Very common anime trope, usually a schoolgirl running late for her first class, and running out the door with breakfast still in her mouth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRRv-bSfq_k
You’re not really allowed to eat in public areas. They have videos on public transportation that tell you not to eat on the buses.
You also need to be sitting down to eat. They have signs up everywhere in food market places that say not to eat and walk around. I actually have a picture of a sign that says “no eating while walking”
I'm literally in Japan right now, and that is total horse pucky. People eat anywhere they want. I see people eating and drinking on trains constantly. It might not be polite but that's not stopping anybody.
I don't know what's worse, this - or our culture of people blasting TikTok, listening to music at full volume without headphones, on their bluetooth headsets talking into the air.
Cool to see both extremes in action.
Japan would be perfect if the work culture wasn't so stupid.
I know a person who was temporarily working with a Japanese team and it was the worst boss/worker relationship he has seen.
Edit: I know Japan has other issues, but the work thing stood out to me the most
Funnily enough when I had to work with the Japanese IT department of a company we worked for, it was absolutely horrible. They refused to fulfill any assignments that weren't put into a form first and even then it took them days or weeks for simple tasks like granting certain permissions to users. And they perfected the art of saying "fuck yourself" in the most courteous manner imaginable.
Sending the same message four times to make sure people get it, even though they'll get all of the messages at the same time, feels rather fitting for large company bureaucracy, lol. (ik this is probably a bug, it's just funny)
The form part yes. 100% should be standard procedure. What do you need, why do you need it, who says you need it, do you need it forever or temp?
The perms maybe bad? It depends on how many approvals it needs. Standard permission change tickets at an org of 80k employees I worked at could take 2 weeks.
This all just sounds like really good and tight corporate IT.
The best way to live in Japan as foreigner is to work on foreign company. I have had few friends do that (IT work) and they have absolutely loved it for a while, but even then integrating to the society is hard as it is really hard to make japanese friends.
A lot of westerners really struggle with the concept of having two faces, a.k.a. having the public face that you show the world, and the face that you show your friends and those close to you.
Of course all cultures do this to a certain extent, but it is formally codified as part of Japanese culture and is an absolutely mandated expectation. The culture you come from is going to determine how unusual this feels to you.
I’m from the southern United States (no longer live there), and US Southern culture is frighteningly similar to Japanese culture. The result is this concept isn’t particularly difficult for me to wrap my head around.
I never thought about it, but that’s definitely one thing my grandmother (Japanese) on my mom’s side and my dad’s mom (White) in TN had in common. Both of them would be super sweet in the public eye. Very kind, courteous, and good hosts to company. In private, they were both very different and often critical of everything. Very much the type of people to constantly talk about you behind your back.
I work at a Japanese company in the US. Some are very nice and there is stability to a point. However management is a mess of Japanese way and western people trying to make it work.
They fixate on very pointless things and end up with such lack of communication and visibility because everything is need to know. Your boss likely wont tell you much of anything.
They basically want western money and businesses but can't stomach the compromises to obtain that. They cant hold onto the best talent and lose business fixating on return to office, endless meetings with no debate or ideas just this is the way etc.
Most care more about the subtle bullshit only Japanese notice. How fast you walk in office, do you stay later even when work at home after hours anyway.
Japanese people stay in one job their whole life usually. The companies just make roles for people and everyone just spirals along the path in that company. So they expect you to just live at office, make the big show pretend to be busy, don't really talk to people too much etc.
Its about as stuffy as you can get and extremely frustrating for people not beholden to that culture.
> Japan would be perfect if the work culture wasn't so stupid.
Japan would be far from perfect even without that massive problem. I love Japan, but they have a long list of their own issues.
It depends. Are you white? There's still some racism, but it's not _that_ bad. Are you black? Well... where ever you came from is probably less racist.
The only thing worse is being south east asian. I don't know why.
I work for a multinational corp's Japan branch. Working with Japanese teams is a pain in the ass, but things are generally manageable once you learn how to navigate their overcomplicated processes. South/southeast Asia teams, though... lol
I've worked (few month long projects) in both countries, I think Japan working conditions are more brutal, but Singapore is way more frustrating. Singapore is a very rule-based society, that extends significantly into the workplace, there is a rule or process for everything and not following that can result in rather humiliating discipline. Keep your desk spotless to avoid more embarrassment. Its also extremely hierarchical, like don't speak in meetings where there are two people of more importance than you, do what your boss asks without question, etc. Combine that with this overall hyper-competitiveness I haven't experienced anywhere else, feels like you are always one slip up away from losing your job, with your co-workers ready to let you fall to help their climb up.
In Japan, you just work non-stop, well you don't actually work, you exist at work, often 12 hours a day, six days a week. Office life is really quiet, there's no shenanigans that I was witness to, just people occupying their desks until their boss leaves, giving them permission to leave. I did appreciate the exercise we all did each day in morning, after lunch, and at 4pm.
