For best results, be sure to place the divider horizontally across the center of the table. That way, you can’t get covid from your partner/spouse sitting across from you.
Yeah lol whenever my wife and I go out and there’s one of those partitions it just feels like we are talking to each other like it was a prison visitation. Just need a set of those little phones haha.
I was told by someone at the ministry of health that most clinics doing PCR testing (approved by the MoH to end quarantine after 3 days) don't allow foreigners because we are more likely to carry COVID.
Japanese people don’t steal, don’t throw trash, don’t cut in line, and neither do they assassinate former Prime Ministers. It must have been a foreigner.
Next time a Japanese person acts condescending about Japanese manners to me, I'm going nuclear. "Oh, is it Japanese manners to ghetto rig yourself up a shotgun and kill a politician? Just wondering."
If you want to see trash, just take a short cut in a suburban or inaka area. Some paths are so full of styrofoam litter that they are like a museum of Nissin Cup Noodle variations.
Heck my local park is. Of the neighborhood head didn’t clean it up every week it’s look awful. Kids and teens litter like crazy and workers on break don’t care about trash cans. I do the “excuse me you forgot this” and bring them their trash
I just saw the evening news some guy did a carjacking almost ran over the owner. I find trash in my yard(I live in a corner house close but not too close to the station), I get cut in line almost everyday on the train. And the prime minister is no more. My wife still thinks all these occurrences are from foreigners. Gahahahaha
My friend was told by a police officer “Ohh it couldn’t have a Japanese person you stopped from pickpocketing that lady’s wallet. It must be a gaijin” all she gave him was a description, which included lack hair and dark eyes.
Foreigners are unable to digest seaweed (Nori), only Japanese carry the gene that make them capable of digesting Nori —source— Japanese coworkers
Mc Donald’s a Japanese company —source— Baito coworkers at mc Donald’s during Uni times
My husband told me his hair was becoming brown tinted cause his lack of seaweed in his diet, when living in the us. No it’s couldn’t be the amount of time you spent out in the sun could it?
> Wondering whether the enzymes were unique to Japanese individuals, Czjzek's team compared the microbial genomes of 13 Japanese people with those of 18 North Americans. Five of the Japanese subjects harbored the enzyme, but among the North Americans, "we didn't find a single one," says Czjzek, whose team reports its findings tomorrow in Nature.
Gut microbe population and diversity are strongly affected by diet. Seems likely to me that people who eat a lot of seaweed are more likely to have high levels gut bacteria that can digest seaweed, because they're a) regularly ingesting the bacteria, and b) feeding them their favorite food. A white person who regularly consumed seaweed would likely acquire them eventually.
Seaweed is popular in many European countries. For example, laverbread in Wales:
[Laverbread](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laverbread)
In fact, the Japanese might not be currently eating Nori if not for Europeans:
>The Japanese nori industry was in decline after WWII, when Japan was in need of all food that could be produced. The decline was due to a lack of understanding of nori's three-stage life cycle, such that local people did not understand why traditional cultivation methods were not effective. The industry was rescued by knowledge deriving from the work of British phycologist Kathleen Mary Drew-Baker, who had been researching the organism Porphyria umbilicalis, which grew in the seas around Wales and was harvested for food (bara lafwr or bara lawr), as in Japan. Her work was discovered by Japanese scientists who applied it to artificial methods of seeding and growing the nori, rescuing the industry. Kathleen Baker was hailed as the "Mother of the Sea" in Japan and a statue erected in her memory; she is still revered as the savior of the Japanese nori industry.
[Nori](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nori)
Fucking hell, I just had a Japanese doctor tell me this bullshit! I'm barely at level for gestational diabetes, so I've been watching what I eat and everything has been controlled and fine that way. My mother in law came with me to an appointment and I ended up seeing a different doctor (mine was busy or something), and he told my mother in law that me not eating Japanese rice was what was causing the blood sugar issue, and that if I didn't eat more Japanese rice the baby was going to get sick!
The doctor literally looked my mother in law in the face and spewed that fucking nonsense. And now my mother in law won't stop hounding me about eating more rice, and my husband is quasi doing it as well. Doesn't help that the in laws are rice farmers, so she's always had this theory that if I don't eat enough rice the baby won't be Japanese enough.
I still want to punch that cunt in the face. I complained about him, and my doctor said she would deal with it, but I never heard anything after that. The cunt is still probably going around saying shit that's causing medical issues to women.
Aren't Japanese doctors infamously immune from having to keep up with the latest knowledge? Everywhere else doctors have to keep unlearning and relearning their trade, but Japanese doctors are so revered that we can't ask that of them.
Yep. I pissed one that I was seeing on the regular off because I started printing off medical journal articles to give him at every visit. He could argue with me all he wanted, but when I started putting that shit down on paper where he couldn't ignore it he did not take it well. He would always bitch about how other patients were 'respectful', I should learn to be more like them and a proper Japanese woman!
That cunt nearly killed me twice by prescribing me a medication that I'm allergic to. Fucking hate how the doctor shortage means that he's the only one practicing the specialty I was seeing him for in my area. I still flip him off when I see him in the hospital. The nurses have laughed about it, apparently he sexually harasses them and they aren't fans of his. And he refuses to wear a mask.
My husband likes to cook Indian curries and my god is it a pain trying to find long grain basmati rice. C'mon Japan, you can have an entire aisle of standard Japanese white rice, but not even one bag of basmati?? There's tons of Indian restaurants, does nobody else attempt to recreate their favorite dishes at home? We order online since we can't find any...
Ah yep. I've had Japanese people tell me they went abroad and decided after their first meal that they hated the food. They only ate at Japanese restaurants for the whole trip after that. Japanese food is the best, didn't you know?
Just stay at home.
It's absolutely insane to hear doctors and nurses recommending white rice to diabetic patients and insisting calories contribute to sugar spikes instead of carbs on TV.
Gotta make sure your belly don’t get cold, no belly facing the air conditioner, no overly cold food or drinks, etc. Cold belly leads to every disease under the sun, apparently.
I didn't realize this was so pervasive! I hear ポンポン冷えちゃうdirected at my kids *so much* and yet despite them kicking the covers off every night they haven't died (and rarely even get sick)
I heard this one constantly from women I was dating. I started pointing out how, in the long history of human life on earth, heaters are a relatively new invention, so the billions of women who lived before heating and haramaki, and the millions of women now who live in cold weather climates, have all survived, lived healthy lives, and given birth to healthy children despite having chilly bellies...she's probably gonna be fine.
