12 Ideas We Should STEAL from Japan 

This may sound odd, but if I had to choose, I'd most likely take some of the architecture. Not talking about the neon lights or the stereotypical stuff but the residential places mostly. It just seems interesting. Greetings from Germany 🇩🇪

Vending machines being EVERYWHERE and selling more than just drinks.

Hot canned drinks from vending machines. That always seemed wild to me.

AMTRAK ! PLEASE TAKE NOTE !.....Not that Amtrak can actually do so as, the U. P. iss Yellow & BNSF among others get to set ground rules ( Literally) that hold up Amtrak.

Not exactly idea, but their punctuality is a good one

i doubt our train system even has a system. Sydneys is just it runs if it runs

I was in Japan in the Summer. Busses and Trains WILL show up on time lol

@@accelerator6910 Yeeep

As an American, the concept of a train at all is wild.

Don't get me started on the bus system in Melbourne.....

hello 75-year-old japanese person. i'm swedish but it sounds logical to me. i would eat alone all the time, lol (and i already do, well mostly, at home, so it's not weird or anything)

​@@krisstopher8259yeah sometime you just want time for yourself nothing wrong with that.

It's likely because you lived your life entirely with others, so you don't mind having alone time. It's a sort of balance for all humans to want to socialize but also want some privacy. For western culture, perhaps people aren't as close knit as one would think, outside of close friends and family, hence eating alone is something of an oddity. But the Japanese has a sense of kinship among fellow citizens in a way, even if they are strangers, they know similar customs or culture, something that works as an identity and interests among them. But it's that sense of 'identity' that sometimes they might prefer to be alone, as communities and groups are too 'stale' sometimes with their one track mentality or ideology as a group rather than as a individual. The nail that sticks out gets hammered, basically.

@@kingofherosking3510 and EAT not talk, lol

私は78歳の日本老女です　好きな時間に大好きな物を誰にも気兼ねなく食事できる日本に生まれて感謝❗

A lot of my friends studying overseas reflect that too, they tell me they've taken our public transit system for granted haha. Personally I think our public transit is pretty decent after having traveled to many different countries.

Britain once had the most comprehensive railway system on earth. Oddly, they threw it away in disgust.

Yeah for all the hype about trains always being on time I have ran into a lot of them not being on time when I lived in toyko. I have even had occasion to see them not show up because they were broken. Now either I have the worst luck in the world or their claims of being on time 99.9% of the time are media hype that doesn't accurately reflect reality. The trains are more punctual than the UK but they aren't the magic that people claim.

I'm from Switzerland and even as a European, I don't get how other European countries can be so terrible at this. I mean, the Deutsche Bahn is an absolute mess. Their trains regularly stop in the middle of nowhere, the passengers aren't informed what's going on and they're made to sit there for hours. They can't even get off because the doors are locked (because the train isn't anywhere near a station). The Swiss government has had a lot of arguments with the German, French and Italian governments over this matter. The thing is, inside Switzerland, trains are very punctual (just like in Japan). However, sometimes a train comes from another country. For example there are trains that go all the way from Hamburg via Basel to Zurich. So, usually once they arrive in Zurich, they have massive delays. Customers who don't know this issue (including most tourists) blame Swiss trains for it but it's actually the people in Germany who cause the delays. I don't know exactly what's wrong with their system but even most Germans hate it because it's such a mess.

@@RainbowYak Yeah it's much more likely for trains in Germany to be not on time than to actually be on time. Even if it's just 5 minutes. But often it is much more than 5 minutes.

Well, in Helsinki the trains tend to be on time, except when it has just snowed for the first time. Also the regional trains close to Helsinki tend to be on time. However it can be different with Inter-City trains and I don't personally have experience with other regional trains, but I'm a frequent user of I, P, K trains in Helsinki and the Pendolino from Lahti to Helsinki

Fun fact: the trains (subway) get cleaned normally when the are at the terminus , it just shows how careless people are littering everywhere in no time

omg i need to check that out, have you seen Samurai Gourmet about the retired man doing a similar thing? i absolutely loved it so i need to check out this other one!

wonder if they need someoen to act in a spin off "solitary gaijin gourmet"

Something similar in anime form was Wakakozake, just an office lady walking into a restaurant and ordering a drink and some food and then eating it

Not mentioned here, but I did rather like how cheaply I, a foreigner with the train pass, could travel alone. Clean suitable hotels with private lockable sleeping rooms averaging 25 USD made it easy to stay under $100us a day budget. (Business hotels and traditional hotels for the win) which would make it remarkably easy to travel just for food.... Actually Japan is probably the only nation I would want to be a cheap tourist in my old age in. I might plan to spend a month or two a year there when I retire.

