I was reading a comment in another thread and my interest was piqued.
Things like:
‘a Japanese person told me that only Japanese people get katakori (stiff shoulders).’
‘Japanese people have longer intestines so they cannot digest meat well.’
‘If you sleep with a fan on you will get sick.’
I have heard some of these since I was a child and not really thought twice about them so I’m curious if there are more things that I just thought were true and actually aren’t lol.
I am half Japanese and spent a decent amount of time in the US so I kind of thought I was invulnerable to the ‘Japan is the only country with 4 seasons kind of thing’ but now I realize it goes much deeper.
I’d ideally like to hear things that Japanese people actually think are true, not so much the clipping your nails at night or other superstitions.
Please comment if anything comes to mind!
31 comments
Whistling indoors at night will attract snakes.
Japanese white rice is somehow different, so diabetics can eat plenty of it and not have their blood sugar spike.
Western culture is more aggressive because they use knives and forks.
I think the fan one is common with Asian cultures in generally. My mom is Chinese and she always kept harping and freaking out about “Cold Wind”.
Even when vacation in Hawaii with my then 10 month old son. It was like 30 degrees and thus a gentle breeze probably made it feel like around 25 degrees. Yet my mom immediately tried bundling him with a blanket to make sure he doesn’t catch a cold (random FYI, being cold and catching a cold are two vastly different things. The latter is actually a virus, and while cold temperature means the rise of people being sick with a cold, it’s correlation, not causation).
I’m like, “WTF?! You’re gonna give my son a heat stroke.”
Gotta make sure your belly don’t get cold, no belly facing the air conditioner, no overly cold food or drinks, etc. Cold belly leads to every disease under the sun, apparently.
You have to work a minimum of 3 years before changing jobs.
Next time someone tells you that Japanese intestines are longer than American, send them a link to [this research paper](https://cir.nii.ac.jp/crid/1390282679198770304) proving there is no significant difference (and if anything, Americans’ intestines are slightly longer).
Going to the toilet during company time is illegal.
> only Japanese people get katakori
My massage therapists would probably laugh in their faces, heh.
White people can’t digest seaweed. When pointing out that I eat it in front of them and that sushi in the US most commonly refers to rolls wrapped in it, I get the ‘well of course it’s not poisonous, but your body cannot digest it properly’ nebulous answer.
A small plastic divider on a table in a restaurant is going to prevent COVID spreading…
Idk if this counts, but pretty much the whole history of my neighborhood is based on superstition. Specifically, “bad luck comes from the northeast”.
In geomancy, the northeast is called the “devil’s gate” (鬼門) so all the NIMBY stuff got put to the northeast of the palace in Tokyo, which is today the San’ya neighborhood between Taito and Arakawa-ku. Execution grounds, prostitution zone, Burakumin neighborhood, day-laborer/homeless shelters, etc.
Had a waitress argue with me when she asked if I wanted ice in my drink and I said yes, she said “foreigners don’t like ice in their drinks” (so why even ask me then?)
And the NSFW: “Japanese men have harder penises”
Not sure if you’d classify these as myths, they are more like old wives tales or misconceptions that have nonetheless persisted, more out of habit than anything:
– Leaving huge plastic bottles lined up outside will scare away cats, apparently it’s the reflections or the rippling effect of the water? It doesn’t work.
– similarly hanging up CDs to scare off birds. The only thing that’s effective at is blinding drivers when it catches the light and dazzles them.
– Gargling with cold water. It’s long been proven that it does nothing, and can even be counterproductive: you need to gargle with warm water at least. Yet every kid at school will be gargling away with tap water.
EDIT: interesting to see some of these are not exclusive to Japan! I personally discovered them here though and they seem pretty widespread.
Between Europe and Japan lies Asia. Japan is not part of Asia because it has 4 seasons.
Saying “pen” in english spreads covid.
Japanese people have “smaller Asian eyes” and brown eyes so they don’t need to wear sunglasses and their eyes don’t get damage when walking down the street in the afternoon into direct sunlight or some shit, despite holding up their hands to block the sun and squinting like crazy. Nope, no sunglasses to be seen.
“Japan is the only country in the whole world with potable tap water” is a common one. And then if you tell them you drank tap water when you lived in X country, they’ll be all like “well, it wouldn’t be compatible with the Japanese body”. One of my private students used bottled water to brush her teeth in the U.S and Italy. The same student told me toothpicks only exist in Japan.
Japan has 4 seasons
Japanese people don’t steal, don’t throw trash, don’t cut in line, and neither do they assassinate former Prime Ministers. It must have been a foreigner.
Japanese bodies process medicines differently so the medicines are weaker in Japan. This might have some truth to it, probably due to body size?
If you zip around residential areas at night with an ungodly loud motorbike engine, you’re not a pathetic loser with a micropenis.
That the Japanese race is the merger of Mongolian warriors with one of the Lost Tribes of Israel.
Thus explaining the origins of Japanese Bushido warrior philosophy and Japan’s economic and business success.
Taking the car anywhere longer than three hours away is extremely dangerous – source: My coworker.
This is probably your first time seeing snow – source: My coworker, last winter. I’m German.
You get a nosebleed if you eat too much chocolate.
Oh and the whole thing about blood types dictating your personality.
When I was pregnant a granny told me I shouldn’t use the stove to cook, because my breast milk will curdle.
“there are no gay people in Japan.”
日本語が上手ですね。
Here’s a weird one:
I was eating a combini bento, and I was in the mood for a cold sugary beverage so I got a coke.
One of my Japanese coworkers sits at the table with me and asks if I like Japanese food, obento etc. the usual “what do foreigners like “ questions.
Then she asked if I liked cola. Yeah?
Then she said “Japanese people don’t drink cola with obento “
….. 🙄🙄🙄🙄
My Japanese wife once told me (American) that foreigners bring crime.
Thanks babe. Love you too.
I’m not bothered by these sorts of things but if I feel particularly assholish my go to’s are always:
“Oh wow! Just like China, then!”
“Ah I see. So it’s like Chinese people. We Europeans are different from Chinese”
Usually has the intended effect
My wife told me a funny one: “unlike western people, if Japanese people get too fat, they die immediately”
When I brought up Sumos she said that’s different because they train
I guess the bigger girls I see at Saizeria will all be dead soon, rip