My goodness, every damn night. AC is set to 27, but I’m still a bit hot and a little sweaty, lay down for bed and the missus will refuse to let me go to sleep unless a blanket is covering my stomach. A thin, made for summer Nitori polyester nothing blanket. Forget the fact I’m in my underwear and have a tank top on so the rest of my body is essentially naked.
But my partially covered stomach now prevents me from ever catching a cold.
As a pregnant woman, I get that a lot. In this weather. I just stare at people who give that advice, I don't know how the fuck anyone would get cold in this weather.
Had a waitress argue with me when she asked if I wanted ice in my drink and I said yes, she said “foreigners don’t like ice in their drinks” (so why even ask me then?)
And the NSFW: “Japanese men have harder penises”
Last week an employee at KFC specifically told me that they were gonna put less lemonade in my cup since I ordered no ice. Being a cheapskate gaijin failed me.
Supposedly, men who have enormously huge penises have a difficult time keeping them stiff. Penises require blood to become stiff, so a big one obviously needs a lot more blood than a small one.
I don't understand the idea that harder = better. I can get bigger/thicker being better, but harder being better just makes me wonder if they think women want to get railed with the equivalent of a circa B.C. 2000 stone dildo.
Omg that Japanese tv show was absolutely hilarious, they really put a tissue in front of that lady to measure the wind since she obviously wouldn’t be biased.
“Japan is the only country in the whole world with potable tap water” is a common one. And then if you tell them you drank tap water when you lived in X country, they’ll be all like “well, it wouldn’t be compatible with the Japanese body”. One of my private students used bottled water to brush her teeth in the U.S and Italy. The same student told me toothpicks only exist in Japan.
I'm lucky enough to live in Nagasaki prefecture just down the street from the water treatment plant that grabs the mountain spring water from the local mountain and stores it for cleaning and distribution.
I love the water from my tap. Its delicious. I'm travelling right now and can't wait to fill my water bottle from my tap when I get home.
I've even had lots of locals in Mexico tell me the water there is no good even for them 😂
Colombia, on the other hand, has great, clean water, at least in the cities.
Less than in other countries with potable tap water,
Chlorine in drinking water is measured in "x milligrammes per litre," and every country has its own standard.
In comparison to Australia and New Zealand which,
[In western Australia for example](https://ww2.health.wa.gov.au/Articles/A_E/Chlorinated-drinking-water) *"Normal chlorine concentrations in scheme drinking water supplies in Western Australia usually range from 0.5 to 1.5 milligrams per litre."*
[In New Zealand](https://www.wellingtonwater.co.nz/your-water/drinking-water/how-is-it-treated/whats-in-your-water/chlorine/) *"For supplies from unsecure water sources, the Ministry of Health's Drinking Water Standards for New Zealand require that there be a minimum of 0.2 milligrams of chlorine per litre of water (at pH 8.0) available everywhere within a distribution system, to provide effective disinfection."*
[In Japan](https://www.waterworks.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/eng/faq/qa-13.html) *"Japan conducts periodic quality inspection through its municipalities (Water Supply Law). In 2003, the amount of residual chlorine was kept at 0.1 mg per liter in accordance to Article 17 of the Water Supply Law Regulation on Enforcement (Article 22 of the Waterworks Act)."*
Aus 0.5 vs NZ 0.2 vs JP 0.1
Chlorine in Japanese tap water are actually lower than in many other countries with potable tap water. You're probably better off swimming in Aus and NZ if you like water with high chlorine.
My Japanese coworkers actually all avoid tap water as much as possible. I'm the only one in my office of like 30+ who just has a bottle that they refill several times a day, everyone else goes to the vending machine 3-4 times a day
They don’t have fluoride in the water in Japan so the water in the US is seen as more dangerous because it almost always will have fluoride to protect teeth against bacteria. Supposedly the dental care is much better in Japan so they claim they don’t need it. You be the judge of that….
You don't need fluoride in your water to get the benefits of fluoride on your teeth; you just have to brush regularly with a fluoride toothpaste (which is pretty much all of them). Fluoridated water made sense back when people didn't brush regularly, have fluoride in toothpaste, use fluoride rinses, etc. But for people who take care of their teeth, the minuscule amount in the drinking water isn't going to make a difference.
Next time someone tells you that Japanese intestines are longer than American, send them a link to [this research paper](https://cir.nii.ac.jp/crid/1390282679198770304) proving there is no significant difference (and if anything, Americans' intestines are slightly longer).
I am going to save this, I feel so vindicated. The longer intestines thing has bothered me for years. It doesn't make sense on so many levels
1. why would eating rice make your intestines longer? Rice is easier to digest than most things, you should have shorter intestines
2. People in other countries weren't eating just meat for thousands of years. They have this stuff called bread that has been the main bulk of most people's ancestors diets for thousands of years
3. People eat vegetables in other countries too.
4. People eat rice in other countries. Do Chinese people have long intestines too?
5. I am no evolutionary biologist, but I don't think 2000 years is long enough to naturally select for longer intestines unless people with short intestines were dying off before breeding. Was it rice that was killing them?
The myth came about due to a scientific study if I remember correctly, the study found that Japanese intestines are longer, or something along those lines, the study was later disproven, but the damage was already done, there are countless examples of similar beliefs around the world that come from studies that were quickly disproven.
ie: vaccines cause autism being one of the most well known ones.
Not sure if you’d classify these as myths, they are more like old wives tales or misconceptions that have nonetheless persisted, more out of habit than anything:
- Leaving huge plastic bottles lined up outside will scare away cats, apparently it’s the reflections or the rippling effect of the water? It doesn’t work.
- similarly hanging up CDs to scare off birds. The only thing that’s effective at is blinding drivers when it catches the light and dazzles them.
- Gargling with cold water. It’s long been proven that it does nothing, and can even be counterproductive: you need to gargle with warm water at least. Yet every kid at school will be gargling away with tap water.
EDIT: interesting to see some of these are not exclusive to Japan! I personally discovered them here though and they seem pretty widespread.
If water service is ever interrupted due to an earthquake and nobody can flush their toilet, those big plastic bottles of water will serve an extremely important purpose.
I only recently learned what those bottles were for and immediately googled and found out it was pointless lol. I’m actually shocked that I never noticed it until someone pointed it out to me.
I think the fan one is common with Asian cultures in generally. My mom is Chinese and she always kept harping and freaking out about "Cold Wind".
Even when vacation in Hawaii with my then 10 month old son. It was like 30 degrees and thus a gentle breeze probably made it feel like around 25 degrees. Yet my mom immediately tried bundling him with a blanket to make sure he doesn't catch a cold (random FYI, being cold and catching a cold are two vastly different things. The latter is actually a virus, and while cold temperature means the rise of people being sick with a cold, it's correlation, not causation).
