5 Weird Japanese Customs You Need to Know 

Here in Australia we take slippers to the toilet too; mainly because they're so useful against spiders.

As a Canadian, I remember coming to Japan and hearing that I shouldn't blow my nose. I got used to sniffling all the time. Then, a few years later, when I went to visit Canada, my sister was wondering why the heck I was sniffling so much and not blowing my nose. I think in most Western countries, it's actually considered gross and rude to keep sniffling, when you can just quickly blow your nose and be finished. Nobody likes snot in Western countries either, so it's not that blowing your nose is gross because it's 鼻くそ. It's gross that you keep playing with your 鼻くそ by sniffling forever. Just blow it out.

the bathing together thing was common in Europe too, because it saved money and hot water. Then American puritansm gained influence, and hot water was more easily available, and it became taboo. Now it only happens with little kids who cant bathe themselves. Great video, do more of these!

Leave it to Misa to once again bring us a Japanese language lesson along with a culture lesson about some things most instructors don't talk about.

Here's a finding from the CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) in the US. "One of the most significant findings in the report is that children under five years old, while comprising only 8.5 percent of the total U.S. population, account for almost 30 percent of the 110,000 annual bathtub and shower-related accidents. Over 75 percent of all bathtub and shower-related fatalities occur among children under five and 90 percent of the injuries and deaths occur when these young children are not being supervised by a responsible adult."

We in Germany share sauna with many people - all totally naked. In one of my early visits to Japan I enjoyed the discussion very much after I accidentially returned to the kitchen with the bathroom slippers.

This channel has been immeasurably helpful to me learning the Japanese language and culture. Thank you

I love Misas hair blue/purple changing into violet, her hairdresser did a great job and great video!

Despite the nature of some of the topics, this was entertaining as well as educational. Nice one Misa!

In Finland we have the sauna culture where we go in completely naked. Public ones are usually split between men and women but nearly every household has a private one where families can go together.

Also this was great video. Thank you so much for telling patiently all these things. Those subtitles help so much to understand and I really appreciate that.

This was really great! Fun way to learn about both some Japanese customs/culture as well as vocabulary! Thank you!

Haven't been here in a while, I really enjoyed the way you presented sentences in this video, very clear and easy to get.

Having a great time with Japanese Ammo videos! Thank you! I lived in Iwakuni in the early 90’s and would take the train to Hiroshima during weekends. You are helping me remember my wonderful time in Japan and strengthen my mo-sukoshi grasp of nihongo!

You put a lot of effort into teaching with every occasion. It is very much appreciated :P

I grew up with 4 brothers and 4 sisters so that slipper thing would have been very useful to help us avoid walking in on each other. lol Thanks for another great lesson. :)

Thank you for your hard work! I hope you will still continue teaching us :)

First time visitor here. what a brilliant idea teaching customs and Japanese at the same time! Also I like your smile and giggle

Sniffling noises annoy me so much I'd rather someone just blow their nose and be done with it lol. When I take the train there's people sniffling every 5 seconds so annoying.

I first learned about toilet slippers from an anime called Sangatsu no Raion (very good anime). One of the characters gets bullied by a bunch of girls who stole her normal shoes from her locker, so she was forced to wear the school's toilet slippers on her walk home. Oh, speaking of anime, you mentioned Tsuki ga Kirei once in a video. It became one of my favorite all time anime.

It's my first video that I watched in your channel and ohhh how much I loved it!! Not only interesting to learn about such customs but to deepen my Japanese knowledge alongside that as well! Can't wait to watch more of your videos!!! 🤩🤩👏

Great lesson Misa! Thanks so much.

Misa is the best language teacher. Clear explanation and interesting interpretation .

tbh it's always better to blow your nose in the bathroom, because you can wash your hands right afterwards.

日本人ですが英語の勉強になるのでいつもみています。 面白いし可愛いし、素晴らしいRU-vidrだと思います。

I look forward to watching your new posting every week for leaning Japanese and English. Thanks for your great job. Wishes from Taiwan.

I was thinking about the "blowing my nose" thing just yesterday but I was in a Thai restaurant and the lady on a table close to mine was sniffing and I was like OMG nooooo for me that is so disturbing cause it is not healthy I also needed to blow my nose cause the food was spicy so I asked for a tissue and covered my nose with my hand and blew my nose really slowly and quietly turning away still felt wrong but I was alone and had a lot of stuff with me so just going to the bathroom in between the meal wasn't an option. She was the only other person in the restaurant so I took the gaijin card but it really felt wrong. Still I was able to enjoy the rest of my meal I don't think the other lady could she looked really uncomfortable sniffling every 2 seconds.

A super entertaining video, thank you Misa

keep doing the great work and some day the right people will find you and you'll even get to the 1 mio subs. your videos are very interesting and informational. and also one of the best Japanese teachers on youtube.