​@@TheRealMarxz100% would volunteer my services

Yep, a train actually waited for me to get off with my two toddlers and our luggage in Massachusetts after a long-haul trip. I do not have any idea how we would have managed if we had missed our stop.

oh I have bearly seen strollers on JP transport ( I feel like lots of parents carry the children), but yeah, that is generally something nice. Honestly, I am from Austria and idk about the punctuality (it's quite ok here) but at least when it comes to getting onto and off a train, I think I prefere the austrian way. We stand left and right to the doors, let ppl exit and then just enter whenever you have space. Same with like exit-staircases or escalators, ppl don't really form a specific like one-by-one, they just come together like a zipper but it works really quickly. I JP, you always have to pay such close attention to the markings on the floor about where to stand, and ppl stand for like 15min in spot, just to form the line to enter the train, even though we all have reserved seats anyway and so on... idk about that one hahaha So yeah, I feel like it's hard to say if one country does it overall better than another, there are different positive or less-positive "rules" that developed everywhere.

We do though.

Actually, that sounds like it could be a good show.

I eat by myself all the time in restaurants around the world... it isn't the unobtainable thing you all seem to think it is.

Marry me so that we don't have to eat alone!

​@@thomgizziz It's certainly not uncommon or anything, especially depending on what kind of restaurant you're going to. But it is definitely a thing that in many countries, going to a restaurant is considered a group or at least duo activity, so you MIGHT get side-eyed by others.

It's matter of fact we should. Must be have some cow and charcoal this bloddy brit.

hes gonna take the studio with him on his next trip

That's actually kind of rad, not gonna lie.

That way of striking is illegal in most of Western Europe and the US. So we would not be able to copy them unless laws change.

How does that work though? Do the workers not get paid but keep working for free during that time? Because the purpose of a strike is both side suffer until they come to an agreement.

@@RK-cj4oc yea we got sh-t laws (eu and the us). they only make the rich f-cks richer and everyone else suffers

​@@RexZShadowthat's not the purpose per say, it's the unintended side effect of not being able to really hit them where it hurts without anti-protest laws cracking down on you. If bus drivers wanted to protest by letting on all customers for free, they'd be fired and put in court for fraud or something. Blanket laws be like that innit, no real loopholes

What do you think of the UK?

@@nix2939 I love it. But now days it is far too expensive. London was always a bit pricey, but now it’s crazy. I would love to go back, but would need to earn decent amount just to survive there…

@@gooner7768 I agree. There are a lot of people in other parts of the UK (like myself) who would never be able to live anywhere near Central London. Glad you liked it though

@@missplainjane3905 India. I hate it.

@@missplainjane3905 it’s incomparable.. The country is growing so there is excitement, but things like sense of hygiene and the quality of food, housing is still 30 years behind, of the western countries.

he gets points for correctly refering to it as Maccas too

"What's the matter mate, got no fackin' friends?"

This video gets 10 extra points just for that

@@Vaderoid that one was also amazing. If Chris and Joey did a feature length movie, I'd watch it

What impression? That was the man himself 😉

and also immigration. some cultures just dont fit together

@@MetalGuitarTimo This, lots of places in the past where harmonious and considerate until malicious powers that be destroyed homogeneity with mass migration. Japan has largely preserved theirs and they do probably put more emphasis on public harmony than anywhere else, but if they go the way of the west it will disappear there too.

@@MetalGuitarTimo very much that!

@@sexystealthninja i hope that will never happen or they will end up like sweden that's basically mad max now

Western countries seem to be in a victim culture pandemic. Surprise when the inconsiderate selfish people are masters are playing victim to make themselves immune to criticism and any consequences for the bad behavior.

Westerners have an idyllic view of Poland because it's socially conservative.

public services like that were one of the things the soviet union was pretty good at, the problem was getting them to actually implement those services.

I was in Warsaw in 1980 and did not have such a good experience with public transport, but mine may be an isolated case.