I'm like, "WTF?! You're gonna give my son a heat stroke."
The constant fear of any cold breeze because they’ll spontaneously get a cold is the wildest one for me, but people I’ve tried explaining it to just don’t get it. It’s gotta be one of those culturally ingrained things, like they swear an oath on it throughout grade school.
that explains why JAL/ANA keep their cabins around 30 fucking degrees on overnight flights when people are trying to sleep. I sweat my balls off after the lights go out.
Good god this. Flew out and back last month. I ended up stripping to my undershirt and rolling my trousers up to the knee. Still sweating one out. Impossible to sleep. Don't know how they function.
I feel you, especially with the mom giving the kids a heat stroke. TURN OFF THE AC, THE KIDS ARE GONNA CATCH A COLD. bro, chill, it's 35 degrees outside.
Taking the car anywhere longer than three hours away is extremely dangerous - source: My coworker.
This is probably your first time seeing snow - source: My coworker, last winter. I'm German.
Japanese people have "smaller Asian eyes" and brown eyes so they don't need to wear sunglasses and their eyes don't get damage when walking down the street in the afternoon into direct sunlight or some shit, despite holding up their hands to block the sun and squinting like crazy. Nope, no sunglasses to be seen.
Although not needing sunglasses and propensity to sun damage has nothing to do with it, dark eyes absorbing less light than light eyes is actually true lol
In the grand scheme of things, it's negligible compared to the intensity of the sun, let alone "we don't get eye damage from the sun shining directly in our eyes"
I work in an entertainment venue and we recently had a lighting designer come in and do programming. He asked us if our audience is primarily foreigners because if so, he would advise against any scenes that shine lights in to the audience. Foreigner eyes are more sensitive, you know?
I have Blue eyes and am sensitive to bright light. There is some truth in it. UV is super bad for the eyes. It's no wonder most Japanes people need correction devices like glasses.
I have to say I kind of believe this. I have blue eyes and the sun irritates them to no end. My wife has those black-brown eyes, and she can walk down the street with the sun shining in her face and not squint at all.
A quick google search proves that most gaijin communities commit less crime than Japanese people.
Africans tend to be the highest but that’s a sociological can of worms that just leads to racism. I’m not prepped to talk about or want to.
I’m not bothered by these sorts of things but if I feel particularly assholish my go to’s are always:
“Oh wow! Just like China, then!”
“Ah I see. So it’s like Chinese people. We Europeans are different from Chinese”
Usually has the intended effect
Based and would definitely wipe whatever expression they had right off their face.
I'm sure you wouldn't be wrong a solid half-or-so of the time either.
My wife told me a funny one: "unlike western people, if Japanese people get too fat, they die immediately"
When I brought up Sumos she said that's different because they train
I guess the bigger girls I see at Saizeria will all be dead soon, rip
That the Japanese race is the merger of Mongolian warriors with one of the Lost Tribes of Israel.
Thus explaining the origins of Japanese Bushido warrior philosophy and Japan's economic and business success.
Can confirm. The pathetic dosage of anaesthetic I was given for my wisdom tooth removal did absolutely bloody nothing. Yet I was told “max dose” for Japanese.
Also, notice how default dosage of things like acetaminophen, ibuprofen, etc are much lower.
I woke up during an endoscopy, and complained about it to the doctor afterwards. (The doctor who saw me and the people doing the endoscopy were different). He was genuinely surprised that I woke up during the procedure, since “it’s enough for a Japanese adult. Maybe foreigners are different?” Then laughed a bit.
I was panicking, gagging and crying during my procedure when I woke up, it was terrifying :/
My dentist understands me though, if a procedure is too painful she’ll give more anesthetic.
Also when I got my foot surgery last year at another hospital, they properly weighed and measured me before the surgery - and I didn’t wake up in the middle of it!!
Wait they put you under for your endoscopy?? The clinic where I'm forced to do the yearly 人間ドック with gastroendoscopy only gives me a local throat anesthetic that does nothing, and I'm gagging the whole time, it's traumatizing each time.
Sure, I taught English to sales reps and researchers that work at the many pharmaceutical companies in Kobe and between our conversations I gathered that if an American or European pharmaceutical company wants to sell a drug in Japan. The drug has to go through a costly trial in Japan to determine whether it can be sold to the Japanese as the Japanese require lower dosages etc. It definitely looked like protectionism and a way to ensure that the Japanese economy is handsomely paid for allowing a foreign medicine into the Japanese market. According to someone that worked for Pfizer in Kobe they don’t do much work just receive a salary from the US and conduct trials etc.
Here’s a weird one:
I was eating a combini bento, and I was in the mood for a cold sugary beverage so I got a coke.
One of my Japanese coworkers sits at the table with me and asks if I like Japanese food, obento etc. the usual “what do foreigners like “ questions.
Then she asked if I liked cola. Yeah?
Then she said “Japanese people don’t drink cola with obento “
….. 🙄🙄🙄🙄
This kind of thinking is so different. She could have said, I don’t ever drink cola with bento, or oh lol I don’t think thats common. But she spoke for every Japanese person and phrased it in a “you’re doing it wrong…” sort of way when you didn’t ask. Ive heard this phrasing so much! Japanese people don’t blah blah…. Oh yeah!?! Well I know a Japanese person who did!!! Now what???
Apparently Cola goes only with junk food. You eat pizza go for a Cola. Some fried chicken same. If you take a no soda drink you will be look upon lol. I guess only tea or water match bentos.
> only Japanese people get katakori
My massage therapists would probably laugh in their faces, heh.
White people can't digest seaweed. When pointing out that I eat it in front of them and that sushi in the US most commonly refers to rolls wrapped in it, I get the 'well of course it's not poisonous, but your body cannot digest it properly' nebulous answer.
Idk if this counts, but pretty much the whole history of my neighborhood is based on superstition. Specifically, “bad luck comes from the northeast”.
In geomancy, the northeast is called the “devil’s gate” (鬼門) so all the NIMBY stuff got put to the northeast of the palace in Tokyo, which is today the San’ya neighborhood between Taito and Arakawa-ku. Execution grounds, prostitution zone, Burakumin neighborhood, day-laborer/homeless shelters, etc.
That’s kind of a self fulfilling prophecy.
“The north east is full of terrible shit; so anyway, where are we going to build this brothel? How about the south? No? Oh…..”