So much useful information here 動画がいつも、役に立ちます

Thank you for another great video. You are great!

Just discovering this channel. What an awesome idea to sneak a language lecture into a video about culture.

Great video misa!!

Hey!! I haven't seen new content from you in forever!!

I like this video. Very informative. 😁👍

Tank you for this content. We are learning culture and language at the same time. Great video!

Toilet slippers probably were quite useful in the past with squat toilets and even just holes in the floor. I can see how they might protect your feet. We don't have toilet slippers in our house. I don't even wear regular slippers in the house.

really thankful for that kind of inside knowledge

I found your channel by chance. At first I was thinking "oh boy, just another japanese girl with kawaii looks". But then I noticed how much effort you put in this channel, from the very well made intro animation to the self presentation (make up, good english spelling etc). For me the best feature are the subtitles. It's very cool to see not only the hiragana substitute for the kanji, but also the romaji at same time. Dude, it helps A LOT. And there's an extra for the coloring, that show where are the substantive and verbs, because they change places in japanese and english. I will inscribe right now and try to learn as much as I can from your channel. Thanks Misa. Gambarimasu!

Bathing together was quite normal here too, our whole family would go to sauna together when I was little.

South India : we have special toilet slippers, bare foot inside the home, all shoes outside the main area of the house or in the verandah or thinnai. Like Japanese we also have sounds to represent verbs.

AS a Canadian trying to learn Japanese I enjoy your channel I am happy I found it.

Your hair looks really beautiful right now!

“snuffle” means basically the same as sniffle anyway, plus it’s a fun word

thank you very much for the lesson, sensei.

I love your Videos they are very helpful!. Could you make a video on when to you should use the hiragana version of a word, and when to use the katakana version when both exist. :)

very useful thank you

When you say take a bath together, you should point out that it doesn't mean washing your body. It means soaking together. The water is not dirtied with soap etc. People take showers, get very clean, and then soak together.

Thanks for the subtitle, its very helpful for someone who is studying/learning Nihongo.. Subarashii ne..

✨😍✨ I'm all caught up! Having started in July '21 viewing every single Japanese Ammo video in order, the process is now complete. Along the way, several notebooks have been filled and much has been learned. みさ先生のおかげでここまで来れました。

My Japanese wife bathed with her dad till she was like 22. And I met other Japanese who have similar stories/situation. I'm not Japanese but bathed with family, mom, siblings, dad, until I was like 4-5 years old.

I like how you do the subtitles when you speak Japanese the Japanese color coding with the English and under that very interesting in and of itself

Thank you Misa sensei 💖

Awwww “snuffling” that’s so cute sounding

The toilet slippers are used not only in houses, but also in some ryokan, so one might encounter them even if not staying in or visiting a home.

Thank you!!

My understanding of the idea behind "toilet slippers" is cleanliness. The Shinto religion is based around the concept of purification, and the idea is that when your home has been cleaned and purified (literally and ritually), bringing in dirt from the outside is unclean (literally and spiritually), so you take off your impure shoes in the genkan and wear shoes that remain pure when inside the home. Likewise, the toilet is an impure area and you don't want to drag any filth (literal or spiritual) back into the main home. Regardless of the religious aspects, Japan has a very healthy population that lives to an older average age than anywhere else... so clearly it's not a bad idea. :)

In Canada during elementary school every classroom has a cloak room where we change from our outside shoes to inside shoes. Not sure if this is nation wide but was done in my part of the country.

Bathing with your parents is normal in Germany too. Or at least I did that xD

Misa-San! I am really enjoying your lessons here. Thank you for speaking slowly and clearly, and explaining things so well. Plus, you are super cute. Where in the UK is your accent from?

Toilet slippers make perfect sense to me with OCD about germs. I very much dislike blowing my nose in front of people (other than close family). I will go at great lengths not to. When I found out this was a Japanese custom I felt commonality.

I was in a school for hearing-impaired (in germany), and we also had lockers to change to shoes to house shoes :)

In Cantonese the word for what comes out of the nose is also nose poop unless it is quite runny (allergies for example) in which case we call it nose water. And nobody considers either word abnormally vulgar. We know the whole topic isn't pristine or anything, but, nose waste, like, it's normal, and everybody considers it normal. Is there any other context in which Japanese uses ごちそうさまでした? In one of the last episodes of Re:Zero season 1 it comes up in a completely food-unrelated situation.

Love the hair!

