printing ain't easy"
I think Japanese people work more hours than ATM machines
The gift giving to relatives who live far away from you to say that you haven't forgotten about them . . . is part of tradition yes but if you connect with a certain family member who lives far away from you , you should send them something sweet/kind that you can keep the connection with them because when you get older it is helpful to have them to speak to and visit , so after I watched your video again this makes sense to me. . . Sending love from South Africa ✌️♥️🌹
I don't know man, a holiday dedicated to giving ham and beer sounds pretty awesome.
i call that day "sunday."
I wonder if you can cheat with an all in one and give beer baked ham? And would it be called bam?
@@TrackMediaOnly idk, in sliced bread it would be hambeerger for sure
About the handwriting resume part. I swear Doctors would be failing to get a job anywhere because if it is like here in Australia, Doctors hand writing is incredibly messy
Hospitals would have different expectations. The messier your handwriting the more qualified you are.
America too, all my doctors scribble...
Hah, this stereotype makes me cry because people refuse to believe some medical students or doctors belong to their profession just because they write well. While some doctors really have sloppy handwriting, others have bad handwriting on their scripts for one of the following reasons (I only speak from personal experience as a medical intern who was once a pharmacist):
1. (true in two countries where I've worked) Doctors don't know how to actually spell a drug (in cases where scripts are handwritten) so they just write the first two to three letters and wing the others with a scribble. That's the real secret to pharmacists being able to decipher doctor scrawls.
2. Doctors see too many patients; high turn-over leads to having to rush writing scripts, charting, patient intakes, et c.
3. Doctors developed carpal tunnel syndrome/repeated stress injuries on their writing hand due to writing too much, too fast. Medical school (especially before tablets and wireless digital note-taking) required us to write a lot of notes in rapid speeds. My handwriting is very legible (ask everyone I've done Pokemon Generation 6 redemptions for when I was in med school) but it went to crap whenever I was in a neuroscience class.
4. Some surgeons write scripts on their non-dominant hand so as not to strain their dominant hand and reserve it for surgical precision (not common practise, but some attendings do this.)
It's so funny when doctors have a job that requires precision and delicateness yet their handwriting is messy 😂
Doctors hand writings EVERYWHERE is the epitome of terribleness
I'm not even fully Asian -- half-Chinese -- and my cousins and friends wonder what kind of an "Asian" I am that I don't like sushi and sashimi. I just like hot, cooked food... So, yeah... I'd also be that person sitting in the corner eating udon.
Raw fish isn't really a Chinese thing anyway, it's mostly Japanese and Korean. (Although apparently it was popular in China up to about 500 years ago)
@@NozomuYume That's what I keep telling them! 😂
@@Ostsol raw river shrimp is, but there is nowhere to find over here.
I mean, people associate raw fish with asia, cause it has been spread worldwide, while there are so many good hot dishes from asia that are absolutely delicious!
and lets be real... curry udon is the best.
you could burry me in curry. or in udon. or in both. i dont care xD
im no fan of sushi either. i do like fish but indeed not raw.
My own impression from Tokyo was "This is probably what people who lived in 80s would imagine a futuristic city to be"
That is from the 50's. So it would be what people who lived on the 30's would imagine a futuristic city to be
You likely got it right considering Japan's heydays were the 80's before the crash of their economy in the early 90's and the "Lost Decade" after it crashed.
@@bonwatcher And just before that it was recovering from poverty because of atomic bombs...
lol! There REALLY STILL seems to be a retro-80s-interpretation of the 2080s in Japan STILL. I love them for that. Very 'Total Recall'. lol.
I keep thinking he's wearing an orange vest. Just a pointless observation of mine.
Stereotype or is it?
ua-cam.com/video/qORYO0atB6g/v-deo.html
7/11 shirt.
He's not?
I thought the same at first
Yea I thought he was taking a break from being a traffic coordinator
2:12 "and there are beautiful people like me"
I love your modesty 😂
Earnt yourself another subscriber!
Squat toilets with diarrhea. I can't even imagine how you can get out of that without a disaster.
Me neither. LOL.
just squat lower, im from malaysia
Squat toilet and sitting ones still available even in high-end places , squat toilet bowl deaign is bigger here compared to Japanese narrow ones
Squatting when diarrhea is actually more satisfying
@@madxp9668 that sounds like hell i have bad knees and also cant deep squat so if i had diarrhea i think i'd come out with brown clothes
@@LomiKo If you would have been squat shitting for most of your life you would still have good knees.
When he said Japan has "natural disasters," he was referring to "poo-namis."
great video, thank you for the information, and thank you for being honest about your culture
“When I die, I die-“
I spiritually felt to the 10th power
"I hate raw fish and sushi, i think they are overrated"
Next video :
*"How it feels like to lose your Japanese citizenship"**
Lmao
Lmao
Lmao
Lmao
Lmaosetung... ah I screwed up the chain...
