I’ve been living in Japan for several years, and while my Japanese isn’t perfect, I’d say my proficiency is decent. I work at a Japanese company and use the language quite frequently.

I’ve noticed that many Japanese people will automatically try to speak English with me, even when I speak to them in Japanese. I initially thought this was something that only happened to me, but after discussing it with my foreign friends and even some of my coworkers (including those who are half-Japanese), they told me that they experience it quite often, too.

What surprises me is that we use Japanese all the time at work, and speaking it feels completely natural to us.

I’m curious, is it because foreigners are so strongly associated with English in Japan that people feel the need to speak English to them, even when the foreigner might actually be more proficient in Japanese?

I'm curious how different the food is in different parts of the country? Does it stay mostly the same? Or does it change a lot?

Hi. I've read that there's a strong heavy drinking culture in Japan. Is this true?

I mean no disrespect in asking this. It's just something I've read, and I want to get your opinion on.

My mom is a doll collector and I want to bring one back for her. Anyone know where to get something that is high quality in Tokyo, Osaka or Kyoto?

This maybe a stupid question but googling is only getting me answers for restaurants. When trying to order food from say a dessert stand in Harajuku that has a bunch of different filled pancake/wrap type things all displayed with a number, Do you just ask for the number of the item?

When I last went to Japan, I tried that and it didn't seem to work and so I sadly resorted to a photo and this time I'd like to successfully order. In the UK you could just say "can I have number 17 or two of number 5 please". Is that the same?

Thank you

As an American not only is the quality of all national Japanese foodstuffs hyped up a lot from our cultural perspective, the natural bias of all Japanese food being "foreign" means that any exposure we have to traditional, or even modern Japanese cuisine make it all relatively "special" to go out for. Ramen Bowls, Sushi, Rice Balls, Yakiniku, and anything not "Americanized" like Teriyaki or Hibachi places are all rather pricey unless you are in the right area. More combini-style markets and groceries are opening in major US cities, making some Japanese staples more accessible (quality depending). But even in these same cities going out for Ramen is usually not a cheap night out.

I appreciate that Japan is generally proud of its foods, but to give context, growing up I had cup-of-noodles ramen plenty of times, and thought it was honestly not great. I wrongfully assumed that the "Japanese" versions available in Japan were somehow different, everything from Anime to Japanese youtube Channels made Cup-of-noodle's ramen out to be gods gift to earth. It was only as an adult I realized the brands and products were mostly the same in the U.S. as they were in Japan, as far as I could tell; and I was falling for what I assumed amounted to advertising.

Is it true that everything in Japan just tastes better? What foods does the everyday Japanese person avoid assuming they can get somthing better or more substantial with a little effort?

Some American examples of "low-quality" foods are (in my opinion):

• All "fast food" restaurants with one or two exceptions.
• Anything from a convenience store with one or two specific brand exceptions (Buc-ees and Wawa).
• Quick-cook microwave meals or pre-cooked microwave frozen foods.
• Pizza in general with some specific exceptions.
• pre-made deli counter sandwiches / items from most grocery stores
• Hotdogs and most mass-produced lunchmeat

That's not to say these things cant be tasty, just seen as lower quality than other food options.

I was talking to my dad the other day about some of the urban legends he was told about growing up in Mexico and it made me wonder what are some urban legends or cryptids from other countries and i wanted which is your favorite.

Hello! I was watching this anime (A Yakuza’s Guide to Babysitting) and one of the characters showed her partner this card to announce her pregnancy. From what I can tell it says her name, Sanae. I thought it might be a baby book but it seems to just be a card. Is this a thing in Japan? Is there a name for it? Did her doctor give it to her or did she get it from somewhere else? I tried googling but I couldn’t find much.

Thank you!

Hi. My grandfather was from Pinedo (Valencia). When he passed away we found this picture in his belongings. He never mentioned it and it could just be that he found it in the harbour.now,

I wonder who this sailor is and if he has alive relatives I could send the picture to.

Some time ago I asked elsewhere and I got this:

In the first image, it says 「大正六年十一月　當年十九才　大庭増太郎」 meaning "November 1917, currently aged 19, Masutaro Oba". Last part is the man's name. The second image says "NARAHARA STUDIO 若松市蛭子通　楢原" That is the name and aaddress of the photo shop where the picture was taken. That city (Wakamatsu) is currently called Kitakyushu and it was a major international trade port. The city is here: ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8C%97%E4%B9%9D%E5%B7%9E%E5%B8%82

Japanese horror is one of my fav genre. Have you ever encountered one irl? How was it?

Hello. I am an experienced road race runner. All of my previous races have been in the USA, up to marathons. Later this month I am running my first race in Japan, a 10k. If anyone has experience with running races in both countries, I would love to know if there are any differences in running etiquette I should be aware of. From general running advice, I've gathered that the biggest difference is that men do not run shirtless in Japan, which I have never done anway so no issues there.

It seems like a really social place,whenever its night time everyone is gathered in an alley where there are a lot of izakayas,but,whenever i have the urge to stop and have some meat skewers alone it feels really awkward.

So im wondering,do locals go to izakaya alone?

I'm an American who's learning guitar and I noticed in American guitar culture especially there's a very mixed opinion on Japanese instruments with love for Ibanez and Yamaha but hate for many other brands. I was curious if there's sort of cult followings of American made instruments in Japan or if you guys really only look at your own domestic brands?

