This took a little longer to put together than I originally thought, but here's the follow-up to what Japanese REALLY eat for breakfast. Next up dinner? Or maybe it'll be showing you what's inside Japanese fridges.
I love these types of videos. People can visit Japan and experience a lot of it, but unless you have Japanese friends in Japan, you're not going to truly understand how the locals live and eat. And many youtubers dont share these kinds of experiences, they just show the more touristy 'interesting' stuff. Also these videos help break the stereotypes people may get from watching subbed/dubbed anime overseas, Japanese cuisine is clearly more than just ramen and sushi
That's so true- just like in America, there's a lot of food in stores and restaurants that not a lot of Americans ever buy that a foreigner might think was common. In Japan it's interesting to know what the "normal" is in a country with such a huge selection of different food choices for each meal.
@@Woolookologie the market in Japan in food is always about low prices due to cultural context. Didn't Greg (or someone if I'm misremembering) did a video about how food industry have low profit margin because of this? Also convenient stores is another culture because of how busy modern lifestyle is. Coupled with the expectations of food prices, the mid-low class will resort to these stores more than takeouts.
These episodes are fantastic. Could you do an episode in the future on a special holiday celebrated in Japan, and what types of meals people make on those days? In NA we have thanksgiving for instance, with many different meals and sides that go with it. Of course I have no idea of any holidays in Japan outside of Christmas and KFC.
Thanks! We are thinking about doing one around New Year's, which is the most important holiday in Japan. Lots of food. It's also a huge family holiday where people don't work, so I don't know if I can film enough during that time or not.
@@LifeWhereImFrom I hope it's possible. Here in NYC, we order Osechi-ryori from the local Japanese shop. They're sometimes available several days in advance, which may help with filming before the holidays? I also like how you're including more Japanese language sections, too! Thanks.
Something I’ve come to realize is that; Japans frozen foods look AMAZING and GOOD as opposed to what frozen meals looks like in America. I don’t even buy frozen foods here but I can honestly say that if I were in Japan, I wouldn’t hesitate to give them a try. It just blows my mind how fresh they look.
Have you ever read the ingredients? Japanese prepared food are often full of MSG and other preservatives- I grew up in Asia so I know - these ingredients ( some of them) can increase the risk of various forms of Cancer - in the past there has been incidents of people being suffering Mercury poisoning from eating Japanese snacks…
@@doriswaddington2418 MSG is not linked to cancer. There are various studies that have debunked MSG having a deleterious effect on your body. Obviously one should avoid large quantities like one should avoid large quantities of salt or sugar but the belief that MSG is harmful has been attributed to a very racist and misleading Western PR campaign.
I loved this video so much! your style is so great i could watch it endlessly. I love that mom and dad bought a sofa and table, but dads so old fashioned he's still lounging on the floor!
Your videos are always fun and informative Greg. Mothers are the same everywhere, always cooking best for families and ignoring their own food😂. Love your sister-in-law's new look.
When I saw Oji-chan's CD drawer tip over, I had a panic moment 🤣 Really loved this video, everything looked so tasty! Seeing the 7-11 bento offerings reminded me of the anime Ben-To too.
Thanks for making this video! I live in Japan myself and I'm always struggling to find out what to make for lunch. It's really great to see what other people are eating! Thank you for the inspiration.
There's nothing like food that shows the culture of a society. Eating like a tourist just isn't the same as eating like a local. Hope to be back one day.
I loved this series. Yes, more please! Akko (which is also my mom Aiko's nickname 😄-also the same name as your daughter's) is so eloquent and well-spoken! Listening to her describe all of the meals was like listening to a professional broadcaster. Thanks, Greg!
Somehow, knowing that even regular Japanese ppl rely on convenience food made me more open to trying bentos again. Today is the first day I brought a bento to work in.....3 yrs at least! 💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻
What a wonderful video. I love to see how ordinary people live, wherever they are. I feel like the love your sister in law shows for her family through food is really endearing.
These insights into a Japanese household is just pure gold for someone like me who has always found Japan and Japanese culture quite fascinating. Thank you greg
I like the way your sister in law speaks, I wonder if she is intentionally making simpler phrases and speaking at a slower pace. As a language learner that hasn't progressed much over the years, I can understand bulk of what she says without subtitles. Its really nice, and great for language learners to learn listening from the things she says
i was actually eating lunch while watching this video.. today i had Lasagna (frozen), most of the times i eat leftovers from dinner or get something delivered when I'm in my office. When working remotely i sometimes cook something fast (like pasta or soups), heat up frozen food (dometimes bought, sometimes homemade like burgerpatties, etc) or eat cup noodles
It's really interesting what japanese people REALLY eat for breakfast, lunch or dinner. :) It's like every country in this world - I guess a lot of people think we Germans only eat sausages, sauerkraut and bread. :D But no! I ate a "Tiroler Kartoffelgulasch" (tyrolean potatoe goulash - it's vegetarian) with some sour cream and chives. And a few days ago I ate a chick pea and pumpkin curry with rice. Tomorrow I will even eat a japanese dish - nasu dengaku. :D
" I ate a "Tiroler Kartoffelgulasch" (tyrolean potatoe goulash - it's vegetarian)" Tyrolean? Goulash is an HUNGARIAN (Hungary is located on the oposite site of Tyrol in Austria) dish with pieces of beef, and Erdäpfelgulasch is made usually with sausage. Of course you can leave out the sausage and you´ll have a vegie dish.
