so you've just arrived in Japan and after getting off the plane you just
can't seem to find your harem of girls that were supposed to be waiting for you
so you head straight to the nearest information counter to ask for
directions but hang on a second where the subtitles in a moment of panic you
blurt out the only Japanese you know itadakimasu realizing you must have
come to the wrong place you take out your phone and call your okaa-san for
help if this story sounds all too familiar to you then you've come to the
right place my goal with this video is to help temper your expectations about
what traveling around real world Japan is really like by sharing with you five
ways that Japan is nothing like it's portrayed in anime number 5 enjoy the
nightlife without any strife given that the vast majority of anime
are based on high-school students drinking is really not shown that much
because unlike the West no one in Japan would ever dream of breaking underage
drinking laws right right so anime tends to portray drinking as just something
that boring old salary men do and although there is a major corporate
drinking culture in Japan called nomikai where employees meet up after work
to let down their hair and socialize but Japanese night life does not live and die
in the izakaya the vast majority of people I saw while out in the wee hours
of the night were young adults or other tourists rarely do you ever see someone
wearing a suit with their tie loose or their shirt half untucked there are all
sorts of restaurants bars and clubs packed tightly with youth making
memories that they'll never remember and know you really don't have to worry too
much about having a run-in with the Yakuza they're too busy raising
telekinetic aliens to hassle you over your pronunciation of itadakimasu
number 4 real school life is nothing like your waifu's
this might come as a bit of a shock to you but one of the least realistic parts
of anime is just how it portrays high school life in Japan although this won't
affect your next vacation it's still an interesting insight into Japanese
culture all the same if the situation is something entirely implausible in
Western culture then it's safe to say the same goes for Japan like the all
too common trope of students living on their own in a boujie apartment with their
parents nowhere to be found want to move in with your girlfriend at
16 sure what could go wrong
But in reality the only time a high school student would ever live on their own would be at
a boarding school in a school operated dormitory where they can't really get up
to any fun shenanigans but good thing too because you're gonna need your
parents around to wash your stylish school uniform right well maybe not in
anime school uniforms are colorful unique and well sort of revealing but in
reality they're actually quite conservative and come in black white
beige or navy blue and they conform to set styles like the iconic sera-fuku
and gakuran and no students do not wear bloomers during PE and haven't
since the 90s oh that's my cue only 90s kids remember students aren't typically
allowed to customise their outfits without getting in trouble with the
all-powerful Student Council right well actually Japanese student councils are
just another club in charge of club logistics and planning school events and
aren't necessarily all-powerful rulers of the school
in most high-school-aged western media the go-to theme is bullying but in anime
aside from a few Hiki flashbacks which let's be real the cringey kid had it
coming most anime classes all join together as one happy family working
together to put on the best rendition of romeo and juliet possible in reality
there's just as much of a bullying problem in japan as there is in the rest
of the world on the rare occasion that an anime character does get their
feelings hurt there's only one place for them to go to the roof what better place
to go to work out your feelings then somewhere you could trip and fall 40
feet onto the track team below no high schoolers do not have sovereignty over
the school rooftops number three staying a while maybe rethink your hairstyle
although most weebs can figure out for themselves that anime hairstyles tend to
break the laws of physics this particular trope is a little more than a
stretch like a lot more although it would be really cool to live in a world
where people's eyes match their hot pink hair this is about as far from the truth
as you can get the vast majority of people in Japan keep their hair somewhere
between brown and much darker Brown and the ban on dyeing your hair wasn't even
lifted from public schools until summer 2019
people probably already knew that but what's a little less apparent is that
even slice-of-life anime that are more grounded in reality might not be
entirely plausible just like uniforms Japanese schools often have rules and
restrictions around how students are allowed to style their hair so it's
unlikely you'll ever find someone like Suzumiya living her best life number two
the path to the public baths despite what anime would have you believe most
modern Japanese homes do come equipped with their own bath and shower often in
a different room from the toilet but they're still there so the romantic
notion that everyone in town gathers at the public bath to wash the day away and
socialize is a little old fashioned nowadays public baths and onsens can
still be found in most towns but they're more recreational than they are
essential and I don't think I ever saw a teenager hanging out in one the crowd is
predominantly elderly with the occasional group of young adults mixed
in but definitely not high schoolers and although historically mixed gender bath
houses called konyoku were the norm they're few and far between in
modern society so Konosuba fans will have to look elsewhere
number one shop till you drop your preconceived notions about what Japanese
malls are like because they're a little bit different in real life just like in
anime Japanese malls are beautifully designed public spaces to hang out with
your friends but the layouts are just slightly different real City malls tend
to be much more vertical with only a few shops on each floor because they have to
fit into the crowded cities in major cities I found malls to be much less
diverse than they appear in anime and are mostly filled with high-end
name-brand clothing stores rarely did I ever see the little boutiques that are
so common in anime and I'm surprised to see one of Japan's most popular shopping
destinations entirely omitted from the anime lexicon Don Quijote which is
Japan's version of a discount store like Walmart or Target inside you can buy
anything from clothes to food and even electronics the layout is extremely
tight and can be kind of overwhelming with the amount of products prices and
advertising everywhere you look that might have something to do with why it's
not shown in anime it's not exactly aesthetically pleasing again all this
has just been from my own experience in Japan which I'm certainly no expert so
I'd love to hear if you guys have had similar experiences or if I'm actually
the one that went to the wrong place either way let me know in the comments
and if you enjoyed this video please leave a like because it would really
help me get one step closer to my dream of affording pink contacts to match my hair