Weird Things About Japan
(Oh, right!  Like we're not weird to them!?)

Unnecessary white gloves worn for jobs like .. "C'mon, get on the bus!"

Don't put one person onto a job when you can get the same job done with six.

Whaddayacallit?: that sharp intake of breath through clenched teeth. They just cannot get through a conversation without it.  Often accompanied by waving the hand from side to side.

Stand at a urinal in a men's bathroom in a train station .. and watch the parade of women walking in to use the facilities who will not wait in line (translation for New Yorkers: on line)  in the women's room.

Japanese wives who put up with husbands getting drunk with co-workers or customers every damn night for 30 or 40 years.

Elevators attendants who bow and apologize like they've done something to offend you. 
I'd rather push the button myself.

Spending $$thousands$$ to play a round of golf.
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Golf driving ranges that are built like skyscrapers.  As you hit balls on the ground level, there are ten stories of people doing the same above you.

Why be simple when you can be complicated? Whereas, in English, we are reduced to a panoply of poverty with only 26 characters and 10 arabic numerals, the Japanese proliferated with two phonetic systems and several thousand Kanji characters to express themselves in writing.  And they can use all three character sets at the same time in one sentence. A profusion of confusion!

Objects are counted using different sets of words, according to their shape and size. Long and thin objects, like bananas, are counted using different words than the same number of objects that are round, like oranges, or the same number of objects that are flat in shape, like train tickets.

Where else in the world would burglars remove their shoes before entering a house they intend to rob? (True story.)

If you misplace a wallet or handbag, the chances are that it will be returned with the money intact.

You can park your bike outside a department store while you shop .. without a chain .. and it will be there when you return.

If you're not used to it, it can be startling to walk into a big store at opening time (exactly on time!) and hear a Greek chorus of "irrasshaimase" (welcome), accompanied by the bowing and scraping as you walk down the aisles.  Did Queen Elizabeth walk in behind me?

Japanese find it hard to say an outright "no" to a request, regardless of the fact that they know they will not be able to do it.

Expressing your feelings clearly is not the norm in Japan.  To be vague is a positive attribute.  To sidestep an issue is preferable to confronting it head-on.

Where is this heard? -- Fifteen rub-u, thirty forty, deuce-u, nice shotto and justo outo.
At a Japanese tennis tournament.  They use Engrish to score.

Manga, the brutal and erotic Japanese comics that (male) adults read on trains.

The Tokyo Ski Dome - 300 feet tall and 30 lanes wide of downhill skiing in July.  Reservations are now being taken for the year 2023.
(If you insist on seeing it, here is the outside and here is the inside and another inside.)
 
 
In large public swimming pools, they have one-way swimming - swim one lap, get out, walk back to where you started. Then, join the line to swim your next lap!  

Oh, you've never been to a Tokyo pool in the middle of summer?  They can get a bit crowded ...... click on the thumbnail and see if you can identify one of your closest 10,000 friends.

Mickey and Minnie Mouse bowing instead of sticking their 4-fingered gloves out.  A 4-fingered glove?  Wait!!  Are they the original yakuza?
 

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© 1998 Jazzbo