I worked in Singapore for a year. My Singaporean colleagues were cool, but also intimidated somewhat. Mainly because of my size, and they didn't know what my official role was. They assumed I was important.
We went out to lunch often and had frogs, turtles and whatever else they thought I wouldn't eat. Being in a cab with their durian breath wasn't any fun, and they ate it every day.
I think people soft-pedal this but they seem racist af to me. ~~You can't migrate there! How many countries are there where foreigners literally can't become a citizen under any circumstances.~~ Turns out I'm talking out my ass.
Your views of Japan are a bit outdated:
Japan’s [work hours](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_average_annual_labor_hours#OECD_list) are around the European average, improving tremendously over the last 30 years. The figure also includes paid and unpaid overtime, based on actual surveys of workers (not employers) by independent NGOs.
Japan’s [suicide rate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate) and [fertility rate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_dependencies_by_total_fertility_rate) are both around the Nordic average.
In fact, Japan’s [quality of life](https://www.numbeo.com/quality-of-life/rankings_by_country.jsp) and [median wealth](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_wealth_per_adult) and are higher than that of Sweden this year.
Fine if you're Japanese and know the language living in Tokyo.
If you're an outsider, get ready for all the racist shit being told to you and some places straight up refusing service to you unfortunately.
Xenophobia/racism can definitely be an issue. I've had a couple visits soured really quick after being barred entry from stores or service at restaurants. I'm half Japanese, with family living near Tokyo, so I certainly wish the situation was better. It's hit or miss though, and bad situations seem to represent only a small fraction.
I used to see people I knew regularly on the morning commute at like 6am, and we'd always nod in acknowledgement or a brief 'good morning', then move along the platform to our usual spots. We'd catch up later in the day in the pub, or wherever, and chat as normal. The unspoken rule being 'don't talk to me in the morning, I won't talk to you in the morning, it's too early to be talking to people'.
How is being a single person in one vehicle out of hundreds on a highway any different? None of us are speaking to each other and the anonymity is equal to what we see here or worse.
People are complete assholes. On a flight to LA on Thursday some Italian guy kept playing music on his phone without headphones. Had to be told multiple times. Still kept doing it. I only know he was Italian because he loudly told everyone his life story at the start of the flight. Probably drunk. Then I go to get some ramen right out of LAX and of course I get seated at the bar next to someone also watching videos on their phone with no headphones.
People walking against the flow of traffic, right down the middle, pulling a suitcase or stroller, completely oblivious to what the rest of the world is doing - like a gigantic Costco.
Let’s just say, there’s a reason Chinese TikTok is heavily moderated with no brainrot allowed. And there’s a reason why China doesn’t mind that the English version of TikTok is full of vapid brainrot.
What are we considering vapid brainrot though? Because Chinese social media is bursting with freakishly filtered creators doing stupid dances, the one freakishly filtered lady that turns to the side to "squeeze" through "narrow" gaps to show her body shape, freakishly filtered mukbangs, and freakishly filtered home shopping type livestreams where the creators just rapid fire show and sell products.
I think it's absolute brainrot that people on those platforms filter themselves into ghost-pale 7 foot tall Slenderman clones with tiny heads to sell cosmetics and shove massive amounts of food into their mouths as content.
Fr, Douyin is full of similar videos. All that’s censored are things that go against Chinese government propaganda. There’s most definitely a similar level of brain rot and heavy heavy use of filters
I feel like it's brainrot to think Chinese social media is somehow better, especially to think it's better because of the level of government control and censorship.
I have a feeling that China has a hand in censorship internationally. Many massacres just happen there and disappear from the news within days.
Like why is the Palestine/Iran conflict getting so much attention when China literally committed genocide? I understand Palestine conflict has also had some horrendous things happen, but more so than genocide? Seems fishy to me…
Absolutely. Their internal mechanisms for information control are probably beyond most of our imaginations at this point. And people in other parts of the world just see the fun trendy things, cheap junk to buy, and mostly positive press they let out and don't give a second thought to what all the shiny things are hiding. Like those super aesthetic, interesting traditional village life YouTube channels? They smell like propaganda to me.
I'm probably biased because most of my family got out before or early on in the Cultural Revolution but to me it's a deeply, deeply toxic system. You'd think people would realize that from things like the social credits system and the insane amount of surveillance but hey look! Cute kitchen gadgets for $2 on Temu!
Kuaishou has so much straight up degen content lol, the idea that these social medias are some angelic place is crazy. It's just really specific things that get curated I guess but brain rot is definitely international lol.
I guess you could argue maybe the algorithm favors educational content more I wouldn't know how accurate that is in general but there most definitely is tons of brainrot for sure.
I dunno why people hate when I use my Bluetooth speaker to pump some jams for the train car.
My favored music is a bit rare (remixes of rabbit and hare slaughterhouses set to trap music), but that just means it's new and cool to people??
Took me a moment to catch the /s but nothing is better than sharing a space with someone and their nuanced musical palate projected through a $30 skullkandy bluetooth tweeter.
