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A Japanese person is only going to be able to answer "it is normal" unless they've lived abroad. Maybe it would be easier to ask them to debunk or confirm those misleading rumors?
Things I can point out from living in japan is:
healthcare is good
streets are clean
every Japanese person has seen at least a few Animes
Basic Japanese TV is 50% food, 30% reactions with facecam, 15% commercials, and once every Friday 1 movie. (Either ghibli, Harry Potter, or home alone).
You don't really need to know Japanese in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, but in less touristy places it would be good to know how to order stuff, talk to cashiers and understanding basic instructions in Japanese.
Akihabara is dying.
Disney is more popular than Anime, and there are far more women than men and children combined at Disneyland and Disney sea.
People stand in line just to play pachinko.
Japan doesn't have pork broth. (Biggest culture shock for me)
There is a place in japan for every single hobby.
Japanese people like uniforms. If they have a hobby that sometimes has uniforms, more often than not, the Japanese person is going to have the full set of the uniform.
It is not considered rude to eat while walking, or talk while eating.
It is considered rude to blow your nose at the table, to pass food from chopstick to chopstick, to eat or talk on phone while on the train.
Houses and apartments are small, but cheap if you live further away from the center.
Living even an hour away from Tokyo, you're still going to have giant cities nearby with everything you need, and everything will be cheaper.
What do you mean by Akihabara is dying?
Everytime I go there, major stores have closed down for good. People seem to shop more online nowadays.
It isn't dead or anything yet, but if this keeps going, it will continue to shrink.
its less bussling and profitable than it used to be pre covid. some gimmick restaurants and several arcades have closed down.
people are just going to shop on yahoo auctions/amazonjp and such for merch. japan also overtime has been opening up to pc gaming in the past few years (basically the only country in asia where consoles, mainly handheld, is significantly more popular than pcs, where its virtually the reverse elsewhere) (both are smaller than mobile gaming market though combined)
As in ramen? Have you ever been to Kyushu? These things are regional.
As in knorr broth dice, etc, for cooking. They have chicken and vegetable consomme, and sometimes beef, but never pork. Ramen has a lot of flavoring, but when it comes to cooking food from your native country, even at speciality stores like Kaldi or Seijouishi, you're lucky to find anything that isn't already widely popular.
As a Swede, pork broth is the basic of basics in cooking, so it was hard to make dishes for when you're homesick.
I have been to a few prefectures in Kyushu, and it was a really nice , but I didn't try the ramen there. I'll give it a try next time I go.
I see. Yeah, consommé is the most prominent stock in the supermarkets, followed by chicken, and like you said beef. I’ve never used pork broth myself, but I wonder if this is what you’re looking for.
I have no idea if it is any the same, but I'll give it a try. Thanks.
Great response! Just a comment, 食べ歩き (eating while walking) is definitely not seen with good eyes in many places in Japan. Some very touristic streets even have signs to forbid it.
I think that's to prevent littering and people bumping into each other in very crowded places. For example Asakusa does this because it is very crowded, and a lot of the food there comes on sharp sticks, so it might be dangerous, but it isn't inherently rude or anything. There are spots suitable or even meant for it, and spots less suitable for it. I don't think culturally it is a problem.
That's the case for very specific places, but in general, tabearuki is considered 行儀の悪いこと, meaning bad manners, basically.
Take a look at this article, for example. Or this anectode. Or info from a language school. Or this quora answer. They all discuss how eating while walking is bad manners and can bring nuisance to the people around you, even in non crowded places. Of course this is not every Japanese person's opinion! I've even seen people advocating for it.
I think it's not such bad manner that you would be scolded by a stranger, perhaps by a Japanese partner or close friend, but it's definetly not seen in good eyes in general.
I don't know that I agree with that, necessarily, but I suppose it might be how you define "popular". Tons of people are going to Puroland and stuff (Sanrio/Hello Kitty) if we're talking about theme parks. Every Japanese kid I know still talks about Anpanman, etc., though all my nieces and nephews definitely do know some Disney (Frozen in particular for the gals at least).
I'd generalize that to liquid stock that isn't dashi. I can at least find chicken stock at Costco, but that's about it.
How expensive is Tokyo compared to the West?
I can only compare it to Sweden, but eating out at restaurants is way cheaper in Japan. Almost cheaper than cooking it yourself.
Groceries depend on where you live, and how local the groceries are. Cooking Japanese food is cheap, and if you can get used to the flavor of Natto (protip, add mustard) you can live dirt cheap. Import goods in general are pricy so you might want to cut down on Nutella.
Rent is cheap, but the hidden fees are annoying. Like renewing your contract, key money, security deposit etc. Moving is expensive.
Hospital fees are at around 330-2000 yen a visit, an MRI scan is around 7000 yen if I remember correctly. Physical Therapy is at 330 yen per visit. With this said, you get treatment fairly fast. (Same day, wait maybe an hour or two).
Children get free treatment, and medicine cost around 30 yen (less than a dollar).
It is easy to spend too much money if you're not careful, especially with how many entertainment districts there are.
Alcohol is also cheap compared to Sweden, but Sweden has one of the highest taxes on alcohol, so anywhere would be cheaper than Sweden.
The bullet train is pretty expensive. It is cheaper to fly domestic. The subway is cheap if you buy a pass.
Trains in the UK are more expensive than flying as well. They are also slower. They only make finical sense when the journey is too short or you need to be in the centre of the city when arriving.
So what is with covering the mouth when eating and laughing?
Why would a Japanese person not be able to give a more in depth answer? I’ve only lived in my country all my life yet I could easily talk about the differences from the rest of the world.
They might, but Japanese are in general not too familiar with how life is outside of japan due to the language barrier, and usually on TV the most you'll see is foreigners reacting to how it is in Japan, but so far the only TV show I know of where they travel abroad is ItteQ, but it focuses more on the comedians.
Oh are Japanese still largely TV driven? Here in Australia most people consume media online.
I would say it is more TV centric, with the aging population and everything.
But even on the internet, besides the major platforms like YouTube, Facebook, X, etc, Japanese tend to visit Japanese websites only. Even on these major sites, the feed is all Japanese, so I definitely think japan is a bit removed from the rest of the world.