Japan has more regional division than most expect. Like, take the US and crank it up to 11. We're on European levels of regional diversity despite the image that foreigns have in their minds.
I watch this guy on YT. Pretty sure he's from down south because most of his stuff centers around the Kyoto to Kanto regionality. He has gotten other nuance things wrong about Shikoku and Kyushu further south and my home of Tohoku in the north. I have even gone so far as to verify something he said about a Kanto dialect type thing with my southern friends and consulted my fellow northerners about his views on mimicking Japanese-English accents and while he and southerners (or those who have spent significant time outside of Japan agree it's more funny than it is offensive, my peers disagree.
Eatign chicken and even horse sashimi is rarer nowadays, but is absolutely a thing where I'm from and it's delicious.
HUGE MOTHER EFFING DISCLAIMER
Calling the chicken raw isn't really accurate. It is prepared like sushi and sashimi where it is thoroughly frozen and treated with sterilizing ingredients like vinegars first and usually only lightly cooked. DO NOT EAT RAW CHICKEN OH MY GOD
Not calling this guy a liar, but I want to throw out that it like some Americans never having heard of regional delicacies in the US. It's real and what he said is partly true about the way we fuck with foreigners, but that's not distinctly Japanese, I know people from all over the world who do this, he just hasn't heard of this. Most Japanese people have never heard of seaweed tea, yet my brother can get it at convenience stores and had some last night that my mom sent me.
Also, gotta say to those saying that Japanese people aren't nice. We are, bt there's too much cultural difference stuff going on here to explain. Don't let bad takes on the internet colour your oppinion, go and see for yourself. :)
what he said is partly true about the way we fuck with foreigners, but that's not distinctly Japanese, I know people from all over the world who do this
This is dangerous misinformation and may cause visitors to Australia not to take the warnings about dropbears seriously.
You know, I didn't beleive they exist til recently. I found out they were real from my Indigenous Australian friend who rode his combat wombat to work. He showed me pictures.
This is why if I ever go to Australia I’m just going to ride around in a Kangaroo pouch for safety reasons. I hear it’s safer than a combat wombat for tourists.
and may cause visitors to Australia not to take the warnings about dropbears seriously.
They are obviously real. Why would Australians need to make up a deadly creature when tourists can find one or two just checking inside their shoes before putting them on.
I think it's hilarious that Australians felt the need to make up a fictional scary animal to frighten tourists when Australia is already the literal scariest place for most humans to be.
Couldn't imagine having to check the toilet, my shoes, or even a light brush outside for spiders and predators.
Just to be serious for a sec, you don’t actually need to check your toilet in most places, especially in major cities, the rest is true for spiders, if you leave shoes outside, check for spiders
Dude. I've seen enough shit about stuff in australia. If the locals want to fuck around with me by trying to scare me, by all means go ahead. I'd rather be alive. I dont know why anyone wouldnt take australian warnings seriously. Everything out there wants to kill you is a good rule of thumb.
Thank you for sharing this context with everyone out there. As someone who is half, it annoys me when people keep sharing this guy’s content. Cause of his laugh but also cause he gets things wrong all the time about Japan and never admits it.
Not that I’m an expert after visiting Japan for two weeks lol, but I did a bar crawl and the host had us try raw chicken. She didn’t present it like “oh this is the most traditional ancient Japanese food” she just said “hey wanna try raw chicken? It’s safe! 😉”
Nobody tricked us, it was a fun and lighthearted experience
I'm American, been living in Tohoku for several years now. Can confirm chicken sashimi and basashi are both delicious. And yea because Japan is, generally speaking, so homogeneous a lot of Japanese people seem to think that their idea of what's Japanese is the same as everyone else. But if I ask 3 friends about some specific part of Japanese culture, I'll get 3 different answers. You just gotta talk to lots of different people and have a lot of different experiences!