I like this! Learning the language with some cultural background along the way. Nice! I'm wondering about 2 things: 1. If I'm not mistaken, Japanese has multiple words for "to wear", like 履く(haku) for pants and lower body, 着る(kiru) for upper body, and かぶる(kaburu) for headwear. If Haku becomes 履き替える (hakikaeru), would Kiru and Kaburu also add the Kae-kanji? for instance, "kikaeru" or something for changing upper body clothing? 2. Is there a Japanese equivalent for "Enjoy your meal" or "Bon Appetit", said to people that you see eating? Or is that uncommon? I'm not talking about a chef or host's " 召し上がれ " (meshiagare) here, btw, and I'm not about to eat something myself. Imagine someone just passing by a terras or something, wishing someone else a nice meal. TiA!

I should watch you more for practice. And you have talked about things that I discovered not so easily on my daily life.

4:31 I always remember tokyo drift because of this 😂

Thanks!

習慣can be used as habit as well. As in I drink coffee as a habit. コーヒーを飲む習慣がある

Thank you ❤

Idk if fhats a blanket on your chsir but it looks awesome

Where I live in America, our schools had the same blowing nose custom. Mainly because blowing your nose in the middle of a lecture is rude and distracting, so we would be asked to take a tissue, exit the classroom, shut the door and blow out nose in the hallway.

Dang Misa dropping the video at midnight lol Thank you!

Thanks for your effort :3 - Polish people also use a slippers at home (but we haven't special shoes for bathroom). Depends of region we call it "kapcie (try read it like KAPUCHE)", "papcie (PAPUCHE)", "laczki (LACH-KI)" or "bambosze (BAMUBOSHE)" - that's not all possibilities xD Btw, I know word "uwabaki" thanks to movie "Tokyo Drift" :D - Personally I'm quite disgusted hearing nose sniffling (or slurping), but also audible using a tissue is like MEH :C

I like your video how explain wow amazing🥰❤️🥰

Oh wow I didn't know about that slipper thing makes sense in a way though 🤔🧐🤷‍♂️✌

in asia and europe its normal to bathe with people from what i understand. i personally dont see anything wrong with doing such activities if both sides are consenting.

I think I read too many doujinshi that images flashed before my eyes when I heard about that "bathing together" and oh a lot of Filipino also do that picking up the bowl or plate when eating

I can't believe I will be interested to learn Japanese Language like this.. .i just want to check what are weird gesture but i also learn the Character and pronounciation here. Thank you very much and for this, You deserve to have more subcriber. I also click the Bell notif. *cheers*.

The runny nose one was quite annoying when I visited. Just my luck that I started to get a cold when I was on the train back to my hotel. Had to stop off and get some cold medicine. Thankfully the medicine I picked up was extremely effective and it only took a day to get better which was a first for me.

awesome ty..

THANKS :)

I was stationed in Japan intermittently for just over 11 years total. I did know of these customs, and a lot more that are seen as strange to most westerners. I learned about these from my Japanese friends. I enjoyed your content; especially your going over the language, with out using the Romaji with the Hiragana, Katakana, and Khanji. It makes you learn the characters when their is no Romaji. Thank You!!!!

Спасибо за видео. Было интересно!

ホント に ありがとう ミサ 先生 🙏🏻

みさ先生ありがとうございます

I mean I never bathed with my family, but I know people who did. I don't think it's that uncommon in the US. It's just not the social standard, so people don't talk about it.

In Finland we don't usually use slippers and it is more like elders hapit. What if you are going to visit your friend in Japan. Do you have to always keep two different types of slippers with you or has everyone slippers for guests.

Would you use すする do describe sucking through a straw too?

I bathed with both of my kids until they were around 4. It's safe, and it is a good bonding moment. I think anyone who sexualises that is weird.

A long time ago, when I first started coming to Japan (I live here now), I didn't want to go to an onsen to bath with others so my wife suggested I bath with her nine year old nephew, at her brother's house, to get used to it. I told her, "You do NOT understand the problem!" 🤣😂

I like these shorter vids. Its easy for me to focus.

Bathing with parents is not normal at all. Oh. One more thing. It is not normal to snort, but to blow your nose. Blowing the nose is not a natural process. I agree it is weard custom.

Uwabaki!! I learned that from the Fast and Furious movie!!! The teacher was so angry when he didn’t put on his slippers!!

I think that blowing your nose is more healthy than sniffing it back, as a person who gets sick often it's important to me 😅 but when I'll come visit Japan I would try to be polite and not to disturb people

I tried slurping noodles because a korean guy says it makes the noodles taste better. but you are right, I dont like getting noodle juice all over my clothes and face and in eyes, so I dont slurp

I actually find it more weird if you can't bath together with your children. Nudity is natural and you should not be ashamed. Also, it is a good opportunity to bond with them. The older you get, the more you cherish these moments. They are fleeting.

The fact that none of these seems weird to me tells me I have lived in Japan waaaay too long. 😅

Misa please see this, I'm unable to use my right hand properly so would I get shamed for not picking up rice /small bowls?

Not sure why is taking off your shoes when entering home and using home slippers portrayed as such an unusual thing. Except Americans, literally almost whole world does that.