Communicating is so exhausting in Japan.
You have to speak to people in completely different ways depending on her/his dentity and status, even a "Good morning" or "Thank you"
If you write E-mails in Japanese, almost half of the content is only for being polite and literally useless
Same in Korean to be honest. It's annoying to have to change honorific based on age and status.
That's something I noticed. You LITERALLY cannot talk to a person without automatically positioning yourself on some sort of social heirarchy in relation to them. It's extra weird to me as an Australian where EVERYONE calls each other by their first names, and are generally very egalitarian. Even a person doing a menial job like a cashier or cleaner, you still speak to them as a social equal, likewise the CEO or manager is still addressed as Clive or Mike or Jane or whatever, nor Mister or worse, Mr CEO or Mr President.
To be fair, in Mexico we have a somewhat similar culture, especially on corporate environments. It's VERY common to have a whole paragraph at the start of an email saying stuff like "I hope you're well and you were able to get some well deserved rest on this last weekend. It would be very kind of you if you could set aside some spare minutes of your precious time to do X, if that's not too much trouble" and all this over-polite shenanigans. As a foreigner living in Mexico, I've had countless discussions with people from my team saying that's just a waste of everybody's time, but they still do it out of tradition.
I have read that during the occupation period after the Pacific war, some GIs with a knack for language would become fairly fluent from listening to the conversations of bar hostesses. When they later spoke to Japanese men using the same style, the men would pretend not to understand partly because they didn't want to insult the American by laughing. It was very funny to hear a big strong warrior using the language of low status women.
@@calebfuller4713 In most (if not all) countries, reporters address government officials by their titles not by their nicknames like Joe, Jane, Betsy, etc. Likewise when addressing doctors or professors; their peers might use first names but most people say "doctor" or "professor". This is normal; weird is having no social hierarchy. Do you address your mother by her first name? I bet she uses your first name though.
Best video I have ever seen about Japan. I've been here for 16 years and agree with everything you said! I personally love Sushi but I get the pressure. New Subscriber.
„I am optimistic, when I die, I die.“ 🤣😂
He really said: 'Let's just accept our fate.'
ATM machines in Nihon:
*Need a rest from being machines so that they can be machines again in the morning*
ATM machines in my country:
*Apparently, most of them are humans*
rest in peace, your ATM machine
What country are u from?
they probably want to conserve eletricity
Welcome in the Warhammer 40k universe. U need to care about the machine spirit.
@@talos86 Pretty sure the Man-Emperor of Mankind might have something to say about that
I think that if Japan gets rid of it's extremely toxic work culture (long unproductive hours, importance of the "social aspect" of work, overreliance on outdated hierarchies and technology...etc.) they'd be golden. There's so much that they get right.
I am an American electrician and we buy new robots from Japan to replace old antiquated robots then they sell the old robots back to Japan. Has always been strange to me they don't always use the labor saving equipment they make?
There's a more general problem that this is a subset of, peer pressure. Pressure from parents, pressures from teachers, pressure from classmates, pressure from coworkers, pressure from in-laws....it goes on and on. People in Japan often spend their lives living up to the expectations of others and quietly wishing they could just make their own decisions. That's the biggest drawback I saw when I lived there.
Ykno what they don’t get right is denying war crimes and building shrines for war criminals. Yep that still happens
@@erikb703 No, I mean Japan. Speak to an actual Japanese person, or better yet.
READ about it.
AMEN DUDE. you are right too. Soo much they get right. they deserve it. could be a nice(r) socieety with those things gone.
Great video Shun. I am a Japanese American who lived in Japan for 8 years. Although my Japanese American family practices a lot of old school Japanese ethics/traditions, I was very shocked that most Nihonjin's don't don mochi tsuki in Japan. It's pretty common here in Hawaii, even to this day. Keep up the great content. Every video I watch, I miss Japan! Super stoked you were one of those few Japanese who wanted to experience the American life... we have so much to learn from Japan.
I taught English in Japan back in 94 to 97. I'm really impressed with this guy's English and I can relate to everything he's saying. They even had those squat toilets in the middle school faculty bathrooms, too. Every time I was so afraid I was going to miss. I'd say the one thing I hated was how there was so much smoking in the faculty room at schools and they'd make a kid come in and clean out the ashes. All kids participate in sooji, a period during the day where kids cleaned the school which was a cool idea, but making the kids deal with that gross can of ashes and cigarette butts...ugh. Great experience overall though.
This was to teach the kids how to survive in the big companies when they grow.
@@vishal0thomas The big companies reflect Japanese society as a whole. They teach kids to conform to Japanese society and it’s expectations regardless of whether they work for a big Company or not.
its good though. for future to respect the elder. same as Yakuza method i think.