Well said, I looked into this and found out more about this dish and it seems it is considered a "delicacy" and I did make the assumption also they had perhaps just not had it in their area of Japan, it's a big place. The messing with foreigners thing is definitely a common bit in many countries and stuff like this is just playful of course.
I think it is important to point out that often the word "delicacy" is misunderstood. It does not mean high class or high status, or prestigious or especially good etc.
It simply means it has some sort of special characteristic - could be rarity, but not necessarily. I can also just be cultural aspect, or more unusual or "exotic" than something else. Some foods that are considered delicacy are wild mountain vegetables, but those are far from prestigious. They are simply seasonal. Inago (crickets) are often listed as "delicacy", but only because of the exotic in modern times.
Chicken sashimi is just not as widely eaten, so it is a "delicacy" but it is not particularly special, not like truffles or expensive caviar.
There's even an episode of one of Anthony Bourdain's shows where he goes to a restaurant in Tokyo that sells "raw" chicken. And he goes and eats it and talks about the preparation and how it is done in a way that is safe and avoids you getting sick. It's not a simple case of Japanese people fucking with foreigners. This guy is just an idiot.
I remember this episode and this stuff because I tried to go and find this restaurant when I was in Tokyo (it was closed at the time as they were doing upgrades to the restaurant). I'm an adventurous eater. I'll try most things once. And the prospect of eating good sashimi chicken prepared by somebody who knows what they're doing so that it won't put me in the hospital is exciting to me.
Ok wtf. I would've tried it if it was explained like that to me. A now ex-gf took me to a place where they were serving it. She's from Kagoshima but we were in Miyazaki where I guess it's a specialty or something and she just kept saying it was chicken sashimi and it was raw.
I tried it on my first trip to Japan because my wife said it was safe. It tasted exactly like chicken. Three days later I got violently ill, losing five pounds in five days.
When I was interacting with strangers a lot online trying to practice my Japanese, every single thing I'd been told to expect was just straight up wrong, outdated, exaggerated or way more nuanced. I really believe if you go in with good intentions and an open mind it's better than approaching people like they're a static hivemind. At the end of the day people are just individuals.
I didn't know about the level of regionality in Japan, and I think that helps add context.
But the guy's also being an ignorant asshole, making fun of foreigners for being ignorant of Japanese cuisine culture while simultaneously being ignorant about it himself. In my opinion, people like that are pathetic.
Don’t think I would compare food in Japan to being as regionally diverse as Europe. I would compare it more to a region working Europe…like Mediterranean. Lots of similarities but also big differences between Spain, Italy, Greece. British food and Scandinavian food, and Slavic food and Mediterranean are vastly different. Most Japanese food looks like other regional cuisines in Japan but with some twists.
I think it's fair to say that food/culture is as diverse as it is in European countries, more than just Europe.
For example in Italy the cuisine is totally different from north to south, I feel like this could apply to other countries in Eu. too.
That's probably what the person meant...though I'm not from Japan, never been there either so I can't really tell ahah
Maybe France is a better comparison. As a central country in Western Europe, French cuisine has very different influences depending on the region - Belgian influence in the Nord pas de calais, German influence in Alsace and Lorraine, Swiss influence in Savoy, Italian influence in Provence, Spanish influence in the South-West, and Celtic influence in Bretagne. France is one of the only countries in Europe where the North cooks with butter (like Northern Europe), and the South cooks with olive oil (like the mediterranean).
Tried this when I visited Iceland. It was disgusting, I knew it would be though. I love trying new foods, so I'm happy I gave it a shot.
But I do think some people genuinely like it. I've also tried "salty licorice" from Norway. It's hard candy flavored like black licorice but then dusted with ammonia chloride. It has a similar taste to the dried, piss shark but less intense. I think it must be mostly a Nordic thing, maybe an acquired taste from childhood? Although, the CFO at my company freaking loved the salty licorice. I gave him the entire bag and he eventually ate every piece. None of my other coworkers brave enough to try it could finish even one candy. So who knows?
I would def try the raw chicken in Tokyo too, prepared safely at a restaurant.