Similar trends existed across all of the eastern bloc, the way higher focus on heavy industry necessitated better infrastructure, which then affected the civil trains as well. As you're probably aware the same phenomena lead to neglect of consumer-oriented side of economy, which caused the dreaded lack of goods and in general stagnated the development in those countries, so that wasn't necessarily a good thing. Also the price difference (like many things) was covered by comparatively higher taxes, it wasn't necessarily cheaper (compared to average wage, it was noticably cheaper due to inflation but that doesn't tell you much)

​@@nikobellic570 You pulled that completely out of your ass.

I think it'd also be nice that when people talk on their cell phone, they're trying to be quiet and polite about it, and not make their conversation the business of every person within a 200 meter radius.

@@TheLongestChannelNameThoughtOf Oh god, yes! The damn phone calls you can hear at the other end of a bloody train... I'm living in Germany, where technically the stereotypes actually are sort of similar to Japan. Nobody should be a bother to other people in public and people do give those who disturb the peace quite pronounced death glares... but somewhere along the way being considerate of other people has been completely lost, I assume a casualty of unshackling us from a authoritarian, strictly hierarchical society where the enforcement of norms was much more draconian. So the people acting out just... don't give a shit. I wish we could as a society just try and find a compromise between individual freedom... and not being an asshole to our entire fucking environment.

Where? I'm American too and I've never once encountered that. I'm in my 40s and I eat out solo all the time.

@@BJGvideos I concur. I have friends who seem bothered by this, but I'm like, "Why?"

@@bobbywhite5319 I haven't even seen anything to be bothered *by*.

its most likely the smooth brain new generation types that are in their 20s now and parents were the losers that dropped out in school and had them as teens. and they follow and believe everything mainstream media poops out and celebs @bjgvideos

I’m bothered by dining solo in America too for some reason, and I’ve stuck to the bar area with exaggerated interest in my phone to combat the feeling. I don’t know why I feel that way, and I do know people who don’t feel weird dining solo, but I just can’t help but feel bothered when I dine alone, like I’m causing unnecessary trouble or something. It’s probably ridiculous and if I could shake the feeling I would.

Hello. It's like living in villages so you get to know easily some of your neighbours. Nantes is like this, plenty of villages making a big city.

Mixed used zone regulations is quite common in Asia generally tho, not just japan. No matter which country you visit in asia, you are almost certainly never far away from food

@@MonsieurArlequin the only difference is that in Tokyo is a megacity with functioning public installations. In Asia, if there's a megacity that applies the mixed zoning laws, more often than not it's a complete chaos

Where we live in Singapore, our apartment blocks / shophouse flats sometimes integrate a whole mix of shops and services into them. Even municipal and medical ones like police posts and medical clinics. As long as the floor plan fits, any entity can be housed in that space under an apartment block. That's how neighbourhoods get their value in having amenities and services nearby without having to always travel out to a lone mall in the middle of nowhere, with a compulsory vehicle.

form-based codes in the U.S. are similar, but uncommon. my hometown of Cincinnati started form-based zoning a decade ago.

​@@akiyajapanThey've always been very good. One of the main reasons the channel has grown. Also bear in mind that Chris is self-taught.

@@alexanderg1935he hasn’t edited the videos himself for years. He has editors like everyone else.

@@EricaInTokyo an editor is credited in the description Marcus Canning, but also Chris himself

@@EricaInTokyo Chris still does a lot of editing.

Gotta use that film degree somehow

Have a great trip! And as long as it's not over an ATM I can let it go, haha

With that many bars and the inevitable drunkards, urine in the streets are expected 😅. But even so, from what I remember the streets in Japan don’t smell like urine and human poo like the country I live.

@@JasonB808 Americans don't say "poo" -- ever.

so you moved from one place with 99% train accuracy to another with 111% train accuracy? lol. i envy you so much

@@krisstopher8259 yes because swiss trains are f**** slow and expensive...one 3 USD trip in Japan costs 30 in Switzerland. And it takes 40 minutes instead of 10.

