Japan is an amazing country full of weird, but awesome stuff which attracts loads of people to visit. Some of them are understandable, but others are just out of our imagination, or I could use the word “crazy” to describe it.

So before stepping into our main parts today, in terms of weird Japanese things, what comes to mind first? Maid Coffee? Otaku? Or KFC on Christmas Eve? If these are what you could only think of, you will have to stay tight with us to explore an even more crazy but worthy experience, because it is unique opposing the rest of the world.

 

Noodle Slurping

Japan is a country well known for its extremely polite mannerisms. However, there is one exception which challenges the western understandings of Japanese-politeness. Just imagine when you have noodles at a restaurant, what do you often do when you eat your noodles? Eating without slurping loudly is commonly regarded as a good manner in most countries in the world, except for Japan. In Japan, conversely, eating without slurping is rude to the chef because it seemingly shows you are not satisfied with their food or it is sometimes even seen as disrespecting them. So Japan gives you a chance to slurp as much as you could and you will receive a big smile from the chef in return. Win-win, isn’t it?

 

Cuddle cafes

Don’t think of anything sexual when you see the title because it just means “next to each other”. The first soine-ya / 添い寝屋 (which means sleeping together shop) was opened several years ago in Tokyo, allowing male customers to sleep next to a girl for a fee but nothing sexual. Instead, there are some services which are available for customers like “staring at each other for one minute” or “stroking the girls hair for three minutes”. It sounds weird but it has been surprisingly popular since it opened and it became a place for exhausted office workers to relax.

 

Vending machines

Vending machines are almost everywhere now in most of countries in the world, but what do you think that vending machines should sell? Drinks, snacks, or sometimes other food, like sandwiches? Here in Japan, vending machines will be an eye-opening world for you. Japanese vending machines have huge varieties of products, some of which are only thought to be sold in certain places like supermarkets or grocery stores. So what can you buy from vending machines? From fruits, vegetables, and cigarettes to underwear, lunch boxes, and even lobsters! That’s crazy, isn’t?

 

Jigokudani Monkey Parks

From the title, you may feel like it is just a normal park where it’s full of wild monkeys to feed as an attraction. However, at this park, what you can see is not how monkeys live, but how they enjoy hot springs in winter. Actually, there are hundreds of macaques from the nearby island coming here to warm their bodies, and return to the forest at night. This used to be seen only in winter in the past, but with attendants who feed them regularly, they just started to inhabit here all year round. When seeing animals enjoy hot springs like us, don’t you feel a sense of harmony between humans and animals?

 

Ear-Cleaning Parlor

Do you clean your ears regularly? Do you find it troublesome to do by yourself? Don’t worry, Japan has an ear-cleaning Parlor to do this for you. Take a rest, lie down on the bed, drink some green tea, and enjoy the 30minutes ear-cleaning offered by professionals. It looks weird to many tourists but actually many Japanese men go there to relax after work.

 

 

Toilets

You may have the question “Why toilets?” when you see this title at first glimpse, but as a matter of fact, toilets in Japan are completely different from any other place, especially western countries. Compared to the normal toilet, which only has one function – flush, the Japanese one is equiped with water jets, music, warmed seats and an array of other functions, which puts normal ones to shame. If you can’t read Japanese, do prepare yourself for some unintended consequences when you trigger the weird function.

 

Pushing people in the subway

What would you do if the subway is full of people? You may take it easy and wait for the next train. However in Japan, it does not work like that. When there is gap, there is a room for passengers. Japanese are getting crazy in rush hour by pushing people forward to create as much room as possible. You may ask why there is no staff from the station to stop them because it looks undisciplined. Well, the truth is they do have special workers who are responsible for that, but what they do is not keep them in a line but help push them in as their main duties. Crazy, isn’t?

 

Restaurants order plastic food

Plastic food? Edible? Don’t worry, these foods are not served to customers but restaurants themselves. When you go to an unfamiliar restaurant and you can’t read the menu, what contributes most is a photo. But In Japanese restaurants, instead of photos, they order plastic food from local artists who can make a plastic model of the real food indistinguishably. This way, customers can have a rough image of the whole menu to choose the food they would like to try.

 

 

Eating alone is completely fine

Eating alone is mostly not preferred by many people in the whole world because of the embarrassment and sense of loneliness, often emerged when seeing groups around you eating and chatting while you are eating alone with no one to talk with. But in Japan, people prioritize the efficiency and privacy by isolating people with different counters which can only fit one person. Besides, there is a really long separated curtain to cover the chefs face, and ordering is all done by machine, so there is no way to feel ashamed by eating alone because this small area becomes your territory that nobody will step in.

 

Capsule Hotel

The invention of capsule hotels shocked the entire world when it just came out in 1979. As Japan is a small island, space-saving became critically important when the population continued increasing. Capsule, however, ceased the pressure population crisis by making hotel rooms smaller and more efficient than ever before. These capsules have everything you need for one night: toilet requisites, blankets, TV, and lamps as well. At the same time, capsule hotels offer a really reasonable price, making it competitive to other normal hotels.

Within these ten weird, but amazing things in Japan, have you updated your knowledge a bit in your mind? Japan is full of mysteries and never fails to surprise newcomers. Trust me, you have to put more space aside for what you are going to learn in Japan, otherwise it will be too much for you to receive the culture shock.