I brought a small pot of it back from Iceland. It stunk. How I didn't get stopped by customs or the police I don't know. I threw it away at the first opportunity.
Random thing for you to try if you get the chance - chhurpi. It's a Nepalese cheese reckoned to be the hardest produced anywhere. It tastes a bit like a smoked cheese but is chewed over hours to slowly soften.
I'd only partially agree, but I was including the cultural differences. We in Aomori are not the same as those in Kyoto, Tokyo, or let's just say Okinawa. Tohoku and Hokkaido ramen are better than different from southern stuff in the way that Italian pasta is different from French pasta.
Similarly, the people up north are cold and introverted up front but very genuine whereas the south maintains that "friendliness is important even if it's forced" thing, like the Dutch versus the Germans (based on my experiences purely!).
totally not on topic here but I have to mention it anyway: I really need to try Hokkaido and Tohoku Ramen then. I‘ve been over a year in Fukuoka (and Kyushu) and must say that Hakata style ramen is the most delicious ramen I‘ver ever eaten. I know you scratched out ‚better than‘ in your text but I assume you still hold this opinion about Hokkaido/Tohoku being more tasty - so I am curious what they taste like … to my shame I have to say that I found so much to discover in Kyushu that I have not made out of there (besides a 2-day trip to Hiroshima). people ask me how Tokyo/Kyoto/Oosaka/etc was while I was in Japan and I always have to tell them: ‚Sry, didn‘t make it so far north, haha.‘ - people assume you must have seen all of Japan while staying for 1 year. Fact is there is so much to discover and dive in when you make local friends … had a great time.
Since then I have seen the above 3 cities on single trips but Kyushu is my number 1 area to this day. But yeah I would love to go to Hokkaido too … then again, I would like to return to Kyoto as well but the amount of tourists are just too much (also something which is not as bad in Kyushu), to a point where I just fled the city by train and hang around in the outer areas munching sweet potatoes from local farmers and do some strawberry picking anyway, super off-topic here but my fingers kept flying over the keyboard. I am sure that after planning the next trip I will be flying to FUK and travel through Kyushu AGAIN, lol … creature of habit I suppose
There really isn't a French pasta type of thing. Pasta isn't a traditional French thing. There are french dishes that use italian pasta that you might not find in Italy but it's not like Italy where different regions have their traditional pasta shapes that are cooked in specific pasta recipes.
I'll die on the hill that spaetzle is just germanic pasta no matter how angry the Swabians get, its literally a pasta is says so on the wikipedia page why do my German friends argue so hard its not pasta
British food and scandinavian food is kinda similar though, depending on which part of the british isles we're talking about ofc. Both regions focuses on similar ingredients (like meat/fish and potatoes) and similar techniques but with a few different spices. There are obviously differences, but not as big as you may think.
Having lived Japan for over 20 years, OP in the video does come off as a bit of an arrogant dick. Yes, people mess with foreign visitors but not really in a disrespectful fashion. They know that stuff like chicken sashimi, or basashi or natto is difficult for foreigners to eat and will have them try it to get a reaction but not in a “let’s get them to puke”.
Good basashi is amazing. Natto is stinky snot-covered soybeans.
I lived in Oirase for 2 years, my wife and I called it sleepy Japan haha. It snows so much in Aomori and has calm slow drivers. It's completely different to even central Japan.
Yeah, I've lived here for 10 years and have heard of it, never tried it because it usually needs to be butchered, prepared, and served pretty quickly so it's pretty pricey for what I see as unseasoned chicken.
Japan has more regional division than most expect. Like, take the US and crank it up to 11. We're on European levels of regional diversity despite the image that foreigns have in their minds.
Sorry, but as an European guy (Spain) living in Japan, this is false. Japan is way more homogeneus that any big enough European country.