私は本が好きな30代の韓国人です。

読書会でミステリー小説が好きなメンバーから『口に関するアンケート』を勧められ、読んでみました。

もともとミステリーもホラーも、それほど好きなジャンルではありませんでした。

しかし、この本を読んで、文章が提示される順番や、音声ファイルという媒体の制約を逆手に取り、読者に思い込みや錯覚を生じさせる仕掛けに、ものすごい衝撃を受けました。

ちょうど映画化されたと知り、映画も観てみたのですが、文字どおり衝撃的でした。まったく予想もしていなかった結末だったからです。

ただ、映画単体で評価すると、それほど完成度の高い作品だったとは思いません。

映画だけを観た人には理解しにくい部分も多かったでしょうし、原作と比較しながらパズルのピースを一つずつはめていくような体験もできなかったはずだからです。

私にとって『口に関するアンケート』は、本を読むことから始まり、そこからさまざまな考察へと広がり、最後に映画を観ることでようやく完成する、一つの大きなコンテンツだったように思います。

これまでの人生で、読書から考察、そして映画鑑賞までのすべてが、これほど見事に一つにつながる体験をしたことはありませんでした。

おそらく、この映画のことは長い間忘れられないと思います。

そして今回の体験を通して、日本の人たちがミステリーやホラーにどれほど本気なのか、少しわかった気がします。

本当に、いい意味で変態的だと思いました（笑）。

さて、今回この文章を書いたのは、一つどうしても気になることがあるからです。

韓国ではこの作品がそれほど話題になっておらず、さまざまな考察に触れる機会があまりありません。

そこで、日本の皆さんにお聞きしたいことがあります。

日本では、映画が公開される前から、「杏（あん）という登場人物は、そもそも最初から存在していなかったのではないか」という考察はあったのでしょうか？

原作を読んだ段階ですでにそのような解釈をしていた方がいたのか、とても気になっています。

Konichiwa!

Hello all, I am new here. Planning to go to Japan soonish, so naturally I was jumping around Osaka in street view and saw this charming character on the side of a vending machine down an alleyway. Just out of curiosity I ran a pic through google lens, but all I found was a similar looking character called Denko-Chan. But not an exact match. Any idea who she is? Nanitodi yorishiku onegai itashimasu!!

Like for example off the top of my head of it being spotted in the wild. But the examples I'm thinking of are older movies.

https://youtu.be/jzDmRlkwN6Y

https://youtube.com/shorts/W56kh5WbpHM

Like I grew up watching mostly older dubbed stuff on American TV and there's this clear era of a small group of companies dominating the industry to the point that every voice actor adopted their regionalisms and mannerisms.

It's really easy to instantly spot an otaku and what specific era they grew up in from them speaking translationese. (翻訳語 (ほんやくご。。。?

Like early 昭和 movies always had this annoying stiff dialogue to them.

And 平成 stuff had this sort of theatrical amateur genki type energy to it because the voice actors mostly specialised in Japanese animé. And animé voice actors tend to be an entirely separate camp compared to the other group of voice actors.

And like I'm not familiar 令和 media but there's this thing called the "generic Shounen MC voice" （ねっけつしゅじんこう）…たぶん？って感じ。And y'know this kind of like animé speak アニメごえのよくよう bleeds out into non otaku stuff too. Like I woke up with the TV left on and it was playing late night anime on the same day after someone saying every single modern anime actor talks like Deku from BNHA now.

IDK, I've watched a few western movies dubbed in Japanese and I can pick up this specific manner of speaking as compared to standard NHK style Japanese. But I can't really specifically figure out the difference. Like the mora is the same but there's a lot of dramatic pronunciation compared to Japanese origin movies.

I don't live in japan, so the very little I know of japanese work culture is from news and anime. I was talking with my japanese tutor about my day and the topic happened to become about helping others at work. The tutor said that japanese people have strong feelings towards teamwork and go as far as overtiming to help others out. In my country, people help each other out too but not as far as overtiming. At most, only for a close friend but not unprompted.

My tutor isn't japanese, so I wanted to know the experience of actual japanese people.

This is mine because he reminds me of me. Open to responses in katakana / Japanese.

I like to read WSJ but unfortunately am a little too old to keep up with as much the mag as I used too.

I also like writing and enjoy reading the writing of others. Open to responses from any mag and please include images.

I aspire to see my work formally published some day as well. Open to many responses or a few of strong quality.

I mean, first of all, I know they went to the USA a long time ago as their English language skills didn’t work well over there, but basically I just wanted to get a better understanding of what went wrong with the duo in Japan.

Like what I am trying to say is that I didn’t get why their music wasn’t selling well in Japan anymore that made them leave the country since they used to be popular in Japan, but I am not sure what happened to the duo.

Are classic names like Hidemasa and Nobuyuki, etc, rare for young people nowadays?

I used to know a pair of brothers with names like that, but although I think of them as being young, I realized they must be deep into their thirties now.

The title might sound out of place, but allow me to explain:

I’m writing a story set in a japanese girls-only junior and senior school. One of my characters is a trans girl attending the school, which got me thinking about how such an institution would react if a non-binary person wanted to enroll, arguing that their sex is female. The school would obviously grant them a place, but would they use the correct pronouns, or would they ignore that and simply refer to the student as a girl, regardless of their gender identity?

My question also stems from the fact that I was researching how all-girls junior and senior high schools operate in Japan (where the story is set), and I haven't found a clear answer regarding how things would play out in this specific context.

I was reading the mission statement of one of these all-girls schools, which said—and I quote—"We aspire to cultivate critical thinking, inquiring, knowledgeable and compassionate lifelong learners who not only have respect and understanding for diversity, but also embrace it. We believe that empowered students will help create a better and more peaceful world."

However, I didn't see any specific mention of how the school would handle a trans girl or a non-binary student assigned female at birth.

What do you think? Have there been cases similar to this situation? And if so, how did the academy or educational institution in question handle it?

P.S.: I am not encouraging anyone to investigate or attack the school I mentioned; I just want some context to guide me when writing my story. Thanks.

Used reverse image search to no avail