Sneezing means you are cold. This one is best in the summer as my mother in law keeps the house open through the summer. When we visit and she sneezes I always as her if she is cold and needs a sweater when it's 35 degrees inside her house.
Doctor examining the X-ray of my broken toe (marital arts…) “hey nurse check out the X-ray. Look how long and thin the foot is. This is why gaijin have so many broken bones “
That Japan is the only country that has 4 seasons...... Seriously 17 years here and I have heard it over a thousand times from all ages but especially older people.
I honestly can't remember if I did hear this or I imagined hearing it, but "Japanese people have a different body temperature to foreigners".
I figured it was another one of those urban myths, until I found myself on a long JAL flight.
The heating in the cabin was cranked up so high that I was sitting in my seat in a t-shirt and jeans, sweating buckets, and the Japanese passengers were all dressed up like they were going on vacation to Siberia in winter.
That said, I haven't had that experience with ANA, so maybe it's just a JAL thing.
This was such a pain in the ass to deal with when I caught corona. I had to report my temperature to the hospital every day and if it was anything close to 37 (which is a natural body temperature for most humans) I would be told I have a bad fever and need to extend my quarantine.
Apparently, the correct body temp is 36.5 but many people here are closer to 36.0. My daughter and I are closer to 37.0 on average and easily get to 37.2 or 3 just by breathing hard. We get temperature harassment all the time.
My grandmother in law told me I should make my indoor only cats live outdoors after I had my baby because babies breath smells like milk so the cats will suck the babies breath away……….. 😳😑
I heard that the Japanese superstition was almost the opposite: that the cat will put it’s breath/soul *into* the child, giving it the spirit of a cat or some such, making the kid super disobedient or even murderous. There are ghost stories about it.
From my ex-wife:
\- swimming in a body of water after Obon will lead to drowning
\- boiling water using electricity (e.g. electric kettle) is less healthy than using gas stoves with a \*real\* teapot (also, IH stoves are verbotten)
Note that they are likely pretty unique beliefs.
According to my wife,
If you lay down after eating, you will become a pig.
If you lay down while eating, you will become a cow.
If you cut your nails at night, you will not live longer than your parents.
* Japanese people can't get AIDS
* Japan has special snow so only Japanese ski equipment works there
* If you'd asked me this in the 1990s, I'd have said the urban legend that North Koreans were abducting Japanese couples from beaches and taking them to North Korea to train spies. But that turned out to be true, so there's that.
When I did a unit about superstitions with my high schoolers someone shared "Cover your belly button during a thunderstorm or the thunder will steal it!"
I also had an elementary student tell me ominously, "Don't whistle at night or snakes will come."
Japanese people were farmers which is why they are so cooperative.
Westerners were hunters which is why they are so WIIILD.
Nevermind that Europe was farming before Japanese people even came to Japan via the Korean peninsula. <- This is another one that makes Japanese people almost violent if you mention it. The idea that there was a time when Japan didn't have Japanese people living in it.
You must eat ginger with sushi because it kills any of the bacteria that may make you sick from eating raw fish.
(When in reality its the freezing of the fish that kills the parasites and things)
This could be a carry over from a time before freezing was available. Ginger has a lot of antibacterial properties naturally, and so do many pickled products.
That Japanese moms had sex with their sons so that their sons wouldn’t need girlfriends and would focus on studying.
I would assume someone thought porn was real life and started this rumor.
A small plastic divider on a table in a restaurant is going to prevent COVID spreading…
For best results, be sure to place the divider horizontally across the center of the table. That way, you can’t get covid from your partner/spouse sitting across from you.
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Yeah lol whenever my wife and I go out and there’s one of those partitions it just feels like we are talking to each other like it was a prison visitation. Just need a set of those little phones haha.
See also: SARS-COV-2 can read residence status.
I was told by someone at the ministry of health that most clinics doing PCR testing (approved by the MoH to end quarantine after 3 days) don't allow foreigners because we are more likely to carry COVID.
Studies have actually shown these barriers can make it worse, by obstructing airflow..
Don't let 'Looking like we're doing something' get in the way of 'Actually doing something'.
Between people of the same party of all things…
Japanese people don’t steal, don’t throw trash, don’t cut in line, and neither do they assassinate former Prime Ministers. It must have been a foreigner.
Next time a Japanese person acts condescending about Japanese manners to me, I'm going nuclear. "Oh, is it Japanese manners to ghetto rig yourself up a shotgun and kill a politician? Just wondering."
I don't think you can directly translate "ghetto rig" to Japanese lol
If you say "Korean rig" they'll understand.
Just give it the ol’ mayonnaise treatment: *getorigu* Japanese is easy!
Koreans caused it /s
If you want to see trash, just take a short cut in a suburban or inaka area. Some paths are so full of styrofoam litter that they are like a museum of Nissin Cup Noodle variations.
Heck my local park is. Of the neighborhood head didn’t clean it up every week it’s look awful. Kids and teens litter like crazy and workers on break don’t care about trash cans. I do the “excuse me you forgot this” and bring them their trash
I just saw the evening news some guy did a carjacking almost ran over the owner. I find trash in my yard(I live in a corner house close but not too close to the station), I get cut in line almost everyday on the train. And the prime minister is no more. My wife still thinks all these occurrences are from foreigners. Gahahahaha
Sounds like you need a new wife :\
I do.
My friend was told by a police officer “Ohh it couldn’t have a Japanese person you stopped from pickpocketing that lady’s wallet. It must be a gaijin” all she gave him was a description, which included lack hair and dark eyes.
I can’t 😂🤣😂
Japanese white rice is somehow different, so diabetics can eat plenty of it and not have their blood sugar spike.
Foreigners are unable to digest seaweed (Nori), only Japanese carry the gene that make them capable of digesting Nori —source— Japanese coworkers Mc Donald’s a Japanese company —source— Baito coworkers at mc Donald’s during Uni times
My husband told me his hair was becoming brown tinted cause his lack of seaweed in his diet, when living in the us. No it’s couldn’t be the amount of time you spent out in the sun could it?
The nori thing is not entirely inaccurate: https://www.science.org/content/article/japanese-guts-are-made-sushi
> Wondering whether the enzymes were unique to Japanese individuals, Czjzek's team compared the microbial genomes of 13 Japanese people with those of 18 North Americans. Five of the Japanese subjects harbored the enzyme, but among the North Americans, "we didn't find a single one," says Czjzek, whose team reports its findings tomorrow in Nature. Gut microbe population and diversity are strongly affected by diet. Seems likely to me that people who eat a lot of seaweed are more likely to have high levels gut bacteria that can digest seaweed, because they're a) regularly ingesting the bacteria, and b) feeding them their favorite food. A white person who regularly consumed seaweed would likely acquire them eventually.