Your sister in law is a great co-host! I still remember her from the house party video. I'm gonna guess her 19 y/o is Shota, 16 y/o is Shoko, don't know about the 11 y/o tho ^^
FL, USA: When I was in elementary/middle school, I always ate in the cafeteria. We had a rotation of foods. So like.. spaghetti and meatballs, pizza, salisbury steak, lasagna, Chick-fil-A, etc. (Private Christian school with cafeteria ladies making food daily). We had sides to choose, like salads, fruit cups, desserts, drinks. It was great. Then I moved to public high school and resorted to bringing my own boxed lunch. All I ever really made was a peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich and maybe a bag of chips or snacks (cheese its, fruit snacks, etc.). I’m now in college (but at home with my parents still) and I usually eat at work, which is an açaí/smoothie shop. If not that, my go-to is Panera Bread’s greek salad and broccoli cheddar soup. Or Chick-fil-A’s chicken nuggets. Here in FL, I usually spend on average $10-$11 for lunch (or free at work). And I usually eat around 1200/1230. I still occasionally eat lunch at home. I’ll either make an egg and cheese bagel or PB&J sandwich. Days I’m at college I just eat a Clif bar and call it a day.
I'm in Israel, the health ministry encourages to eat fruits and vegetables in 5 colors a day and this is what we try to do in the lunch boxes: fresh half carrot, half cucumber (which are probably different here, smaller & not bitter), sweet pepper in strips or the small kind of them, they come in 3 different colors, usually we use the yellow or red, "cherry tomatoes" (there are 'different types', e.g. speckled tomatoes), 5 min in the microwave slightly cooked broccoli, fresh cauliflower, etc. Also. fruits, depending on the season, usually the kids receive 2 different types of fruits in the box. Also: fresh vegetable "pickles", in a separated box: fresh vegetables: celery, fennel head slices, cauliflower, Kohlrabi slices (usually 1 or 2 of those) with salt and lot of lemon. They like them the most, this is what they do eat 1st. They also receive a half of a whole sandwich. At the school, it is prohibited now to bring food containing money, peanuts, nuts, milk products, sesame, due to the too many kids with food allergies in recent years....
I love that you had different ages of people. That was great. Very interesting video! I smiled when the woman said sometimes she cooks the things that are in the refrigerator to help use up what she had. I guess we do that all over the world! :)
I really enjoyed this! I should start eating more leftovers for breakfast!😃☝🏻. Thanks for the great ideas! And your sister in law is SO nice!!!! She has great screen presence!!! I love your videos . So glad I got a notification in my email that you had posted a new one ( I mean I saw it on Instagram!) 😂. Have a safe week!
While Japanese people are not a monolith, if I had to describe Japanese lunch in one word, I'd say "noodles." As for me, I'm an overachiever who's obsessed with food, so I often go all-out and spend at least an hour or two cooking something complicated like Indian curry (complete with homemade naan) or lasagna from scratch. Luckily, we can usually feed off the leftovers for a few days, so I'll only cook lunch a couple times per week, but it's still a lot of work and I've been considering simplifying our meals... 😅
Yeah, this is what you could call a "lunch". I'm in Israel, as in Europe, the lunch is an actual meal. What you mentioned, sounds as breakfast to me :0)
Everything looks delicious! The Bento boxes at the end of the video for the kids are beautiful! When I'd travel to Japan on business, my host would always want to provide Western food for me, but I really enjoyed Bento Boxes and other Japanese food for lunch!
I absolutely love your wife's cooking! The food she made were so appetizing and colourful! It's very inspiring to eat something to brighten up your day!
I really like the thermos metal bento containers you have for your children. Do you have the link as to where I can purchuse those in the USA? Thank you so much for the videos.
Pleasee keep making this kind video Greg-San. I always loved when see other country Culture,food and many more.especially Japan 😁. I love Japan since i see many anime in my chilldhood ❤️ One of my dream is i can go to Japan 😁 (sorry for my english.still learning)
What blew my mind about Japanes food was how fresh it was. I bought a donut from a vending machine and it tasted better than most "freshly made" donuts I've had before.
Soobaa is reallly good.. in my home country we have something called indomie but its not healthy but its noodles long thin noodles. I like to eat it while thinking i am eating soba lol😄 i d like to try oden as long as i go back to japan again
Me: Ok, you better be doing right on lunch here. @10:44: Whoa whoa whoa, I'm not a jerk! Let me tell you... ETA: THAT WAS MRS. LIFE WHERE I'M FROM!??!?!???!!???!!???!! RAR>_
He makes breakfeast for himself every day, as you can see in the breakfast video. He'll also make one other meal himself. Sometimes he'll eat with my sister-in-law Akko who would make some food.