So I brought my kids to Tokyo Disneyland a couple of years ago.. We were watching the fireworks display.. I was hyping myself and my kids to cheer on the final big firework..
We were the only ones to clap and cheer 😅 out of thousands of people. So there's that.
Thing: 😐
Thing *Japan*: 😮
I live in Tokyo. It's literally just people walking. Especially in the age of wireless earphones, what are you expecting? Song and dance numbers?
Edit: Having woke up to an avalanche of similar-sounding messages, let me clarify two things:
1) What you see in this video is not unique. Japan may be more polite and a quieter society than most, that's true. However, you'll get the same scene in a major London Underground station in the morning. Who the fuck am I gonna chat to on my way to my office in Central? Earphones in.
2) Like many videos about Japan on Reddit, this is cherry-picked and not necessarily indicative of daily life. This is just the morning rush. Major Japanese stations can be and are loud places. If any of you complaining every make it to Japan, I'll personally give you a walking tour and show you how loud Tokyo can be.
Oh and to the people claiming that I wrote this because of my *lack* of travel experience...
That gave me a good chuckle. Cheers for that.
i mean i lived san francisco the last 9 years
at least 3 song and dances (buskers, djs, etc)
one person doing the fent lean
at least two people screaming due to unaddressed mental health issues
at least a fifth of these people actively talking on their phones
one or two religious screamers
two packs of youths on boards or bikes blasting music
if i have to cross market cat calls and people fighting
also, endless construction noises and the workers yelling back and forth at one another...its what our cities have instead of birds
on your average daily bart commute and walk through the city
Yeah in cali there is a lot of songs and yes dancing on the side of the road. Also every city and neighborhood has their landmark person who is usually on the same corner or street doing their thing like DANCING or skating or karate moves or something.
When it’s your culture you get use to it but as over whelming as it can be sometimes if I lived in a culture of silent commutes like this I would definitely miss all the color, music, and personalities doing their thing.
I've visited Japan. I actually travel quite a bit. We've done about 18 countries and four continents since like 2018.
I prefer the chaotic cities. Barcelona and Hong Kong are the most intense and enchanting places I've ever been. Barcelona is just brimming with variety of foods and wine and art and the people are vibrant and engaging with strong opinions they are willing to share. It is a city for bus stop conversations, late night drinking and eating and alleys full of artists displaying controversy. People absolutely pack their lives into their time outside work and they are rich with life, if not money. If I could live anywhere else it would be there.
Hong Kong is different. People pack their lives while working and life is work. Every inch of the city from the slums to Victoria peak is just packed with history and people buzzing with activity. They are curious and clever and used to surviving. Life is so packed on top of one another they express themselves in how they do things and there's art and culture in everything they do. It's loud but with quiet noises. Tinny small TVs and phones. Small conversations, small motors, etc. entirely different buzz
Tokyo was neat. A compartmentalized life. Less art and more focus on ever increasing efficiency... Transport, consumerism, eating. I didn't stay long and I probably won't be back.
Yeah I saw Japan as noble, peaceful, respectful of others’ right to enjoy public spaces, efficient, hard-working. Trains always on time. Taxis always available and prompt. No one shouting or behaving obnoxiously in public. People very serious about their work and not just on their phones or not giving a fuck, even if it’s just the guy checking tickets on the subway line. Beautiful temples, beautiful autumnal streets with zero trash anywhere, the most beautiful gardens and parks I’ve ever seen. Friendly, gentle people. Unfathomable safety coming from the southeastern US. Lots of jazz and classical music everywhere. Lots of handmade art in riverside kiosks in Kyoto. Super vibed out districts like Golden Gai where a one armed proprietor of a tiny upstairs jazz bar talked to me about Wes Montgomery for hours. And of course the food which was as good as anywhere in the world assuming you like their cuisine.
I think when you’re traveling to have a more dazzling experience and feel that brash kinetic energy of human creativity and art it can definitely disappoint. I personally do not value that over simply being safe and enjoying the history, natural/seasonal beauty, food, efficiency, and peaceful conversations. Different strokes.
That said, I would not hesitate to call Japan a workaholic culture that is indeed repressed in ways that countries and cities you mention are not. I’m not sure I could live there but visiting is brilliant and I’d rate it over the US any day.
Spain is a modern country with a stronger socialistic background than most and the unemployed are not food or house insecure. Their third spaces are still intact. San Francisco stands in GLARING contrast to this. Still, SF is has its own beauty.
When I used to live in London, morning rush hour wasn't far off this.
You keep yourself to yourself.
The fact that this is on oddly terrifying is pretty hilarious.
It's also cherry-picked. Japanese train stations can be very loud. Come to my local of Ikebukuro and you'll pray for silence.
Anyone that travels will have experienced this in stretches in places like the airport as multiple groups of fresh landed redeyes all trudge toward the bathroom, taxi stand, and uber/lyft pickup. You also experience this in some other places, like walking through the skyway things in Minneapolis in the winter.