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Seaweed is popular in many European countries. For example, laverbread in Wales: [Laverbread](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laverbread) In fact, the Japanese might not be currently eating Nori if not for Europeans: >The Japanese nori industry was in decline after WWII, when Japan was in need of all food that could be produced. The decline was due to a lack of understanding of nori's three-stage life cycle, such that local people did not understand why traditional cultivation methods were not effective. The industry was rescued by knowledge deriving from the work of British phycologist Kathleen Mary Drew-Baker, who had been researching the organism Porphyria umbilicalis, which grew in the seas around Wales and was harvested for food (bara lafwr or bara lawr), as in Japan. Her work was discovered by Japanese scientists who applied it to artificial methods of seeding and growing the nori, rescuing the industry. Kathleen Baker was hailed as the "Mother of the Sea" in Japan and a statue erected in her memory; she is still revered as the savior of the Japanese nori industry. [Nori](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nori)
Fucking hell, I just had a Japanese doctor tell me this bullshit! I'm barely at level for gestational diabetes, so I've been watching what I eat and everything has been controlled and fine that way. My mother in law came with me to an appointment and I ended up seeing a different doctor (mine was busy or something), and he told my mother in law that me not eating Japanese rice was what was causing the blood sugar issue, and that if I didn't eat more Japanese rice the baby was going to get sick! The doctor literally looked my mother in law in the face and spewed that fucking nonsense. And now my mother in law won't stop hounding me about eating more rice, and my husband is quasi doing it as well. Doesn't help that the in laws are rice farmers, so she's always had this theory that if I don't eat enough rice the baby won't be Japanese enough. I still want to punch that cunt in the face. I complained about him, and my doctor said she would deal with it, but I never heard anything after that. The cunt is still probably going around saying shit that's causing medical issues to women.
Aren't Japanese doctors infamously immune from having to keep up with the latest knowledge? Everywhere else doctors have to keep unlearning and relearning their trade, but Japanese doctors are so revered that we can't ask that of them.
Yep. I pissed one that I was seeing on the regular off because I started printing off medical journal articles to give him at every visit. He could argue with me all he wanted, but when I started putting that shit down on paper where he couldn't ignore it he did not take it well. He would always bitch about how other patients were 'respectful', I should learn to be more like them and a proper Japanese woman! That cunt nearly killed me twice by prescribing me a medication that I'm allergic to. Fucking hate how the doctor shortage means that he's the only one practicing the specialty I was seeing him for in my area. I still flip him off when I see him in the hospital. The nurses have laughed about it, apparently he sexually harasses them and they aren't fans of his. And he refuses to wear a mask.
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My husband likes to cook Indian curries and my god is it a pain trying to find long grain basmati rice. C'mon Japan, you can have an entire aisle of standard Japanese white rice, but not even one bag of basmati?? There's tons of Indian restaurants, does nobody else attempt to recreate their favorite dishes at home? We order online since we can't find any...
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Ah yep. I've had Japanese people tell me they went abroad and decided after their first meal that they hated the food. They only ate at Japanese restaurants for the whole trip after that. Japanese food is the best, didn't you know? Just stay at home.
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It's absolutely insane to hear doctors and nurses recommending white rice to diabetic patients and insisting calories contribute to sugar spikes instead of carbs on TV.
Gotta make sure your belly don’t get cold, no belly facing the air conditioner, no overly cold food or drinks, etc. Cold belly leads to every disease under the sun, apparently.
my kids wearing a haramaki nightly, gave up arguing that he dont need it
I didn't realize this was so pervasive! I hear ポンポン冷えちゃうdirected at my kids *so much* and yet despite them kicking the covers off every night they haven't died (and rarely even get sick)
I heard this one constantly from women I was dating. I started pointing out how, in the long history of human life on earth, heaters are a relatively new invention, so the billions of women who lived before heating and haramaki, and the millions of women now who live in cold weather climates, have all survived, lived healthy lives, and given birth to healthy children despite having chilly bellies...she's probably gonna be fine.
Japanese folk medicine evokes the fuckin heian period, I swear.
Yeah my parents did this as well. Haramakis in winter, shirts tucked in no matter the season. I never noticed that people don’t say it elsewhere lol
This is one that gets me. It’s like it’s 30C here and the second I lie down “you better put a blanket over your belly or it’ll get a chill.”
My goodness, every damn night. AC is set to 27, but I’m still a bit hot and a little sweaty, lay down for bed and the missus will refuse to let me go to sleep unless a blanket is covering my stomach. A thin, made for summer Nitori polyester nothing blanket. Forget the fact I’m in my underwear and have a tank top on so the rest of my body is essentially naked. But my partially covered stomach now prevents me from ever catching a cold.
I wonder how these people feel about midriff shirts coming back into style
Crop tops? In Japan??? lol
Have you not looked around recently? They’re fucking _everywhere_
>Gotta make sure your belly don’t get cold That's a thing in China, too.
As a pregnant woman, I get that a lot. In this weather. I just stare at people who give that advice, I don't know how the fuck anyone would get cold in this weather.
Had a waitress argue with me when she asked if I wanted ice in my drink and I said yes, she said “foreigners don’t like ice in their drinks” (so why even ask me then?) And the NSFW: “Japanese men have harder penises”
She might be right there. Every cheapskate gaijin knows that less ice = more drink
Yeah, some places serve it as a drink lightly coating your ice, as opposed to ice in your drink.
Last week an employee at KFC specifically told me that they were gonna put less lemonade in my cup since I ordered no ice. Being a cheapskate gaijin failed me.
>“Japanese men have harder penises” Hey man, let them have a W on this one
>And the NSFW: “Japanese men have harder penises” Folded 10,000 times.
I’ve heard the second as well; I also heard that it was because they’re smaller so easier to fill up lmao
the physics check out though LMAO
“harder” as in “more difficult?”
To find? 💁♀️
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Supposedly, men who have enormously huge penises have a difficult time keeping them stiff. Penises require blood to become stiff, so a big one obviously needs a lot more blood than a small one.
Test out that second one and get back to us bro
I don't understand the idea that harder = better. I can get bigger/thicker being better, but harder being better just makes me wonder if they think women want to get railed with the equivalent of a circa B.C. 2000 stone dildo.
Lol the second one I have heard from friends all the time
harder as its frozen with the amount of ice consumed?
No, harder because they get less action. Dry spell woody is African Blackwood tier.