Must have been so delicious. I am glad to have learned something new today. Thanks for sharing.. stay blessed my friend💖💖 Stay happy and keep posting👍👍👏
After the feast that Akko's aunt made for breakfast in the previous video, it was amazing to see ramen and all the other stuff on the table for lunch. She'a real MVP! Greg, your videos bring a lot of insight into real-life Japanese homes, great stuff. Big thank you to you and Akko. Can't wait for the dinner video now!
Thank you so much! I write for fun, and at the moment I'm working on something set in Japan; and while I spent time over there, this helps HUGELY for some scenes. It was really well done!
Everything in this video looks really tasty. For me the pandemic was a big game changer as well, I eat a lot better since I work from home. I will be waiting for a video about dinner *and* Japanese fridges. :D
I looove these videos! Hope there is a dinner episode and maybe special foods? I am very grateful that your family and friends welcome us into the world and let us take a peak on their plate. Everything looked delicious and I am super hungry now...
We normally eat heavy eating here in Guatemala, meat, fish, chicken, a mix of pasta or rice, veggies etc. Is quite normal here that kind of things depending as well your money quantity.
I truly enjoy your videos. I love Japanese food and culture and always extremely intrigued by Japanese way of living. Your videos are very insightful and very delightful to watch. Thank you.
I love this series! Would also love to see all the meals compiled together in the end to see how everyone eats in a full day according to their lifestyle!
this is so interesting to see! To take out meals are so cheap and delicious compare to germany. here you pay like 4-5 euro and it's (for me) a small portion and most of the time it doesn't even taste good. also the thing with the frozen food is interesting. here in germany most of the people froze one meal, because we don't have bigger freezer.
I think yours is quite a weird statement, Koyo. I have many friends in Germany and they have freezers that can hold stuff for whole families for many month. Not different to which we have here in Austria. People living in the city might have smaller fridge/freezer combinations but even then they have place for many meat parts or vegetables.
@@wzukr Weird statement by someone in.... Austria?. Haven't you noticed that most of people in west and central Europe have relatively smaller fridges and freezers compared to people, e.g. in US. Australia, I live in Israel... in the past many families had a separated small freezer in addition to the freezer in the fridge, but now that the fridges are HUGE, no one needs a small freezer. Now, in some fridges half of it is as freezer, in some you can decide how many freezer sections you do want (in US now, in addition to the huge fridge in the kitchen, they are into an additional small fridge near the dinner table).
@@empress2529 it´s irrelevant how big fridges & freezers are in the USA. I did refer to the nonsense that German freezers can hold only one meal. Why did they buy in Israel only a small freezer additionaly to the freezer in the fridge? We had even two big freezers at my parents and were able to store in one a whole pig, and in the other fish, vegetable, sauces etc.. Now I have a fridge as high as me and a freezer in the cellar of the same size. Way more space than needed. BTW, I´ve seen your huge US-freezer/fridge combinations at friends of mine. one quarter of them (at least) is for producing and storing ice cubes.
At my last job I would either take leftovers from the night before, a sandwich, or get something delivered if I didn't have time to make something. My current job is at a civil commitment center. The main facility is located on an island that's only accessible by the departments boat, so I had to take lunch with me or I wouldn't have anything to eat. Now I'm working on the main land at the business office but I'm trying to stay away from getting delivery. a week and a half ago I made three crockpot meals and have had them for lunch every since. I'm sure next week's lunches will be a lot of thanksgiving leftovers.
The last bit about frozen tamagoyaki made me wonder: would it be cheaper to buy the frozen ready made tamagoyaki or cook your own? 🤔 I just had this fleeting thought.
Man, if I lived by myself in Japan, I feel most of the times I'd also end up going for kombini meals... it's such a big selection all ready to eat that I'd see no reason not to. Every now and then getting something in a famires or something. Cooking reserved only if I really wanted to have something that's not commonly available there, and it'd be special occasions only since I'd have to get ingredients somehow. I feel that I'd sometimes miss local food, but I'm not even sure it'd be enough to bother cooking and making a mess. xD Also, that mel delivery service from the other video looked extremely tempting...
Yeap, you make me realize why people are into the ready lunchboxes: because in order to prepare the food, you need all kind of some specific ingredients, then get expired if you don't use them constantly. I'm the west, most of the spices to be added, are dry
We really appreciate your understated humour, Greg! I think Akko needs to be featured more as she has a great on-screen presence (and may be a bit of a ham, don't you think?)
I’ve always wondered about bento boxes: when people take them to work, do they then eat the food at room temp? Stick the bento box I. The fridge and reheat? Inquiring minds want to know!
Normally eat at room temperature (unless the office has a microwave and bento box is microwave ok) so normally menu that do not taste bad without being warm is put in the bento (eg. fatty meat will be solidified so not good for bento). These days, some bento boxes have heat retaining function. Putting bento into fridge is quite not common so in summer, sometimes ice pack is put together with the bento.
What I find most interesting about Japanese food, is that even the simple home made dishes seem to have a sense of artistry, like the food needs to look presentable as well as taste good.
Somehow I didnt see this video until now! Im subscribed but RU-vid never showed it to me!!!! Anyway, I loved the video! Cant wait for the Dinner one if that's a thing. lol