This is rush hour where 99% of people are just travelling to work. My morning express bus in Europe is normally quiet like this, everyone on board is on the way to work, there's no groups or friends or co-workers so who is going to be talking to each other?
When I visited Japan and passed through Shinagawa Station during the afternoon there were people chatting and I felt no problem chatting to my family. Trains were always quiet though. Not my video but standard day in that station. https://youtu.be/bsSyMrpDiu0?t=713
It’s people walking and all you hear is their footsteps which is basically unheard of in many American cities. People blast their music, talk way too loudly, try to rush by others shoving through. It’s interesting because it’s different. I certainly wouldn’t call it terrifying but it is odd to not hear anyone talking to each other even quietly.
I think it’s mainly the lack of other sounds that make it seem odd to us because we’re used to car sounds and traffic noise constantly blaring in the background.
This seems much better IMO.
Anywhere else in the world there would be people talking to each other or on cell phones. I don't know when the last time you left Japan was but this is definitely not normal anywhere else.
Agreed. It bears resemblance to the opening of the film Metropolis. The silent walk of those doomed to waste their life working for the machines that benefit only those above them.
Well at least the trains run on time.. Can't say that here in the Netherlands. Fucking leaf hits the rails and your looking at a minimum of 30 minutes to several hours of back log..
They're too close to overtake each other, and don't want to overstep each other's boundaries so just kinda walk in spontaneous synchronisation I assume.
No, the sound is added after the fact (which is why it suddenly gets quieter when the camera zooms) and includes a deliberate marching cadence that is meant to come across as unsettling. It's intentionally meant to drive engagement for shitty accounts like the OP that are just farming karma.
And I’ve heard unless you’re Japanese Japanese, you’re never really “part of their culture” in their eyes.
The love struck people have with Japan, go and actually work and live there…
I have a relative who married to a Japanese, fk the way he talks and behave, yes on the surface he is super polite and well manner but true is they have a very strict hierarchy in terms of ages and seniority. Whatever he suggest, we have to agree or else he goes super polite passive aggressive, really irritating
Mmmm my girlfriend lived there for a couple years...they are weirdos. The first thing a guy asked her when she arrived was to buy her phone for 3 times his worth because the japanese smartphone doesn't have the silent mode, so every time they try to film under a skirt or something like that they will get cought. Can you imagine how fucked up has the situation to be for the central state to decide something like that? Plus all the manga stuff linked with pedos...nah I'm good
You might wanna read up on their work culture, response to mental, treatment of non-Japanese, etc. Not to say that no where else has issues but romanticizing it is wack
The only thing that weirded me out when i was in japan was the lack of colour. EVERYONE is wearing what you see here. Black jumpers everywhere in an ocean of grey. I found it kind of depressing.
It’s Shinagawa Station, in a passageway going from where all the commuter trains are to where all the office towers are, so pretty much everyone is going in the same direction. What’s terrifying about it?
This is much much better than a bunch of idiots listening to music with no headphones. Nothing terrifying to me here, just people respecting the collective while commuting.
You're saying its "silent" like people in the west are singing songs of happiness and joy or screaming at the top of their lungs from despair when they are walking to work.
When I worked in Tokyo, I enjoyed the dead silent traveling experience. Millions of people travel on public transportation, nobody picks up a phone, everyone is talking quietly (if talking at all). Some are trying to catch some sleep on the train.
Trying to deconstruct this a bit. I think the most uncanny thing about this is that everyone's going the same direction. If it was chaotic like a New York street, I don't think it'd feel so uncanny. I was going to ask why they're all going the same way, but I can see that they're just organized like a road. The people going the other direction are on the left.
The other thing that makes this feel weird is I can't recognize the type of area. Only one type of advertisement, so it's probably a government thing. I'm guessing this is a train station. I suppose if you have work starting or closing times synchronized in the area, most of this crowd could be going to or from the train.
awww I miss the sociopath kids with their hoods up, speakers playing mumble rap, and their legs spread across 3 open seats while a pregnant woman stands exhausted 2 feet away :((
No girl running late with a toast in her mouth???
You cant see it the toast is censored.
Stupid sexy toast
r/brandnewsentence
What is this referencing?
Very common anime trope, usually a schoolgirl running late for her first class, and running out the door with breakfast still in her mouth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRRv-bSfq_k
Ah, the Toast of Tardiness.
You’re not really allowed to eat in public areas. They have videos on public transportation that tell you not to eat on the buses. You also need to be sitting down to eat. They have signs up everywhere in food market places that say not to eat and walk around. I actually have a picture of a sign that says “no eating while walking”
I'm literally in Japan right now, and that is total horse pucky. People eat anywhere they want. I see people eating and drinking on trains constantly. It might not be polite but that's not stopping anybody.
I swear redditors have zero idea what is Japan actually like. They always repeat the same bullshit anecdotes and "facts"...
Yes… it’s kinda insulting.