@@RuffyUzumakii7 sounds like sweden lol

​@@RuffyUzumakii7 appreciate what you got or change to driving a car and being stuck in traffic! - a swiss person

​@@krisstopher8259depends on where you live, for example in my region you can buy a ticket for 26/34/youth/adult prices respectively and it lasts 90 min and this ticket can be used on both buses and trains(trains around here pretty much sucks sometimes)

in stockholm (the capital city of sweden) it would be like 99% ghost town after 10PM and you would probably get robbed too, lol. sweden is depressing af

The punctuality of Japanese trains comes at a price of course. And it's not always perfect esp. on the minor routes.

Britain had Dr. Beeching, unfortunately.

Best not to mention HS2 then eh? London to Birmingham (and my london they mean some dormitory suburb of outer london then catch the local tube in to London proper.. sorry even as an Australian with not even a plan for high speed rail hearing that on the local news made me laugh)

@@TheRealMarxz And don't forget the price tag.

@@Madhattersinjeans I don't think privatisation is always bad but critical infrastructure needs to remain in public hands. The worst are mixed structures like the Deutsche Bahn where you get the worst of both worlds and none of the benefits.

I quite literally bought some "wagyu burgers" from the grocery store deli here over the summer and chuckled that it's probably better than regular ground beef but not actually wagyu. Was surprised to see Chris pick up on those products, he is right it was just pretty good normal beef nothing special about it.

US has an accent?

Joey catching strays

@@meejmuas8686like obviously genius

Costco in the US has begun somehow importing A5 wagyu from Japan. They're frozen steaks, vacuum packed. Reviews have been good and they're going for $86-115/lb.

That's a funny quote. 😅

i think the important part is that the new culture is naturally intergrated and embraced by the locals, rather than trying to force new culture that the locals dont want to adopt.

That's cool. Actually pretty similar to the Austrian Dirndl and Trachten (like Lederhosen). The Dirndl was "invented" at the end of the 19th century (ofc it developed from other styles) and the style we see today, and where some ppl are picky to the point of where you tie the apron bow, was actually specifically (re-)designed during the second world war (which most people don't know). So not even really that old. Yet people cling to it as if we could never change anything about it ever again or it won't be "traditional".

That is a real neuroscience thing, the depression comes from your brain literally rewriting itself trying to appreciate the excitement of your trip while also readjusting to returning to status quo. Be kind to yourself and don't rush the adjustment!

@@kevingault2333 Thank you :)

You didn't experience all the things in this video... also you are about objective about your trip as a parent is of their dumb child.

Time to listen to the entire podcast

"There's a mosquito on your face," if you know you know.

You do. You need to. Coming up on my 4th trip, this time for 6 months, and still need more.

As someone who has been trying to move there for 9 months, yep! It's lovely and people must know as the competition is so high!

hahahah YES

but with the added benefit of fins understanding gender roles YIPPE

it seems most countries who enforce ethnic homogeny are the nicest on Earth

​@@dima3899ethnically homogeneous countries are nice if you're not anyone else

​@@RU-vid.Commen-taterNot really, I felt more "accepted" in Japan than my own country 😂😂 More like "cultural homogeny"

@@dusk2308wym ”gender roles” you mean gender equality? “Gender role” is actually telling women to stay in the kitchen lmao

Lived in tokyo and festival food is almost always worse than getting food elsewhere and it costs more too... it just shows that when you are primed to think something is amazing you do even if it is crap.

Yeah i bet the culture shock will be insane. Have fun 😁

Be sure to practice your Sumimasen and gomenasai 😁

Wtf he really forgot to put it on park. 😂

Try the US, where you have to carry a gun.

@@garryferrington811 That's ridiculous. There are a few dangerous places in the U.S. (usually the poor neighborhoods with gang activity) but I live in the reasonable-sized city of Austin, Texas and neither I nor anyone in my family has encountered anything more dangerous than a loose dog with a bad attitude (dog attacks can actually be very serious). My friend who owns guns and bows has never had an opportunity to use them other than for hunting, and he's hung out at smoky drunk pool halls and biker rallies. I'm not saying that guns aren't a problem (reference multiple mass shootings), but for most people living everyday lives, guns are totally unnecessary.