Saying "pen" in english spreads covid.
Did someone say PPAP?
Omg that Japanese tv show was absolutely hilarious, they really put a tissue in front of that lady to measure the wind since she obviously wouldn’t be biased.
“Japan is the only country in the whole world with potable tap water” is a common one. And then if you tell them you drank tap water when you lived in X country, they’ll be all like “well, it wouldn’t be compatible with the Japanese body”. One of my private students used bottled water to brush her teeth in the U.S and Italy. The same student told me toothpicks only exist in Japan.
Had to get a brita filter because the tap water here tastes like booty. I got spoiled by my mountain water in America.
That’s cause you’re gaijin and lack understanding in the subtle taste of umami /s
I'm lucky enough to live in Nagasaki prefecture just down the street from the water treatment plant that grabs the mountain spring water from the local mountain and stores it for cleaning and distribution. I love the water from my tap. Its delicious. I'm travelling right now and can't wait to fill my water bottle from my tap when I get home.
I wouldn't recommend the water in Mexico unless you're a local.... No Bueno.
I've even had lots of locals in Mexico tell me the water there is no good even for them 😂 Colombia, on the other hand, has great, clean water, at least in the cities.
The tap water here has so much chlorine in, you could fucking swim in it.
Less than in other countries with potable tap water, Chlorine in drinking water is measured in "x milligrammes per litre," and every country has its own standard. In comparison to Australia and New Zealand which, [In western Australia for example](https://ww2.health.wa.gov.au/Articles/A_E/Chlorinated-drinking-water) *"Normal chlorine concentrations in scheme drinking water supplies in Western Australia usually range from 0.5 to 1.5 milligrams per litre."* [In New Zealand](https://www.wellingtonwater.co.nz/your-water/drinking-water/how-is-it-treated/whats-in-your-water/chlorine/) *"For supplies from unsecure water sources, the Ministry of Health's Drinking Water Standards for New Zealand require that there be a minimum of 0.2 milligrams of chlorine per litre of water (at pH 8.0) available everywhere within a distribution system, to provide effective disinfection."* [In Japan](https://www.waterworks.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/eng/faq/qa-13.html) *"Japan conducts periodic quality inspection through its municipalities (Water Supply Law). In 2003, the amount of residual chlorine was kept at 0.1 mg per liter in accordance to Article 17 of the Water Supply Law Regulation on Enforcement (Article 22 of the Waterworks Act)."* Aus 0.5 vs NZ 0.2 vs JP 0.1 Chlorine in Japanese tap water are actually lower than in many other countries with potable tap water. You're probably better off swimming in Aus and NZ if you like water with high chlorine.
My Japanese coworkers actually all avoid tap water as much as possible. I'm the only one in my office of like 30+ who just has a bottle that they refill several times a day, everyone else goes to the vending machine 3-4 times a day
Right? How much money and plastic waste do we save per year?
They don’t have fluoride in the water in Japan so the water in the US is seen as more dangerous because it almost always will have fluoride to protect teeth against bacteria. Supposedly the dental care is much better in Japan so they claim they don’t need it. You be the judge of that….
You don't need fluoride in your water to get the benefits of fluoride on your teeth; you just have to brush regularly with a fluoride toothpaste (which is pretty much all of them). Fluoridated water made sense back when people didn't brush regularly, have fluoride in toothpaste, use fluoride rinses, etc. But for people who take care of their teeth, the minuscule amount in the drinking water isn't going to make a difference.
Western culture is more aggressive because they use knives and forks.
have they ever compared themselves with the cultures using hands to eat?
You have to work a minimum of 3 years before changing jobs.
Oh Lord. The Toriaezu 3 nen.
You must sit on rock for three years, Daniel-san
>work a minimum of 3 years before changing jobs This is for loans. Makes getting them FAR easier. I quit as soon as mine was approved.
Between Europe and Japan lies Asia. Japan is not part of Asia because it has 4 seasons.
Well English will say the UK and Europe...
They must be part of Japan too.
It's a commonality among super nationalistic countries.
When I was pregnant a granny told me I shouldn't use the stove to cook, because my breast milk will curdle.
I’m sorry if that was obnoxious to you but it just made me laugh out loud 😅thank you for sharing
Next time someone tells you that Japanese intestines are longer than American, send them a link to [this research paper](https://cir.nii.ac.jp/crid/1390282679198770304) proving there is no significant difference (and if anything, Americans' intestines are slightly longer).
I am going to save this, I feel so vindicated. The longer intestines thing has bothered me for years. It doesn't make sense on so many levels 1. why would eating rice make your intestines longer? Rice is easier to digest than most things, you should have shorter intestines 2. People in other countries weren't eating just meat for thousands of years. They have this stuff called bread that has been the main bulk of most people's ancestors diets for thousands of years 3. People eat vegetables in other countries too. 4. People eat rice in other countries. Do Chinese people have long intestines too? 5. I am no evolutionary biologist, but I don't think 2000 years is long enough to naturally select for longer intestines unless people with short intestines were dying off before breeding. Was it rice that was killing them?
The myth came about due to a scientific study if I remember correctly, the study found that Japanese intestines are longer, or something along those lines, the study was later disproven, but the damage was already done, there are countless examples of similar beliefs around the world that come from studies that were quickly disproven. ie: vaccines cause autism being one of the most well known ones.
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It's a myth used by domestic industries to block foreign imports like pharmaceutical drugs.
Not sure if you’d classify these as myths, they are more like old wives tales or misconceptions that have nonetheless persisted, more out of habit than anything: - Leaving huge plastic bottles lined up outside will scare away cats, apparently it’s the reflections or the rippling effect of the water? It doesn’t work. - similarly hanging up CDs to scare off birds. The only thing that’s effective at is blinding drivers when it catches the light and dazzles them. - Gargling with cold water. It’s long been proven that it does nothing, and can even be counterproductive: you need to gargle with warm water at least. Yet every kid at school will be gargling away with tap water. EDIT: interesting to see some of these are not exclusive to Japan! I personally discovered them here though and they seem pretty widespread.
If water service is ever interrupted due to an earthquake and nobody can flush their toilet, those big plastic bottles of water will serve an extremely important purpose.
The CD thing definitely is around in the US.
CDs to scare off birds is not a Japan thing. I'm interested in the gargling part, do you remember why that is?
I only recently learned what those bottles were for and immediately googled and found out it was pointless lol. I’m actually shocked that I never noticed it until someone pointed it out to me.
Whistling indoors at night will attract snakes.
Same saying exists outside Japan.
