so you've just finished watching every slice-of-life anime ever created and
you've taken a good long look in the mirror to ask yourself what's next
should you go outside and try to make your own group of friends to enjoy the
springtime of your youth with nah friends are just a myth the only logical
way to fill the melonpan sized hole in your heart is to take a trip to the
source and experience your own slice of Japanese life a common question that I
see asked online is if Japan is actually anything like the way it's portrayed in
anime and just about every answer I could find all said the same thing no
you filthy weeb of course it's not I may be paraphrasing a little but the general
consensus is a no and I could not disagree with that more the articles
that I read all seem to kind of talk down to the reader and assume they're
asking questions like do people really run like this if there's subtitles when
people speak or if there's a harem of girls waiting for you as you get off the
plane but I refuse to believe that those are actually the questions people are
asking I mean nobody who watches an episode of Friends and assumes that all
Americans have a pet monkey living in their affordable 2000 square-foot New
York apartment so today I want to share with you five ways that Japan is the
exact same as it is in anime number five want to get lean eat your green onions
that is or as the Japanese call them negi or as sociopaths call them
scallions probably not what you were expecting from this video but hear me
out because this is one of my favorite parts about Japan I'm talking about
convenience store culture if you've watched your fair share of anime then
there's no doubt that you've seen people walking around holding plastic bags with
the little stems of green onions poking out the top and I cannot tell you the
amount of times that I saw this exact thing happened while I was in Japan no
matter where you are whether it's downtown Tokyo or rural Shiga you
can't walk more than a few blocks without finding a 7-eleven or Family
Mart or if you're really desperate a Lawson every anime fan knows that
whether you're missing an ingredient for dinner
grabbing a snack with friends are hoping to get isekaid there's no better place
to go than a convenience store it's not possible to travel around Japan without
hitting one of these stops at least once a day especially if you're on a budget
not only do they serve high-quality fresh food like fried chicken and fried
chicken and fried chicken and also meat buns and sushi and other things but they
also come equipped with an ATM that accepts foreign cards which is an
essential tool for any traveler just like an anime these places are always
packed with groups of teenagers buying snacks businessmen getting their coffees
and sweet old ladies buying green onions number four don't get rekt show some
respect a common trope of Japanese culture is
just how much everyone respects public spaces and the people in them especially
your elders but that's got to be just an anime right there's no way teenagers
would be that well-behaved especially when they just don't
understand well if anything this is actually played down in anime for the
most part whenever anime characters are shown riding the train they keep to
themselves and quietly talk to the person next to them and whenever there
is an accidental outburst everyone on the train acts like they just saw a
crime be committed and honestly calling it a crime really isn't that much of a
stretch when riding public transit in Japan the rules are keep your voice down
don't talk on the phone and don't even think about eating I challenge you to
find a single anime scene that someone's shown eating while riding the train or
bus people take these conventions really seriously and even accidentally causing
a scene could be pretty embarrassing which I definitely don't know anything
about because I wouldn't dream of putting my bag in the overhead
compartment with my water bottle not properly secured so that it falls to the
ground making a loud bang and rolls to the other side of the Train baka who
would do that almost every interaction I've seen has
been extremely polite always using the correct words and honorifics and yes
people bow to each other literally all the time so much so that it becomes a
hard habit to kick once you go back home number three don't be lewd or you'll get
booed the most frustrating part about watching romance anime is that it takes
three seasons and a movie for the characters to build up enough courage to
Oh God I can't say this is so embarrassing hold hands this stems from public
displays of affection being somewhat looked down upon in Japanese culture
obviously I have no insight into what people do behind closed doors and it's
not like you're gonna get thrown in jail for your hands accidentally brushing when
the train brakes too hard but compared to the way that couples act to North
America people are definitely more reserved so you'll have to find another
way to show that special someone you care like giving them a novelty KitKat
on white day or greeting them with a nice loving Yahello! number two a passion for
fashion now I'm not sure how much of this is life imitating art or art
imitating slice of life but people in anime tend to dress pretty similar to
what they do in real life just a little more exaggerated obviously
and I'm not just talking about students always wearing uniforms or salaryman
always wearing suits which both are true by the way but I even saw a lot of
similarities in more unique looks such as punk skater traditional wealthy and
even a chunibyo or two like literally wearing an eye patch
obviously nowadays just about everyone wears a face mask but Japan was doing it
long before it was cool because it rains a lot in Japan and everyone knows that
if even a single drop of rain hits your head it's an instant fever seeing
someone wear a mask in Japan is about as common as a protag's hair covering his
eyes so yeah always number one just on the screen or is it really that clean I
left this one for last because it is by far the hardest to believe both Western
and Japanese media tend to portray public spaces as being very pristine
without any trash or dirt muddying up the frame which is obviously just
Hollywood fantasy because in reality it's kind of hard to tell major cities
apart from a landfill but in Japan oh boy is there literally not a single
piece of garbage to be found which is weird because there's also not a single
public trashcan to be found but thanks to societal norms and an overpopulated
workforce just about all public spaces in Japan are spotless and that includes
all public washrooms like the ones found inside subway stations which I'm not
even sure are real things in the West but if they were I'd imagine they'd look
something like Gabrielle's apartment after a gaming bender which is not
somewhere I'd want to spend much time Who am I kidding yes I would even in
party districts like Shinjuku or America-mura where public drinking is
not only accepted but it's encouraged you'll see way more drinks in people's
hands then you will see cans on the land there was actually the only
one time where I ever came across cookies tossed on the ground and it may
or may not have been my own again all of this is just from my own experience in
Japan and I'm certainly no expert so I'd love to hear if you guys have had
similar experiences or if I just see everything through weeb coloured glasses
either way let me know in the comments if you enjoyed this video please leave a
like below otherwise I might end up living in a subway restroom which I
guess if we're talking about the sandwich shop wouldn't be too bad