@El Ciclista
Do you actually think that it's worse for school kids to clean out ash trays than to clean out toilets?
@@spaceman081447 Yes, I do. As the famous Japanese book says, “Everybody Poops”.
Finally a Japanese person who can't eat raw fish. Break the norm, Shun
@@DeimosCodeines I know, but I have never encountered any Japanese person that actually said they can't eat raw fish until this video
@@sotsugyou It's not that they can't, it's just they don't like it.
I'm sure there are some who have an allergy to some of the fish as well though.
@@Kikan319 I'm talking about Shun specifically, not the entirety of the Japanese people that "don't" like it. Shun mentioned he can't eat raw fish and that's what I only meant in my comment
ㄟ( ･ө･ )ㄏ
Hm, raw fish, sounds perfect for someone like me who’s scared of splattering oil
Yes! New SHUNchan video! Made my day and it only just started
I JUST DISCOVERED YOUR CHANNEL AND I LOVE IT SO MUCH. And I totally agree with what you said about sushi !
As an Indian,
Pro of My Country: It is one of the oldest civilization of the world.
Con of My Country: It is one of the oldest civilization of the world.
Schrödinger's philosophy
Jokes aside and this may seems rude, but if your country doesn't have those brainless shitty simps, your country could be the best Asian besides Japan and Singapore. Sorry for being rude
you and china need to get into a war to get rid of your excessive populations. seriously, guys, a billion and a half people each? only enough plumbing for 3 quarters of the country. stop having so many kids. you literally have as much population in your country as north central and south america and europe combined?!
@@jebes909090 Hey, don't blame us for having head start over most of the world by 1000s of years. This is what happens when you are an isolated civilization across the globe and nothing to do. 🤣🤣
@@graciasvito8067 I don't disagree. We do have lots of shitty simps. God knows what can be done
Thumbnail: "Why Japan Sucks"
American Weeaboo: *cracks knuckles*
I love your profile pic
It's funny though because I'm an American (non-weeb) who lived over there for a while. And I gotta say I had the same exact gripes as SHUNchan it's almost uncanny
omae wa mou shindeiru
@@B_bang22 Nani?!?
For weebs all this is part of the appeal not part of the problem. YAY I get to use CASH and the SQUAT TOILETS!!!
My best friend has horrendous handwriting and she is such a wonderful person. Even if she was trying her best, the result would look like a 1st grader writing 😅
I have a friend who's handwriting is horrendous and he's smart as hell. He's definitely gonna be a doctor. Lmao
@Halo Kay my bestie was the same. But her left handed handwriting is worse 😂
My bestie too has impressively unreadable hardwriting, think she was born with it XD I’m one of the few people who can overall make sense of it
@Halo Kay Same dude, my grandma forced me to write right handed even though I'm actually left-handed, but I don't hold a grudge against her for doing it since it was a long time ago
I got an A+ in all my science subjects let me just say that a 1st grader could teach me how to write
i lived in Japan for 3.5 years. I absolutely loved it and miss living there, but the things i found most frustrating were:
hanko- banks and businesses required a hanko which i obviously didn't have as a foreigner so it caused a lot of frustration, having to pull teeth to have a meaningful conversation- people were so reluctant to express their opinion which made creating real relationships difficult, and the prevalence of "outdated" thinking- it's still a pretty patriarchal society with restrictive gender roles and it generally welcomes "visitors" but not foreigners- my co-worker who was black had to deal with A LOT of shit that i never encountered because of her skin.
This.
how did you get the opportunity to moved there?
If I were to be judged for my writing, I would have been fu***d. Fortunately, where I live (Sweden), I never have to write anything by hand.
Yep same lol
I am from Italy and our average handwriting skill kinda sucks so if we were judged based on it ... we're be screwd
you are honest, as least you shared what you dont like about Japan, whereas many people hated their own country but dont dare to speak out, only talk they love their countries but in their hearts there are many things they hated their countries
Well, the thing about the squat toilets actually makes a little sense, since the squat position is the most healthy and natural posture to release the bowels. It's been studied the fact that the unnatural posture that the modern toilets make you do, could be the most common cause of constipation, hemorroids, and other bowel problems. So I guess those toilets are actually healthier to use. But they could come up with a solution to merge both toilets benefits as well.
Yeah, they sell footstools to raise your legs to a more natural position.
In my humble opinion, raising legs with a footstool while sitting on a regular toilet seem more plausible than using squat toilet. I don't have healthy intestines, so it's possible to spray diarrhea all over the squat toilet and even away of it. With a footstool and a regular toilet, I don't need to have any concern about it, and it's even more natural, as you mentioned!