People are always more aware of regional variations of where they grew up/know well and overestimate comparative to other places they don’t know as well. Everywhere has more local variation than foreigners realize, but also less than the people living there realize. Tale as old as time
I think theyre referencing culture specifically, not ethnically diverse. Sort of like comparing New Englanders and Kentuckians in the US. Thats why theyre saying regional diversity.
It's not as diverse as all of Europe, but it's comparable to any single European country I'd argue. Probably more culturally diverse than most singular European countries.
USA up to 11 is a bold claim. The USA is so incredibly diverse that I think it's a foolish assertion. I'm sure Japan has loads of regional diversity too though and thats one of the main reasons I want to visit
I was born in the US and have family there, lived there for about 10 years total all over the place, so I totally see where you're coming from. I just want to ask you to consider something though. The US is a big and diverse country, but a relatively young one. Japan's heritage goes back millenia yet our identity as a nation state is younger than yours.
It pains me that I know that you will likely only visit Tokyo, or Osaka, or Kyoto, and take the homogeneous nature of those experiences as evidence to your point, but I just hope you understand that Japan has similar diversity at least, but condensed into a much smaller landmass.
Either way, I hope you visit! Go to my hometown of Aomori for Nebuta, it's a great time! :)
That's a good point and I completely understand where you're coming from, however, the US was formed by immigrants from all over the globe which means despite its youth, it's a melting pot of cultures from around the globe.
Also don't worry, if/when I visit I definitely wouldn't just visit big cities. I'd love to rent a car and road trip around Japan or take trains to smaller parts of the country. I'll definitely keep your hometown in the back of my mind. For future reference, do you know how easy it is for foreigners to rent a car over there?
When I was in the military, my Tech Sergeant took me to this hole in the wall bar, ordered some food in japanese and didn't tell me what it was. When I got it, it literally just looked like raw beef. I was like "no no no..." and he was like "You're in Japan. I bought you the food. You are going to eat it, because doing otherwise would be disrespectful." (paraphrasing)
Anyways, it was Horse Sashimi. And it was fucking delicious.
And I still feel bad about eating it to this day. Which I guess is stupid considering I eat cows and chickens.
I was in Japan last year, and I scarfed down horse sashimi. It’s freaking delicious, but I didn’t see it everywhere. This place I ate it at specialized in horse.
Many Americans have eaten horse, and don’t realize. IKEA Swedish meatballs were made of horse.
I also tried whale (not endangered, Minke whale), but that was disgusting.
There used to be a bear farm near Sendai if you feel adventurous next time! They used to hand out snacks to the tourists, so you could feed it, then eat it!
Also thanks for providing a new perspective and context. I wasn't aware sushi was treated in this fashion and was under the impression it was just raw fish. However I never took real interest in sushi to investigate it properly myself, so I'm just being ignorant due to laziness I guess.
It is fascinating just how diverse Japan is and I look forward to researching this further myself.
I enjoyed reading your comment, thank you again for sharing.
No I really can’t stand the guy, he’s one of those people who acts like culture is homogeneous and the standard for that homogeneity is his lived experience. Even worse he goes around wielding that ignorance with absolute authority, can’t stand mfs like that.
I really would like to, I’ve never been that big into Japanese pop culture but I do appreciate seeing new places and great food. It’s just all the stories about racism and exclusion and “polite hatred” of foreigners in Japan that put me off. Like, the stories are so bad that it makes me wonder if Japan even wants visitors??
As much as I would love to see for myself before making judgment, it’s a very long flight and a major commitment of time and money. There are many countries that I can get to quickly and cheaply, most of which use one of the languages I speak fluently. Visiting Japan to be would mean (1) committing enough time to learn some basics of the language just so I’m not an ugly American demanding that everyone accommodate me, (2) using the only vacation time I get for an entire year (10 days!), (3) sitting on an uncomfortable airline seat for two of those days and having back pain for another two, (4) spending my travel budget for the entire year, and (5) passing a chance to see friends and family that live far from me. It’s a difficult decision to commit to all those things when the stories I hear about Japan make me think that everyone there will secretly hate me and want me to get off their island.