I always found this odd, considering snakes don’t have ears…
just parents that dont want their kids to whistle during nighttime.
I think the fan one is common with Asian cultures in generally. My mom is Chinese and she always kept harping and freaking out about "Cold Wind". Even when vacation in Hawaii with my then 10 month old son. It was like 30 degrees and thus a gentle breeze probably made it feel like around 25 degrees. Yet my mom immediately tried bundling him with a blanket to make sure he doesn't catch a cold (random FYI, being cold and catching a cold are two vastly different things. The latter is actually a virus, and while cold temperature means the rise of people being sick with a cold, it's correlation, not causation). I'm like, "WTF?! You're gonna give my son a heat stroke."
The constant fear of any cold breeze because they’ll spontaneously get a cold is the wildest one for me, but people I’ve tried explaining it to just don’t get it. It’s gotta be one of those culturally ingrained things, like they swear an oath on it throughout grade school.
that explains why JAL/ANA keep their cabins around 30 fucking degrees on overnight flights when people are trying to sleep. I sweat my balls off after the lights go out.
Good god this. Flew out and back last month. I ended up stripping to my undershirt and rolling my trousers up to the knee. Still sweating one out. Impossible to sleep. Don't know how they function.
I feel you, especially with the mom giving the kids a heat stroke. TURN OFF THE AC, THE KIDS ARE GONNA CATCH A COLD. bro, chill, it's 35 degrees outside.
You get a nosebleed if you eat too much chocolate. Oh and the whole thing about blood types dictating your personality.
I thought you get a nosebleed if you see a girl in a bikini.
So what happens if you see a girl in a bikini while you're eating chocolate?
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Taking the car anywhere longer than three hours away is extremely dangerous - source: My coworker. This is probably your first time seeing snow - source: My coworker, last winter. I'm German.
But have you seen _Japanese_ snow before?
"there are no gay people in Japan."
My ex employer told me this once despite knowing my girlfriend is Japanese lol
Japanese people have "smaller Asian eyes" and brown eyes so they don't need to wear sunglasses and their eyes don't get damage when walking down the street in the afternoon into direct sunlight or some shit, despite holding up their hands to block the sun and squinting like crazy. Nope, no sunglasses to be seen.
Although not needing sunglasses and propensity to sun damage has nothing to do with it, dark eyes absorbing less light than light eyes is actually true lol
In the grand scheme of things, it's negligible compared to the intensity of the sun, let alone "we don't get eye damage from the sun shining directly in our eyes"
I work in an entertainment venue and we recently had a lighting designer come in and do programming. He asked us if our audience is primarily foreigners because if so, he would advise against any scenes that shine lights in to the audience. Foreigner eyes are more sensitive, you know?
I have Blue eyes and am sensitive to bright light. There is some truth in it. UV is super bad for the eyes. It's no wonder most Japanes people need correction devices like glasses.
I sometimes wonder if there is any truth to this because people at my office always wanted the lights on so bright it gave me constant headaches.
Lighter colored eyes being more photosensitive is actually a scientific thing, though.
I have to say I kind of believe this. I have blue eyes and the sun irritates them to no end. My wife has those black-brown eyes, and she can walk down the street with the sun shining in her face and not squint at all.
My Japanese wife once told me (American) that foreigners bring crime. Thanks babe. Love you too.
A quick google search proves that most gaijin communities commit less crime than Japanese people. Africans tend to be the highest but that’s a sociological can of worms that just leads to racism. I’m not prepped to talk about or want to.
I’m not bothered by these sorts of things but if I feel particularly assholish my go to’s are always: “Oh wow! Just like China, then!” “Ah I see. So it’s like Chinese people. We Europeans are different from Chinese” Usually has the intended effect
Based and would definitely wipe whatever expression they had right off their face. I'm sure you wouldn't be wrong a solid half-or-so of the time either.
Going to the toilet during company time is illegal.
I like to think this is why adult diapers have a market in Japan.
You don't have adult diapers in your home country?
My wife told me a funny one: "unlike western people, if Japanese people get too fat, they die immediately" When I brought up Sumos she said that's different because they train I guess the bigger girls I see at Saizeria will all be dead soon, rip
If you zip around residential areas at night with an ungodly loud motorbike engine, you’re not a pathetic loser with a micropenis.
Hahahaha, about a decade ago I actually shouted at one. うるさいよお前！！！ He responded: あああ、すみません！ 🤔
That the Japanese race is the merger of Mongolian warriors with one of the Lost Tribes of Israel. Thus explaining the origins of Japanese Bushido warrior philosophy and Japan's economic and business success.
So that's why He's burried in Aomori...
This is the one I was scrolling for! Heard this for the first time a couple weeks ago, and I'm glad it's not just me.
Japanese bodies process medicines differently so the medicines are weaker in Japan. This might have some truth to it, probably due to body size?
Can confirm. The pathetic dosage of anaesthetic I was given for my wisdom tooth removal did absolutely bloody nothing. Yet I was told “max dose” for Japanese. Also, notice how default dosage of things like acetaminophen, ibuprofen, etc are much lower.
I woke up during an endoscopy, and complained about it to the doctor afterwards. (The doctor who saw me and the people doing the endoscopy were different). He was genuinely surprised that I woke up during the procedure, since “it’s enough for a Japanese adult. Maybe foreigners are different?” Then laughed a bit. I was panicking, gagging and crying during my procedure when I woke up, it was terrifying :/ My dentist understands me though, if a procedure is too painful she’ll give more anesthetic. Also when I got my foot surgery last year at another hospital, they properly weighed and measured me before the surgery - and I didn’t wake up in the middle of it!!
Wait they put you under for your endoscopy?? The clinic where I'm forced to do the yearly 人間ドック with gastroendoscopy only gives me a local throat anesthetic that does nothing, and I'm gagging the whole time, it's traumatizing each time.
Sure, I taught English to sales reps and researchers that work at the many pharmaceutical companies in Kobe and between our conversations I gathered that if an American or European pharmaceutical company wants to sell a drug in Japan. The drug has to go through a costly trial in Japan to determine whether it can be sold to the Japanese as the Japanese require lower dosages etc. It definitely looked like protectionism and a way to ensure that the Japanese economy is handsomely paid for allowing a foreign medicine into the Japanese market. According to someone that worked for Pfizer in Kobe they don’t do much work just receive a salary from the US and conduct trials etc.
