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Hey guys! Today I want to address the WTF (or "What the ***?") Japan meme that's so
popular everywhere right now. In case you're not aware, it's really common for people to
post pictures or videos or articles of something in Japan that's weird with the title and the
majority of the comments being something like, "WTF Japan?!" or "Oh Japan..." or "Only in
Japan!" So, I'm going to give you two rules you can
follow that will work 99% of the time for you when you see stuff like this. I admit
that I made that number up but I promise you I'm not leading you astray on this.
Rule 1: If you see something on the internet that says, "Weird new trend in Japan" ... It's
not a trend. Rule 2: If you see something on the internet
from Japan and it's weird, Japanese people think it's weird, too.
And there you go! You can stop watching this video now because that's pretty much everything
you need to know. But Rachel why do they call it a trend if
it's not really a trend? I saw it on different websites with different pictures! Why would
someone sensationalize a headline? *MONEEEEY* It doesn't have to be for money, though. Some
people just get really excited about cultural differences and over exaggerate things a little
bit or don't fully understand what they're posting. Anyway, a handful of people doing
something does not a trend make. Bagel head is not a trend and never was a trend. Also,
it started in Canada! Eyeball licking is also not a trend and never was a trend in Japan.
I'm sure there's someone out there with a fetish for licking peoples' eyeballs but that
is not something that is happening all over Japan. Do not believe everything you see on
the internet! Except what I tell you. Even Japanese fashion subcultures are not that
common in Japan. I mean there are places you're more likely to see them, like Harajuku or
something like that, but in daily life you probably have about as much of a chance seeing
a Lolita girl as you have seeing a gothic kid in America. Oh, and ganguro is for all
intents and purposes dead, and has been dead as a subculture since the 1990s.
But what about weird things? What about those *** scarves I saw a long time ago? Okay,
so I can't really cover all this WTF Japan stuff without getting into *** content.
So, since that's not something I usually talk about in our videos, or something we've never
talked about, if that makes anyone uncomfortable you can skip forward to 5:03. So, *** scarves
are not a thing in Japan. If you see something like that, it's a novelty item. It's like
something you would walk into a Spencer's in a mall in America and expect to see. Stuff
like that is meant to be funny, it's meant to be a gag gift. No one is like seriously
walking around with *** scarves and being like, "Oh isn't this awesome? We're just so
weird in Japan here with our *** scarves!" What about the *** vending machines?! Okay,
I'm sure there exists one or two somewhere, but no one thinks that's normal! And that's
not normal in Japan. And really, the only thing that's strange about that is the fact
that they're selling used *** in a vending machine. It's the vending machine part about
that that's actually kind of unique for Japan. Because I promise you the used ***-selling
business is alive and strong everywhere. Have you been on craigslist? Because there are
women, and sometimes men, selling used underwear in pretty much every city in America. This
is not a Japanese fetish. This is a fetish that exists everywhere. It's not like Japanese
people have like an extra genetic sequence, the pervert sequence, that makes them have
all these strange fetishes that are only found in Japan. No. Fetishes exist everywhere. There
is no fetish that you will find in Japan that you can't find anywhere else in the world,
too. But what about school girl fetishes? They have all these little girls and they
sexualize them in schoolgirl outfits! That is a thing in America, too! Do you remember
the reaction to Britney Spears's Baby One More Time video? ...No? ...How old are you
guys? What about all the *** ***? Okay, *** fantasies
are extremely common everywhere. Different studies have shown that over half of women
and almost half of men have *** fantasies. That is not anything unusual, and it is a
completely normal aspect of sexuality. A fantasy is not the same thing as real life. People
who have a *** fantasy don't actually want to be *** in real life, or don't actually
want to go out and *** people in real life. I don't know how much detail I need to get
into here on this kind of stuff, but I'm an open person, and if you guys need me to explain
this, like the differences between sex and *** and reality, I'm willing to make a video
on that. I would much rather people have more knowledge and be more educated on this than
avoid talking about something just because it's controversial. I drew you a venn diagram
here. And if you need me to, I can explain it.
Okay, moving on! What about Japanese TV shows? They have all these crazy gameshows and everything!
Yeah, they do, and generally they're pretty weird to Japanese people, too, but that's
part of what makes them so funny. And not to ruin it for you, but the majority of these
shows are staged or at least partially staged. It's pretty common for the people being pranked
to be actors. There is a class of celebrities in Japan called Tarento--which is filled with
a lot of different comedians, and they tend to overact everything in these shows, because
that's what makes it more interesting to Japanese people. No one wants to watch like a gameshow
where everyone's just being calm and quiet and boring and things like that. We have shows
like that in America, too, like if you watch Wipeout. They pick people who are crazy! Those
people are acting out because they're on TV. I mean maybe you have that one friend who
is like genuinely kinda crazy, but that's not normally how people act. They're acting
that way for the TV. What about weird Japanese cartoons? And not
even anime—just like those weird cartoons that don't even seem to have a plot. Yeah,
those are weird, but again Japanese people don't really understand them either. They
don't take like an understanding weird cartoons class growing up in school or something like
that. And honestly we have some shows that are pretty weird, too. I mean, if anyone remembers
Ren and Stimpy, that was a strange show. Even Spongebob can be pretty strange at times.
Of course that doesn't mean you can't find something in Japan that's normal to them and
weird to you. I mean really "weirdness" is subjective so whether or not you find something
weird is going to come down to your culture and life experiences. I just want everyone
to realize that while Japan has a different culture, they are still a globalized people
who generally see a lot of things the same way that we do. And of course it's fun to
see weird and interesting things—I like watching them, too. I'm not saying you shouldn't
look at those articles or see those pictures, or be annoyed with them or anything like that.
I just want you to keep in mind that that's probably not normal in Japan.
By the way I shared some of those strange Japanese videos with Jun, and he wanted to
say that he completely understands if foreigners find Japan is weird after watching those.
He reacted the same way to them that we do. I'll share some of them on our facebook if
anyone wants to see. Also, if you have any specific questions on
things you've seen and you're wondering if that's weird in Japan or if that's normal,
please leave your questions down in the comments below! I've asked Jun to make another video
with Yuka to answer some of them. But I wanna warn you right now that they're both really
busy and it'll probably be a really long time before they can get around to answering them.
So I'm just warning you now. Anyway, thanks for watching guys! Bye!