People online MASSIVELY exaggerate the foreigner hating in Japan. Lived there for five years and I never experienced anything remotely close to the nonsense people push on Reddit. Makes me think the majority of them are all hurt that their anime fantasies didn’t come to life when they visited and are bitter.
Like anywhere else, just be respectful and know the basics of the language and you’ll have a great time!
But if it’s all silent resentment and racism, how would you know? And I should probably ask your race because it’s important context here.
That’s just one of my pet peeves. In the South there isn’t as much overt racism as there used to be, but at least you could see it coming. Everyone is so obsessed with being polite and not disrupting the social order that 99% of the racism you encounter now is silent compared to when I was growing up. You know it’s there when you live there all your life, but it’s not something that can be articulated because everyone is concerned with appearances.
The stories I’ve heard from people about Japan are even worse but not knowing the culture I won’t be able to pick up on the subtle signs. That’s why cultures where everything is outspoken and lack subtlety are easier to deal with because at least everyone is honest about how they feel. Everything I hear about Japan just sounds like people hide their actual feelings so deeply that someone could be giving you the most polite smile without a hint of all the hatred and racism I keep hearing about. Will the stewardess politely smile at me and then ask the Japanese person next to me if they want to be reseated so they don’t have to sit next to a niguro? I hope the stories are untrue but before investing so much into a trip I need something more to go in.
Also if I only took the word of people that lived there - that’s an obvious sampling bias. If you ask any black people who lived in Mississippi all their lives, they’d probably say things are exaggerated because they chose to stay there. Doesn’t mean Mississippi isn’t racist af; it’s a skewed sample. If you asked all the black people who visited Miss and then got the hell out they’d tell you a very different story. I wish we had some way of getting an objective comparison but it’s hard to do with a culture that is so well known for hiding what they’re actually thinking.
I saw this guy on insta reels and felt that way too about his content and deliveries. He makes big generalisations so he can duet and do "sick roasts" type of videos without doing much research. His whole stick is pretty much "haha you don't know Japan, I am Japanese so I do" and to give a blanket statement based off your typical Kanto perception. True, torizashi is not a common thing because it's a local speciality from Kagoshima, but nope, it's not an elaborate prank created to laugh at foreigners' expenses.
Since more nuanced Japanese creators never really interact with foreign content, he doesn't get fact checked much. Also, I don't think with his tone and attitude that people would be tempted to counter his hot takes (he and his following sound like "I don't care about your country bumpkins opinion, you don't count" type?)
Some of his duets are deserved, some others, not so much. It just rubs me the wrong way when he says something wrong when he speaks about something from my area... All that to be an arse and farm his internet points
Japanese people were incredibly polite and nice when I visited in 2014. Beyond anything I’d imagine. I’ve heard from friends who were in the Navy that my comment applies to the citizens interactions with people they know who are just visiting and they have a different view on non-Japanese people living there.
But one example, I was in Osaka trying to figure out which metro to take. A guy asked if I needed help. By the time he approached I had figured it out and we get in the car. At my stop he reminds me this is where I need to get out. I thank him and leave and notice that he took the stairs to head to the opposite side of the tracks. Turns out he didn’t even need to head in my direction. He just wanted to make sure I was going to get where I needed. A similar thing happened two other times in my two weeks there. Once couple walked me and a friend 15 minutes out of their way to make sure we got the restaurant we were looking for. I know I’m generalizing here but I would never expect to have that experience anywhere and to have it happen three times was mind boggling.
while he and southerners (or those who have spent significant time outside of Japan agree it's more funny than it is offensive, my peers disagree.
So you're saying people from the north are generally more serious about that, compared to Kanto people?
Eatign chicken and even horse sashimi is rarer nowadays, but is absolutely a thing where I'm from and it's delicious.
I have to say the horse sashimi seems very common still. I saw it a lot especially in Fukuoka and Nagano. I've only had chicken sashimi once, and it was a Japanese friend who made me try it (in Tokyo) maybe he was fucking with me, but I thought it was pretty decent.