I see there are already a couple replies about it, but as soon as I read your post saying they should come up with a solution, I wanted to also reply that they did: footstools.
I've seen regular toilets with a little squatting stool that mixes them both.
True. Squat toilets are the actual 'regular' ones for most of Asia whereas the ones Shun chan says are regular are actually called 'western'. I have both in my house and I generally prefer the western one (cuz it's better for using phone lol) but if it is occupied and I have to use the squat one, I actually feel my bowels emptying a lot more easily and at the end I feel completely empty compared to when I use the western toilet. Also, not being able to use phone means you don't waste time :P
“I think sushi and raw fish are overrated” dude I freakin love you like finally someone who gets it like for god sake it’s overrated and my frnds start cussing sayin whatchu talking about ugh
”i'm pretty optimistic about it. when I die, I die"
yep, that's a like and a follow. looking forward to more videos, bud!!
Handwriting can tell a lot on your personality and character
Doctors: ...
Doctors' handwriting says a lot about their personality and character. It says I'm too busy saving your effing life to worry about my effing handwriting. :)
Yes it says they have bad rsi from constant hand writing prescription notes, files and signatures. Their hands get fucked after a few years.
I think he's misinterpreting why they want handwritten resumes. If you are manually handwriting all of those resumes, and in ink pen too, then it took you lots of time and effort. So therefore, by simply having a handwritten, ink resume, it says that you are willing to put in effort for a job. This sounds like the "boomer" way of thinking in the USA. It's all about hard work, and that's not really a bad thing at all, but you may be tossing out really great potential employees simply because they didn't want to conform to your "hard work" standards.
*psychologically
The whole thing sucks it is all about control
Shun :"The squat toilet need to vanished away"
Gopnik : *sad blyat noise*
Laugh in Indonesia
Isn't the squat toilet is better in a long run, since it helps with the bowel movement or something?
Russian here, can't squat either, lol. I'm not gopnik after all.
@@ShatteredGlass916 less intestinal cancer if you squat to poop
@@ShatteredGlass916 the squat position is the correct one but the squat toilet is unnecessary i use a small stepping stool in the bathroom to raise ur legs a bit i would say much better than a better toilet seat or a squat toilet.
Doing business with older Japanese people was often difficult for me. They were not open to adjust their strategies to fit the target country's habit and culture. There were a lot of unnecessary rules and they were especially anal when it comes to things like brand guidelines. It's almost like I'm saying "hey, this is how you get more money in my country" and they replied "no, we use our way, who cares about more money" (and I was like why were you expanding in the first place?)
Having said that, I did have a couple of good experiences with the younger, smaller companies, they were punctual, detailed & very open
I'm more surprised at the fact that he is giving a clear and direct opinion. Don't get me wrong, I don't like it when people do not speak their minds, even if I don't agree. I don't want to be tiptoeing around, I think is more mature to be able to talk about differences without a problem. A disagreement shouldn't be a moment to collide, it should be a moment to learn something new. How can people be tolerant or critic if they don't practice it? That's the thing that surprised me the most about Japan. Though, the thing I may like the most is the "mind your own business" mindset they've got, that's totally a thumbs up.
The mind your own business thing is nice until you realize how much it extends to people ignoring domestic violence, sexual harassment and other bullshit.
It can be a tricky balance, he might be better at it since he's spent time in America while still young and got some practice in.
"Mind your own business" only applies when it would be troublesome or "shameful" to get involved in a situation. This is why people usually don't speak up when someone is being harassed on the street or on the train. But then Japanese folks will randomly ask some of the most boundary-violating inappropriate questions when they feel like it - the complete opposite of minding their own business. It boils down to a general lack of empathy for the situations that others are experiencing.
I completely agree with you. To have a progressive Society this is needed. The problem is in America at least from my experience everyone is deep inside their feelings. Feelings are more important than facts. How ignorant is that
Joshua Chandra I think that’s just common everywhere you go. People care most about their own feelings since it’s not always possible to understand other people. So we just end up with endless cycles of hurt.
The squat toilets are the bane of my existence when I get diarrhoea. At least regular toilets keep everything contained when it... explodes...
Then someone else,would really not want to sit on it....
Shit, bro
handwritten resume?! oh god, i would be unemployed in Japan lmaoo but seriously, it's funny that Japan is generally seen as a 'high-tech' country, but in reality there are still many parts which are old fashioned. I also heard that they prefer sending fax instead of using e-mails in offices, if I remember correctly 😱 On a side note, can't wait for SHUNchan to get to 100K subscribers! 💯💪 let's go!
Yeah that's at the top of the list. Like I haven't handwritten anything in years.
In Australia I've got an Unlimited calls and texts plan for US$7 a month. That's BYO phone of course.
It's pretty handy when your closest family member lives 2,200km away.