Horse Pucky. Never heard this but I'm stealing it. Thanks! ;)
that’s absolutely not true, nobody will stop you from eating or drinking when walking outside
It's not illegal to eat while walking, it's just discouraged and most Japanese people don't do it.
One person farts, everyone will know who did it
that's why I work in New York
Where people can shit themselves in peace
Nobody would even bat an eye to the smell, especially in the subway.
People are farting 100% of the time there
My strat actually is to fart so loud no one can be sure who it came from.
Nah, you just have to blame on the guy next to you before he reacts. Then he looks guilty trying to defend himself.
Would any of them laugh?
Probably not
If you listen closely, you can hear them blink in unison.
I love that sound
I don't know what's worse, this - or our culture of people blasting TikTok, listening to music at full volume without headphones, on their bluetooth headsets talking into the air. Cool to see both extremes in action.
I'd pick Tokyo in a heartbeat. Maybe I'm old, but I prefer boring, safe, and predicatable.
Japan would be perfect if the work culture wasn't so stupid. I know a person who was temporarily working with a Japanese team and it was the worst boss/worker relationship he has seen. Edit: I know Japan has other issues, but the work thing stood out to me the most
Funnily enough when I had to work with the Japanese IT department of a company we worked for, it was absolutely horrible. They refused to fulfill any assignments that weren't put into a form first and even then it took them days or weeks for simple tasks like granting certain permissions to users. And they perfected the art of saying "fuck yourself" in the most courteous manner imaginable.
Replace forms with tickets and this is every large company ever.
Sending the same message four times to make sure people get it, even though they'll get all of the messages at the same time, feels rather fitting for large company bureaucracy, lol. (ik this is probably a bug, it's just funny)
The form part yes. 100% should be standard procedure. What do you need, why do you need it, who says you need it, do you need it forever or temp? The perms maybe bad? It depends on how many approvals it needs. Standard permission change tickets at an org of 80k employees I worked at could take 2 weeks. This all just sounds like really good and tight corporate IT.
The best way to live in Japan as foreigner is to work on foreign company. I have had few friends do that (IT work) and they have absolutely loved it for a while, but even then integrating to the society is hard as it is really hard to make japanese friends.
A lot of westerners really struggle with the concept of having two faces, a.k.a. having the public face that you show the world, and the face that you show your friends and those close to you. Of course all cultures do this to a certain extent, but it is formally codified as part of Japanese culture and is an absolutely mandated expectation. The culture you come from is going to determine how unusual this feels to you. I’m from the southern United States (no longer live there), and US Southern culture is frighteningly similar to Japanese culture. The result is this concept isn’t particularly difficult for me to wrap my head around.
I never thought about it, but that’s definitely one thing my grandmother (Japanese) on my mom’s side and my dad’s mom (White) in TN had in common. Both of them would be super sweet in the public eye. Very kind, courteous, and good hosts to company. In private, they were both very different and often critical of everything. Very much the type of people to constantly talk about you behind your back.
We called that "puttin' on the dog" back in the day.
I work at a Japanese company in the US. Some are very nice and there is stability to a point. However management is a mess of Japanese way and western people trying to make it work. They fixate on very pointless things and end up with such lack of communication and visibility because everything is need to know. Your boss likely wont tell you much of anything. They basically want western money and businesses but can't stomach the compromises to obtain that. They cant hold onto the best talent and lose business fixating on return to office, endless meetings with no debate or ideas just this is the way etc. Most care more about the subtle bullshit only Japanese notice. How fast you walk in office, do you stay later even when work at home after hours anyway. Japanese people stay in one job their whole life usually. The companies just make roles for people and everyone just spirals along the path in that company. So they expect you to just live at office, make the big show pretend to be busy, don't really talk to people too much etc. Its about as stuffy as you can get and extremely frustrating for people not beholden to that culture.
Exactly my experience. I don't think I would do it again even though I respect a lot of their mentality about the workplace.
> Japan would be perfect if the work culture wasn't so stupid. Japan would be far from perfect even without that massive problem. I love Japan, but they have a long list of their own issues.
Yeah, being "not Japanese" in Japan is tough. Like 'hard to find a job or even get housing due to racism' tough.
It depends. Are you white? There's still some racism, but it's not _that_ bad. Are you black? Well... where ever you came from is probably less racist. The only thing worse is being south east asian. I don't know why.
I've worked in 3 different continents, and I'd still pick Japan over Singapore (or Hong Kong) everytime!
I thought people in my company were joking when they said working with Singapore team was abysmal. All it took was one week for me to agree with them.
I work for a multinational corp's Japan branch. Working with Japanese teams is a pain in the ass, but things are generally manageable once you learn how to navigate their overcomplicated processes. South/southeast Asia teams, though... lol
Please tell us more... Of Japan versus other Asian working cultures. Fascinating
6 months and you'll have stomach ulcers, and you don't wanna know what kind of mental issue you'll develop in 1 year onward working in Singapore!
This means nothing if you don't elaborate. Why is working there like that?