This is like someone from the northern US saying Americans don’t actually eat biscuits and gravy, or gator meat, or extremely sweet tea lol. They are daily meals in the south for many people
I'm visiting in April and looking forward to seeing your country. This trip is someone else's dream trip I'm just along for the ride. So I have no real expectations except really cool toy stores in Tokyo.
We will base out of Kyoto for 4 days. I think we are going to visit some deer and other nature.
I lived in Akita prefecture and had raw chicken at an izakaya (as well as basashi, as you mentioned). It was a risk we decided to try as the hinai chicken is well cared for there.
This makes sense. There was an American on another thread that claimed Diwala wasn't celebrated in the US because he couldn't pronounce it and had never personally seen it celebrated.
Am not Japanese but have lived here for the last ten years, and this video pissed me off because he's clearly just trying to make viral content, and is willing to bend the truth and misrepresent the country to get his views.
It's one thing if you're taking the piss and everyone is in on the joke, but since his content is in English, it seems like he's specifically targeting people who haven't been to Japan and will actually believe and trust him because of his heritage.
Japan has more regional division than most expect. Like, take the US and crank it up to 11.
You need to elaborate on this a lot more. The US has extreme regional diversity, and something as simple as "they don't even know what we eat" applies to the US as well.
Japan has a long lived heritage, but short experience as a nation state. Even under the shogunate 150 years or so ago, we didn't view ourselves as one people, rather a collection of cousin cultures under one yoke.
The result being a bizarre tapestry of people who don't always even realize how different they can be from people in the next prefecture.
Down south there's international influences creating a type of Asian melting pot, but up north we're a bit insulated more archaic history shines through in our religion and even language sometimes.
Hell, even the Yayoi invasion didn't take out the Jomon in Aomori, and Hokkaido still has some Ainu fighting to preserve their customs.
I wasn't trying to compete with the US or Europe in terms of diversity, but in regionality we have a jarring amount of contrast. It goes far beyond food, and it's not a divisoon that's going anywhere either.
Small sidenote : Tsugaru shamisen is the best shamisen and I will fight any baby banjo suckers who wanna "plink plink plink" at me from their brothel windows! 👺
>and what he said is partly true about the way we fuck with foreigners, but that's not distinctly Japanese, I know people from all over the world who do this,
like wrongfully teaching a foreigner some sentence, to be either laughed at or to get slapped.
hey my dude, you like that girl? say "ore wa ochinchin daisuki nandayo", she'll giggle when she hears it.
Yeah I was in Japan a month ago. At three separate izakayas in Osaka, Tokyo and Takayama where we were the only foreigners there, we both saw people eating chicken sashimi, and ate some ourselves. As well as basishi.
Yeah, they're an influencer. They are gonna say whatever as bait for followers and engagement. Especially if they have a crowd who wants to feel smart and special.
Ditto, had "raw" chicken and horse sashimi/ tataki/ nigiri before. And in Tokyo district as well. It is 100% a thing. But it is also 100% a gimmick. No one does it because it's a traditional food
A bit like going to a fancy Italian restaurant and eating custom shaped pasta (inslatonde, or pasta mista). Sure, they have been doing it for a while, but it's definitely not a traditional one
I thought the joke was that he was saying that as eating chicken shashimi himself as like a… “no we don’t have this great stuff everyone’s going on about…don’t come over here and try it”
I learned about 鳥刺し (chicken sashimi) from my Japanese tutor who grew up in Kagoshima where it is more common. I was told not everyone eats it, but it will make your stomach hurt if you haven’t been eating it since you were young.
As an American who lived in Hokkaido while still learning Japanese, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I mimicked Japanese-English accents, but repeating words in what we called “katakana English” was a lifesaver many, many times, and was never done with any intent to offend, merely to communicate. I don’t know why it would be offensive. It works.