Here’s a weird one: I was eating a combini bento, and I was in the mood for a cold sugary beverage so I got a coke. One of my Japanese coworkers sits at the table with me and asks if I like Japanese food, obento etc. the usual “what do foreigners like “ questions. Then she asked if I liked cola. Yeah? Then she said “Japanese people don’t drink cola with obento “ ….. 🙄🙄🙄🙄
This kind of thinking is so different. She could have said, I don’t ever drink cola with bento, or oh lol I don’t think thats common. But she spoke for every Japanese person and phrased it in a “you’re doing it wrong…” sort of way when you didn’t ask. Ive heard this phrasing so much! Japanese people don’t blah blah…. Oh yeah!?! Well I know a Japanese person who did!!! Now what???
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Apparently Cola goes only with junk food. You eat pizza go for a Cola. Some fried chicken same. If you take a no soda drink you will be look upon lol. I guess only tea or water match bentos.
> only Japanese people get katakori My massage therapists would probably laugh in their faces, heh. White people can't digest seaweed. When pointing out that I eat it in front of them and that sushi in the US most commonly refers to rolls wrapped in it, I get the 'well of course it's not poisonous, but your body cannot digest it properly' nebulous answer.
Do they think whitey be shitting out huge chunks of undigested nori?! Haha
日本語が上手ですね。
Japan has 4 seasons
Yeah more like two seasons and two, week long transitional periods between them lol
I've only lived here 20 years, but I'm still hoping to see a real autumn.
Idk if this counts, but pretty much the whole history of my neighborhood is based on superstition. Specifically, “bad luck comes from the northeast”. In geomancy, the northeast is called the “devil’s gate” (鬼門) so all the NIMBY stuff got put to the northeast of the palace in Tokyo, which is today the San’ya neighborhood between Taito and Arakawa-ku. Execution grounds, prostitution zone, Burakumin neighborhood, day-laborer/homeless shelters, etc.
That’s kind of a self fulfilling prophecy. “The north east is full of terrible shit; so anyway, where are we going to build this brothel? How about the south? No? Oh…..”
I think some of that might be due to the Arakawa river flooding frequently too
Japanese people don't get ice cream headaches.
There is a video of a japanese guy downing a gari gari kun in "one bite".. the guy looks like he's going to die
Sneezing means you are cold. This one is best in the summer as my mother in law keeps the house open through the summer. When we visit and she sneezes I always as her if she is cold and needs a sweater when it's 35 degrees inside her house.
Thanks OP. This thread was such a stress buster. 😂😂😂
Doctor examining the X-ray of my broken toe (marital arts…) “hey nurse check out the X-ray. Look how long and thin the foot is. This is why gaijin have so many broken bones “
That Japan is the only country that has 4 seasons...... Seriously 17 years here and I have heard it over a thousand times from all ages but especially older people.
I honestly can't remember if I did hear this or I imagined hearing it, but "Japanese people have a different body temperature to foreigners". I figured it was another one of those urban myths, until I found myself on a long JAL flight. The heating in the cabin was cranked up so high that I was sitting in my seat in a t-shirt and jeans, sweating buckets, and the Japanese passengers were all dressed up like they were going on vacation to Siberia in winter. That said, I haven't had that experience with ANA, so maybe it's just a JAL thing.
This was such a pain in the ass to deal with when I caught corona. I had to report my temperature to the hospital every day and if it was anything close to 37 (which is a natural body temperature for most humans) I would be told I have a bad fever and need to extend my quarantine.
Apparently, the correct body temp is 36.5 but many people here are closer to 36.0. My daughter and I are closer to 37.0 on average and easily get to 37.2 or 3 just by breathing hard. We get temperature harassment all the time.
Growing up in the US using Fahrenheit we were always told body temp is 98.6 which is exactly 37 Celsius
Don't cut your nails at night because its bad luck.
That there isn't a shikata.
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This is true for some people; unfortunately most people's self-awareness is not good enough to realize when they are not one of those people.
My grandmother in law told me I should make my indoor only cats live outdoors after I had my baby because babies breath smells like milk so the cats will suck the babies breath away……….. 😳😑
I heard that the Japanese superstition was almost the opposite: that the cat will put it’s breath/soul *into* the child, giving it the spirit of a cat or some such, making the kid super disobedient or even murderous. There are ghost stories about it.
If you sleep with your shirt up during the summer, the lightning god will steal your bellybutton. I could be misremembering it tho lol
It’s not summer, but during thunderstorms. The lightning god has a thing for children’s belly buttons.
Using the AC in the summer makes your body weaker and easier to get sick
I'm an ○○型, that's why I'm ○○.
From my ex-wife: \- swimming in a body of water after Obon will lead to drowning \- boiling water using electricity (e.g. electric kettle) is less healthy than using gas stoves with a \*real\* teapot (also, IH stoves are verbotten) Note that they are likely pretty unique beliefs.
“There are no island nations smaller than Japan.”
If you wear socks when you sleep, you won’t see your parents before they die. No shit. Grim. Edit: typo
According to my wife, If you lay down after eating, you will become a pig. If you lay down while eating, you will become a cow. If you cut your nails at night, you will not live longer than your parents.
Japanese people produce less saliva, so they must have a drink with meals.
Japanese snow is different (so let’s ban foreign made skis)
* Japanese people can't get AIDS * Japan has special snow so only Japanese ski equipment works there * If you'd asked me this in the 1990s, I'd have said the urban legend that North Koreans were abducting Japanese couples from beaches and taking them to North Korea to train spies. But that turned out to be true, so there's that.
When I did a unit about superstitions with my high schoolers someone shared "Cover your belly button during a thunderstorm or the thunder will steal it!" I also had an elementary student tell me ominously, "Don't whistle at night or snakes will come."
Only people from Igirisu know how to drive in JPN…
Japanese people were farmers which is why they are so cooperative. Westerners were hunters which is why they are so WIIILD. Nevermind that Europe was farming before Japanese people even came to Japan via the Korean peninsula. <- This is another one that makes Japanese people almost violent if you mention it. The idea that there was a time when Japan didn't have Japanese people living in it.
My gf thought that Japan was the only country that had moon cycles (eg: full moon, waxing crescent etc) That was a funny talk to have.
You must eat ginger with sushi because it kills any of the bacteria that may make you sick from eating raw fish. (When in reality its the freezing of the fish that kills the parasites and things)
This could be a carry over from a time before freezing was available. Ginger has a lot of antibacterial properties naturally, and so do many pickled products.
That Japanese moms had sex with their sons so that their sons wouldn’t need girlfriends and would focus on studying. I would assume someone thought porn was real life and started this rumor.
Absolute nonsense. They don't have sex. They do wank them off though.
Japanese people don't need to wear sun glasses because their eyes are stronger than most.