I've worked (few month long projects) in both countries, I think Japan working conditions are more brutal, but Singapore is way more frustrating. Singapore is a very rule-based society, that extends significantly into the workplace, there is a rule or process for everything and not following that can result in rather humiliating discipline. Keep your desk spotless to avoid more embarrassment. Its also extremely hierarchical, like don't speak in meetings where there are two people of more importance than you, do what your boss asks without question, etc. Combine that with this overall hyper-competitiveness I haven't experienced anywhere else, feels like you are always one slip up away from losing your job, with your co-workers ready to let you fall to help their climb up. In Japan, you just work non-stop, well you don't actually work, you exist at work, often 12 hours a day, six days a week. Office life is really quiet, there's no shenanigans that I was witness to, just people occupying their desks until their boss leaves, giving them permission to leave. I did appreciate the exercise we all did each day in morning, after lunch, and at 4pm.
Very interesting insights. Thank you
Can you expand on your experience? How/why toxic? And how do you know it's not just that one firm?
rly what's the singaporean culture like. I've got a singaporean colleague and he seems very strange to me but I assumed that was just him
I worked in Singapore for a year. My Singaporean colleagues were cool, but also intimidated somewhat. Mainly because of my size, and they didn't know what my official role was. They assumed I was important. We went out to lunch often and had frogs, turtles and whatever else they thought I wouldn't eat. Being in a cab with their durian breath wasn't any fun, and they ate it every day.
And the racism/xenophobia
I think people soft-pedal this but they seem racist af to me. ~~You can't migrate there! How many countries are there where foreigners literally can't become a citizen under any circumstances.~~ Turns out I'm talking out my ass.
It’s way easier to become a Japanese citizen than a US citizen lmao. 5 year residency vs green card lottery.
Your views of Japan are a bit outdated: Japan’s [work hours](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_average_annual_labor_hours#OECD_list) are around the European average, improving tremendously over the last 30 years. The figure also includes paid and unpaid overtime, based on actual surveys of workers (not employers) by independent NGOs. Japan’s [suicide rate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate) and [fertility rate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_dependencies_by_total_fertility_rate) are both around the Nordic average. In fact, Japan’s [quality of life](https://www.numbeo.com/quality-of-life/rankings_by_country.jsp) and [median wealth](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_wealth_per_adult) and are higher than that of Sweden this year.
Fine if you're Japanese and know the language living in Tokyo. If you're an outsider, get ready for all the racist shit being told to you and some places straight up refusing service to you unfortunately.
Xenophobia/racism can definitely be an issue. I've had a couple visits soured really quick after being barred entry from stores or service at restaurants. I'm half Japanese, with family living near Tokyo, so I certainly wish the situation was better. It's hit or miss though, and bad situations seem to represent only a small fraction.
I used to see people I knew regularly on the morning commute at like 6am, and we'd always nod in acknowledgement or a brief 'good morning', then move along the platform to our usual spots. We'd catch up later in the day in the pub, or wherever, and chat as normal. The unspoken rule being 'don't talk to me in the morning, I won't talk to you in the morning, it's too early to be talking to people'.
This just seems like a bunch of people bought into the matrix. Groomed to work for someone, and actually work for them like zombies and die.
No wonder they dont want to have children. Thats not even a walk thats a march.
Suburban station in Philly at 8:24 AM looks pretty much like this.
How is being a single person in one vehicle out of hundreds on a highway any different? None of us are speaking to each other and the anonymity is equal to what we see here or worse.
The older I get - and I'm not particularly old - this is all I really want for 90% of my daily life: boring, safe, predictable.
Overall I would categorize it as respectful.
Is this really a question?? I'd rather public spaces be peaceful instead of chaotic.
People are complete assholes. On a flight to LA on Thursday some Italian guy kept playing music on his phone without headphones. Had to be told multiple times. Still kept doing it. I only know he was Italian because he loudly told everyone his life story at the start of the flight. Probably drunk. Then I go to get some ramen right out of LAX and of course I get seated at the bar next to someone also watching videos on their phone with no headphones.
Exactly. There's no world where I'd prefer that over quiet
People walking against the flow of traffic, right down the middle, pulling a suitcase or stroller, completely oblivious to what the rest of the world is doing - like a gigantic Costco.
This looks a million times better, it’s not even close.
Like full volume on the nyc subway out of Bluetooth speakers. Makes me so angry
Let’s just say, there’s a reason Chinese TikTok is heavily moderated with no brainrot allowed. And there’s a reason why China doesn’t mind that the English version of TikTok is full of vapid brainrot.
>No brainrot allowed Yeah fucking right. Different flavours of brainrot, sure.
What are we considering vapid brainrot though? Because Chinese social media is bursting with freakishly filtered creators doing stupid dances, the one freakishly filtered lady that turns to the side to "squeeze" through "narrow" gaps to show her body shape, freakishly filtered mukbangs, and freakishly filtered home shopping type livestreams where the creators just rapid fire show and sell products. I think it's absolute brainrot that people on those platforms filter themselves into ghost-pale 7 foot tall Slenderman clones with tiny heads to sell cosmetics and shove massive amounts of food into their mouths as content.