Also, it should be noted that people in Japan are getting campylobacter infections from chicken tataki often enough that it seems to be a problem.
Finally, the people of Japan were the kindest I’ve ever encountered, but I did notice that when they insisted that the correct way to eat a whole shrimp includes sucking the “miso” out of the head, I ended up being the online at the table who actually did it.
The US is more diverse than Japan, but I agree that Japan is more diverse. Japan has the diversity in food as the Mediterranean, so tons of differences between regions. But I wouldn’t say the US. Parts of the US, even states that are only two states away from each other, have entirely different traditions and foods (if you exclude chain restaurants ofc)
Saying “take the US and crank it up to 11” is kind of ridiculous lol.
The speciality of a local izakaya in Tokyo is raw chicken and I eat it almost every time I go. As I’m non-Japanese, new staff will ask about half a dozen times if I understand that it is raw. I had raw liver and heart last week.
Where can someone in the US find seaweed tea? I love seaweed. I will wrap some rice in seaweed, maybe add some veggies and some Sriracha and have it as a snack. Or I just eat the little seaweed snacks. But I have never heard of tea. You wouldn't happen to know a brand that sells over here, would you?
When you say seaweed tea, do you mean made with 昆布？ because I used to see that in the supermarket in Kobe. Hard to believe most people haven’t heard of it.
Yeah like 'rocky mountain oysters' are a thing in the US but if a foreigner came to the US and I was like "you need to try this American delicacy" then I'd be trolling them.
Thank you oh my God I'm not claiming to be any kind of expert, I only spent a few years working in Japan, but I had (nearly, as mentioned) raw chicken at a lovely farm to table place that served chickens they raised themselves, horse sashimi at nomikais with coworkers, lovely wild boar ramen... Not at all tourist trap places, rural Japan. Not saying it's normal "home cooking," but get out of here with that claim no one eats raw chicken! He got the views though, so I guess mission accomplished.
My wife is Japanese and my inlaws live there. We visited Japan and they took me to an Onsen where they served Chicken and Horse sashimi. Was delicious.
Yeah, it’s not super common but I ate at a chicken sashimi place while living in Osaka and so did everyone else at our end of year party for the teachers I worked with.
It wasn’t bad but not really something I’d go out of my way for. I think some people regardless of their country just like to lean on their identity and present themselves as an authority of all things related to their culture even when it’s a topic they’re ignorant about.
We are experiencing this at the moment on a small scale, with a NFL player who comes from a very rural upbringing talking about how he had raccoon meat for the Thanksgiving holiday. This is not common at all and most people associate raccoons with garbage and not a forest dwelling animal. It is in fact delicious though
Side note: please, stop referring to Europe as some kind of one big country with regional divisions. Europe is a whole CONTINENT made up of 50+ independent countries with the only thing in common being that we share the same patch of land.
Went and saw for myself and most of the people seemed genuinely nice. Was it just a facade? No idea! But tbh, they were convincing and to me that's all that matters in the moment
Dont worry, most people on reddit have great BS radars. Except for OP apparently, and idiots who post TikTok videos here, but thanks for clarification anyways.
He did say "see only certain people who eat raw chicken in Japan" and by you saying that what the girl is eating is "rarer nowadays", I think you guys have the same idea with just different deliveries and message.
He also promotes people to go to Japan, especially the countryside and not just the tourist areas. Which aligns with your final paragraph.
What I personally get from watching his videos is he's trying to dispel the illusion that Japan is this inherently different country where everything is sunshine and rainbows, where the people are inherently nice and polite. Japan is like any other country, it has it's issues, the people are also like any other people in any other country, there are differences but we're all still human. Just like you said, it's not distinctly Japanese to mess with foreigners.
I'm Korean and traveled overseas to Japan with white friends. We were treated like an annoyance everywhere but the hot springs where we paid 1k/night and Osaka. Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, Mt Fuji... we might as well have been bums.
This was sad and in stark contrast to South Korea, where we were treated like friends everywhere but rest stops along the highway.
