10 Japanese Travel Tips for Visiting America

Mental Floss ^ | February 18, 2014 | Therese Oneill

[fulltlt]

"12. Gamera is really neat! He is full of turtle meat!"

You make Kenny cry.

[ArtDodger]

Darn. I can remember the name. Help me please!

Perhaps it was, ‘Attack of the Mushroom People’.
As far as no American cuisines, we have Tex-Mex and Clam Chowder for starters..

[driftless2]

One thing that separates Americans from other peoples is not that we're better than they are but that Americans are not afraid to fall on our faces. Many Americans fail when then try to do things thought not possible. But a certain pct. succeed encouraging others to try to do "impossible" things.

Of course, there are many Americans who try to things that are actually impossible to do. But they attempt to do them anyway. In that respect, maybe we're more bullheaded than other people, but that's one of the reasons why we have more things.

[driftless2]

My Brit in-laws are always surprised by how relatively well-mannered American drivers are. I don’t know if they expect to see people shooting at each or ramming other cars, but they thought American drivers were more orderly than British drivers.

[verga]

You are one sick mofo . Get a life .

You are not the first, and will not be the last to say that to him.

[driftless2]

Do you mean “loose” a bit of anti-foreign as in to freely exhibit your anti-foreign “develism” or “lose” your anti-foreign devilism as in shedding your previous conceptions of what you thought about foreigners?

[Grimmy]

That’s kinda tomato tomatah or is that potato patatah?

[Conspiracy Guy]

In the south it’s tater and mater.

[R. Scott]

Numbers 3 and 4 particularly. When I was stationed in Okinawa it took months before I could look out the window of a taxi, I rode with my head down looking at the floor.
When I was moved to Okino Shima my drinking companions were the two local cops, Superintendent of Schools and Prefect governor. They’d get roaring drunk, I drank light and tried to stay in control. Their idea was that if you were drinking the purpose was to get drunk. One night they were determined to get me drunk. Shots of Suntory whiskey and bottles of Asahi beer kept coming. I had no choice but to drink. I was setting against the wall. I slid the wall section aside and puked in the benjo ditch. When I turned back all were smiling and said it was about time I relaxed.

[Conspiracy Guy]

I really try to be nice to you. I try to avoid your comments that clearly show your fear of anything that is going on outside the basement you you seem to have figuratively locked yourself in. I really must ask this question. Have you ever stepped outside your house and just observed the world that’s out there?

[Conspiracy Guy]

Just click your ignore button.

[metmom]

You aren't kidding! I thought Chicago was bad, but at least Chicago drivers will only kill you to get where they're going. In Massachusetts it's personal.

That's interesting because I find MA drivers easier to take than Upstate NY drivers.

In MA, drivers all drive fast and just do what they need to and seem to not take it personally.

I don't hear the horns blowing and brakes squealing when someone changes lanes at the drop of a hat.

Here in Upstate NY, you get the range from driving 10 MPH UNDER the speed limit to more than that over and people are more aggressive instead of assertive, and they are RUDE. They'll cut you off just to make a point, when there's no reason to.

Interestingly, the Thruway, (the 90) is better than I-81. I don't have a clue why, but there's just a difference between how they drive the two interstates.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

American food is flat to the taste, indifferent in the subtle difference of taste.

Huh? Wha? Do they think McDonalds is the pinnacle of American cuisine?

[driftless2]

My English-born and raised wife always says to-MAH-toes. But she pronounces potatoes the American way.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

You are one sick mofo

Why? Because he opposes kiddie porn? Are you an advocate for it?

[Arrowhead1952]

I get frustrated when I’m in a hurry. Americans wait leisurely even if you’re in the special checkout for buying just a little something.

Ever watch Japanese golfers? I live on a golf course, and they run between shots. Even putts on the greens. But if they hit a ball into the woods, it stays there. No chasing the balls in the rough.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Abunai desu !

[Vigilanteman]

I loved the remarks about the supermarket checkout lines. Yeah, our lines are painfully slow compared to theirs. There are several reasons for that and these are just a few:

1. Concept of customer service. Even during the slow times of the day, cashiers will appear out of nowhere and open lines if people stack up more than three deep. Here, you can go to a Wal-Mart with 22 checkout line and four or five of them might be open.
   
2. Educational level of the cashiers. In Japan, there are two ways to pay: cash or card. Every Japanese cashier can make change and seldom, if ever, has to flail about borrowing changes from other cashiers or calling managers to do price checks and the like.
   
3. Coupons are nearly unknown and checks are a novelty that only businesses use rarely to pay each other or make refunds to customers whom they don't care to keep.
   
4. Customers. In addition to not having nimrods who will fumble for a pen-- or borrow one-- and START writing a check only after the sale is wrung up, they don't have an army of EBT card users who will argue with the cashiers because they aren't allowed to pay for their smokes or pet food or whatever on their special government cards. In fact, most of the customers will have their card or their cash out (often with the odd change) as soon as the total is rung up.
   
5. Baggers work in tandem with cashiers, like a choreographed soloist and pianist. On those rare occasions where help is scare or business is slow and the cashier is working solo, the customer pitches in and helps bag, wrap or tie their own purchases. Customers often bring their own canvas bags or wrap (furoshiki) and at Dai-Ei (closed equivalent Japan has to Wal-Mart) and other low-margin, high volume stores, they will even go a step further and stamp a card for people who don't require bags. Each stamp is worth about a nickle and a full stamp card is worth a dollar or two and treated like cash on a purchase.
   
6. Supplied grocery bags are substantial. Even if it is filled with canned goods or one of those monster bottles of tempura oil, the bags hold. There is no need for double bagging and no danger of stuff falling right through the flimsy crap our retailers supply here in the USA. A substantial portion of your customers are going to carry them home or on a bicycle as opposed to loading them in a car.

[meatloaf]

I drove in Boston once back in 86. A taxi to my right and I were waiting at the light. When it turned green, the cab driver turned left in front of me. What he didn’t recognize, was the van was a one ton with with a heavily reinforced step bumper on the front. The center where the license plate is normally mounted had been replaced with a piece of 6” channel. A piece of 1/4” plate had been added all the way across on the bottom. The truck with its low rear end ratio and diesel engine to which I had added a turbo would beat most cars off the line when the red light changed.

He lived.

[NativeSon]

14) you can not buy used school girl underwear in vending machines

15) In American animation, no character will be raped by tentacles, not even the beloved Minnie Mouse