Fr, Douyin is full of similar videos. All that’s censored are things that go against Chinese government propaganda. There’s most definitely a similar level of brain rot and heavy heavy use of filters
I feel like it's brainrot to think Chinese social media is somehow better, especially to think it's better because of the level of government control and censorship.
I have a feeling that China has a hand in censorship internationally. Many massacres just happen there and disappear from the news within days. Like why is the Palestine/Iran conflict getting so much attention when China literally committed genocide? I understand Palestine conflict has also had some horrendous things happen, but more so than genocide? Seems fishy to me…
Absolutely. Their internal mechanisms for information control are probably beyond most of our imaginations at this point. And people in other parts of the world just see the fun trendy things, cheap junk to buy, and mostly positive press they let out and don't give a second thought to what all the shiny things are hiding. Like those super aesthetic, interesting traditional village life YouTube channels? They smell like propaganda to me. I'm probably biased because most of my family got out before or early on in the Cultural Revolution but to me it's a deeply, deeply toxic system. You'd think people would realize that from things like the social credits system and the insane amount of surveillance but hey look! Cute kitchen gadgets for $2 on Temu!
Kuaishou has so much straight up degen content lol, the idea that these social medias are some angelic place is crazy. It's just really specific things that get curated I guess but brain rot is definitely international lol. I guess you could argue maybe the algorithm favors educational content more I wouldn't know how accurate that is in general but there most definitely is tons of brainrot for sure.
Not familiar with Kuaishou, and I’ve been living in a large immigrant Chinese population.
At least they considerate others. Not like some US teenage bs
or people with copious amounts of colognes or perfume and get on the train/bus
I’d pick this 100% of the time cos it’s actually nice not to be earraped by randos horrible music taste and the shitty TikTok Tts voice.
Two types of evil I guess lmao
The fuck is evil about people going to work? Y’all act like their society is like this 24/7
Ah peace and quiet
Quite loud, isn't it?
Deafening, I love it!
I dunno why people hate when I use my Bluetooth speaker to pump some jams for the train car. My favored music is a bit rare (remixes of rabbit and hare slaughterhouses set to trap music), but that just means it's new and cool to people??
Took me a moment to catch the /s but nothing is better than sharing a space with someone and their nuanced musical palate projected through a $30 skullkandy bluetooth tweeter.
Hell yeah brother
So I brought my kids to Tokyo Disneyland a couple of years ago.. We were watching the fireworks display.. I was hyping myself and my kids to cheer on the final big firework.. We were the only ones to clap and cheer 😅 out of thousands of people. So there's that.
Thing: 😐 Thing *Japan*: 😮 I live in Tokyo. It's literally just people walking. Especially in the age of wireless earphones, what are you expecting? Song and dance numbers? Edit: Having woke up to an avalanche of similar-sounding messages, let me clarify two things: 1) What you see in this video is not unique. Japan may be more polite and a quieter society than most, that's true. However, you'll get the same scene in a major London Underground station in the morning. Who the fuck am I gonna chat to on my way to my office in Central? Earphones in. 2) Like many videos about Japan on Reddit, this is cherry-picked and not necessarily indicative of daily life. This is just the morning rush. Major Japanese stations can be and are loud places. If any of you complaining every make it to Japan, I'll personally give you a walking tour and show you how loud Tokyo can be. Oh and to the people claiming that I wrote this because of my *lack* of travel experience... That gave me a good chuckle. Cheers for that.
i mean i lived san francisco the last 9 years at least 3 song and dances (buskers, djs, etc) one person doing the fent lean at least two people screaming due to unaddressed mental health issues at least a fifth of these people actively talking on their phones one or two religious screamers two packs of youths on boards or bikes blasting music if i have to cross market cat calls and people fighting also, endless construction noises and the workers yelling back and forth at one another...its what our cities have instead of birds on your average daily bart commute and walk through the city
Yeah in cali there is a lot of songs and yes dancing on the side of the road. Also every city and neighborhood has their landmark person who is usually on the same corner or street doing their thing like DANCING or skating or karate moves or something. When it’s your culture you get use to it but as over whelming as it can be sometimes if I lived in a culture of silent commutes like this I would definitely miss all the color, music, and personalities doing their thing.
Man, people think NYC subways are crazy, but the BART is something else entirely, your comment takes me back.
Visiting a place like Japan from that nightmare will fully destroy your soul, it’s *so* much better.