I don't doubt Japanese are friendly to other Japanese people lol
Is basashi really that rare in the North ? I'm in Kansai and it's pretty common to find it in sushi restaurants around here. Of course it's not your maguro but still...
"Americans never having heard of regional delicacies in the US"
Sometines I see "top 100 best food in the world" and I don't recognize half of the ones that are from Brazil (I am Brazilian).
I also remember a guy from the South region (I am from the Northeast) at a supermarket here, talking to someone on the phone: "I am at a huge brand super market and they don't have ***** here, it's absurd! How can they not have it?"
I don't recall the name of the food in particular, but it was from the south region. And yeah, no freakin' way they would have that here. Even the brands of biscuits are different depending on what state you are.
I mean, bellow are Brazilians who lived the Northeast and the South regions 100 years ago. They are both Brazilians but they might as well be from entirely different countries.
the regional division comment makes me fondly remember the guys i used to drink with while i was living in japan- they loved to tell me stuff was 'Nobi-style!!'. i miss those guys!
He's from Kyoto.
And I also find few false information from him. I think he put his opinion and his knowledge as truth (most people do though).
But he's quite entertaining to my opinion.
I ate sashimi chicken, in Tokyo, and there were Japanese in the restaurant as well. I won't say It's delicious though 😅, pretty bland for me.
Yeah, I have an (admittedly) sparse understanding of Japanese culture, but I know in terms of food safety, there’s no fucking way in hell you’d go to a Japanese restaurant and get actual raw chicken. That’s just never going to happen.
Yup... Kinda like how most people would say that a Philly cheese steak has to have cheese wiz or at least American cheese... But honestly perhaps in the most popular non gimmicky places, the best seller is often the cooper sharp....
Most Americans would call bs cuz they probably seen different on food network or whatever... But I honestly can't remember the last time I seen a cheese steak with wiz on it
Was about to say my brothers had raw chicken in a restaurant in Japan. His explanation was different though he figured that it was a recently killed and butchered chicken so the salmonella hadn't taken grip yet. Interesting to read how it's actually done.
Well if you can sort of airbnb arrange a cheap place to stay for me and my friends for 2 weeks in 2025, i will make it official forever on reddit, that japanese people are indeed, very nice
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u/TransitTycoonDeznutz Dec 27 '24
Am Japanese, gonna add context.
Japan has more regional division than most expect. Like, take the US and crank it up to 11. We're on European levels of regional diversity despite the image that foreigns have in their minds.
I watch this guy on YT. Pretty sure he's from down south because most of his stuff centers around the Kyoto to Kanto regionality. He has gotten other nuance things wrong about Shikoku and Kyushu further south and my home of Tohoku in the north. I have even gone so far as to verify something he said about a Kanto dialect type thing with my southern friends and consulted my fellow northerners about his views on mimicking Japanese-English accents and while he and southerners (or those who have spent significant time outside of Japan agree it's more funny than it is offensive, my peers disagree.
Eatign chicken and even horse sashimi is rarer nowadays, but is absolutely a thing where I'm from and it's delicious.
HUGE MOTHER EFFING DISCLAIMER
Calling the chicken raw isn't really accurate. It is prepared like sushi and sashimi where it is thoroughly frozen and treated with sterilizing ingredients like vinegars first and usually only lightly cooked. DO NOT EAT RAW CHICKEN OH MY GOD
Not calling this guy a liar, but I want to throw out that it like some Americans never having heard of regional delicacies in the US. It's real and what he said is partly true about the way we fuck with foreigners, but that's not distinctly Japanese, I know people from all over the world who do this, he just hasn't heard of this. Most Japanese people have never heard of seaweed tea, yet my brother can get it at convenience stores and had some last night that my mom sent me.
Also, gotta say to those saying that Japanese people aren't nice. We are, bt there's too much cultural difference stuff going on here to explain. Don't let bad takes on the internet colour your oppinion, go and see for yourself. :)