@@AndyAlegriabesides, Glock 21 is a bitch to conceal carry. Hell, even open carry is uncomfortable

@@AndyAlegria tell me you're a dude without telling me you're a dude. Seriously, I lived in Seattle for almost ten years, and several times a year I had to flat out run as fast as I could to get away from a drunk/drugged/crazy man, and this was in multiple neighborhoods: Ballard, The U-district, just a block from my very nice apartment, Belltown (ok, that is a sketch area at night), Queen Anne. I even had to bolt away from someone in broad daylight once in Queen Anne. At least once a week in the U-district I'd get campus police alerts about a new person being assaulted. It was no better in Austin, where some rando wandered into my actual bedroom after my roommate left the room unlocked, and I got choked by a guy at the Costco pump, because he was mad I was trying to get out of my car as he was trying to drive past and he just went full-nuts and stuck his hands through my window when I got back in my car in confusion. When I lived in Dallas where there are areas I would not go after the sun went down. The U.S. is a steaming sh*thole. Contrast that to Denmark, where I could go anywhere, any time of night in Copenhagen, the largest city, and not be molested. Japan sounds even better than Denmark in the safety respect. Currently I live in an upscale college town, and a few months ago a cracked out woman ran at me accusing me of "following" her when I was walking to the grocery store. It's unREAL. The disconnect between people who think the US is safe and those who know it's not is people who hop in their SUVs or monster trucks and drive out to isolated suburbs and never walk anywhere AND are male. If you're female, if you ever walk or use transit, if you live inside city limits near businesses and not in gated enclaves, you *know* you're radically unsafe in the United States. Especially if you've ever lived in a non-s**thole country, like Japan, or Denmark. [edited swears because the algorithm kept complaining when I left them as-is]

@@dreamersmask Okay, I'll poll my female friends in Austin and see what they say. Based on what I've heard, being female anywhere in the world is more dangerous than being male. I wish that weren't the case.

Maybe a Sasquatch or Bigfoot festival? It's worked elsewhere. Just a thought, may be good, may not be what you're thinking.

There are annual festivals in every country but the thing is most people don't care. It is like the person that moves to be close to the ocean and then never goes. It is just a thing that is around you and you are used to it. The difference here is you have a major weeb that fetishizes a whole culture and people to the point that he hyper focuses on things that most people would ignore and no this isn't a good thing.

my town I grew up in had a scarecrow festival every year and a may day festival, I really really miss them because it was such a fun community event, especially scarecrow fest where everyone would build scarecrows to put in their front garden on a theme and sign up with the council to be on the town tour map for the parade so everyone would see their work then we'd have the main festival on the villiage green

does it make it grow back too?

Apparently, yes! I could have used that, I'm telling you.

So you are a foreigner that the second you leave your own country you are okay with doing things that you wouldn't do at home... that isn't a good quality. You feeling weird about going into restaurants alone doesn't have much to do with others it has to do with your values, morals and beliefs... it is your perception about what is acceptable and not what others are pressuring you to do. You were able to throw that all away because you went to another country because you don't care about them and feel no pressure to conform, which is a terrible thing.

I think that might be a UK thing. Bathrooms aren't equipped for like a gallon of water in the USA but you can certainly get the floors wet without concern

Do you know that Worcester sauce is one of the most popular sauce used in Japan? Im a Japanese and I knew the name "Worcester" from this sauce and didint even know that its name came from a city in England.

@@attaccante-9799 yes 🙂 my Brother and I went to Japan in 2019 and the food was incredible, some of the best meals I've ever had! We were very lucky to go! Yes, Worcestershire sauce was made in 1837 by Lea and Perrin and it's still made in Worcester today. Although there are different variations made around the world 🙂 what part of Japan are you from?

@@mrroganjosh6877 wow so the sauce is surely one of your noted products. I (we) love to use Worcester sause on tonkatsu (fried pork) and Okonomiyaki (kind of Japanese pan cake). Im living in Osaka City, and I can say100% of Osaka citizens should know this sauce ; )

@@attaccante-9799 Amazing! We went to Osaka and loved it! I definitely want to go back one day! Okonomiyaki was one of my favourites!

People break into them, at least in the US.

I'm a bit torn about vending machines. They are convenient but also quite a waste of resources.

In what way? they are extremely space and human resource effective, especially if their payment and logistics are fully automated with smart tech like I have seen are@@kaltaron1284

It think they are even more common now than they used to be, at least here in Finland, ever since they added mobile and card payments as viable options, and they automatically keep track and inform suppliers of shortages/errors. Ofc they aren't nearly as common as in Japan, but they are everywhere

​@@kaltaron1284what??????