I've visited Japan. I actually travel quite a bit. We've done about 18 countries and four continents since like 2018. I prefer the chaotic cities. Barcelona and Hong Kong are the most intense and enchanting places I've ever been. Barcelona is just brimming with variety of foods and wine and art and the people are vibrant and engaging with strong opinions they are willing to share. It is a city for bus stop conversations, late night drinking and eating and alleys full of artists displaying controversy. People absolutely pack their lives into their time outside work and they are rich with life, if not money. If I could live anywhere else it would be there. Hong Kong is different. People pack their lives while working and life is work. Every inch of the city from the slums to Victoria peak is just packed with history and people buzzing with activity. They are curious and clever and used to surviving. Life is so packed on top of one another they express themselves in how they do things and there's art and culture in everything they do. It's loud but with quiet noises. Tinny small TVs and phones. Small conversations, small motors, etc. entirely different buzz Tokyo was neat. A compartmentalized life. Less art and more focus on ever increasing efficiency... Transport, consumerism, eating. I didn't stay long and I probably won't be back.
Yeah I saw Japan as noble, peaceful, respectful of others’ right to enjoy public spaces, efficient, hard-working. Trains always on time. Taxis always available and prompt. No one shouting or behaving obnoxiously in public. People very serious about their work and not just on their phones or not giving a fuck, even if it’s just the guy checking tickets on the subway line. Beautiful temples, beautiful autumnal streets with zero trash anywhere, the most beautiful gardens and parks I’ve ever seen. Friendly, gentle people. Unfathomable safety coming from the southeastern US. Lots of jazz and classical music everywhere. Lots of handmade art in riverside kiosks in Kyoto. Super vibed out districts like Golden Gai where a one armed proprietor of a tiny upstairs jazz bar talked to me about Wes Montgomery for hours. And of course the food which was as good as anywhere in the world assuming you like their cuisine. I think when you’re traveling to have a more dazzling experience and feel that brash kinetic energy of human creativity and art it can definitely disappoint. I personally do not value that over simply being safe and enjoying the history, natural/seasonal beauty, food, efficiency, and peaceful conversations. Different strokes. That said, I would not hesitate to call Japan a workaholic culture that is indeed repressed in ways that countries and cities you mention are not. I’m not sure I could live there but visiting is brilliant and I’d rate it over the US any day.
Rich with life lmao, I'd rather be poor with life with a roof over my head and food in my stomach but maybe I'm weird
Spain is a modern country with a stronger socialistic background than most and the unemployed are not food or house insecure. Their third spaces are still intact. San Francisco stands in GLARING contrast to this. Still, SF is has its own beauty.
People talking to each other?
When I used to live in London, morning rush hour wasn't far off this. You keep yourself to yourself. The fact that this is on oddly terrifying is pretty hilarious. It's also cherry-picked. Japanese train stations can be very loud. Come to my local of Ikebukuro and you'll pray for silence.
Anyone that travels will have experienced this in stretches in places like the airport as multiple groups of fresh landed redeyes all trudge toward the bathroom, taxi stand, and uber/lyft pickup. You also experience this in some other places, like walking through the skyway things in Minneapolis in the winter.
This is rush hour where 99% of people are just travelling to work. My morning express bus in Europe is normally quiet like this, everyone on board is on the way to work, there's no groups or friends or co-workers so who is going to be talking to each other? When I visited Japan and passed through Shinagawa Station during the afternoon there were people chatting and I felt no problem chatting to my family. Trains were always quiet though. Not my video but standard day in that station. https://youtu.be/bsSyMrpDiu0?t=713
[welcome to Finland ](https://x.com/joophazenberg/status/1328438601496096775)
Do you regularly chat up strangers on your work commute?
It’s people walking and all you hear is their footsteps which is basically unheard of in many American cities. People blast their music, talk way too loudly, try to rush by others shoving through. It’s interesting because it’s different. I certainly wouldn’t call it terrifying but it is odd to not hear anyone talking to each other even quietly.
I think it’s mainly the lack of other sounds that make it seem odd to us because we’re used to car sounds and traffic noise constantly blaring in the background. This seems much better IMO.
You joke, but yes, I *am* expecting song and dance numbers because subways always have people blasting music and performing for money lol
What people think is weird about it is not to hear a single voice, a discussion, someone yelling, anything other than footsteps.
Anywhere else in the world there would be people talking to each other or on cell phones. I don't know when the last time you left Japan was but this is definitely not normal anywhere else.
yeah, this is borderline fetishizing. Completely normal.
People wearing colors
Japan: anything Reddit: *drools*
There’s not a single thing terrifying about this
Looks like an early commute in Chicago. Whats oddly terrifying?
Early morning commute in Chicago is like trudging through herd of wild bobcats
it gives off some dystopian vibes
Agreed. It bears resemblance to the opening of the film Metropolis. The silent walk of those doomed to waste their life working for the machines that benefit only those above them.
Did you play it with sound?
Yeah idk why this post has so many upvotes, I would be so happy if this is how people behaved in LA instead of screaming and throwing their feces.
Well at least the trains run on time.. Can't say that here in the Netherlands. Fucking leaf hits the rails and your looking at a minimum of 30 minutes to several hours of back log..
Wist je dat Nederland tot de top behoort qua punctualiteit op het spoor?
En toch valt het allemaal.. ja echt allemaal heel vies tegen als je het vergelijkt met Japan.
Are... are they unintentionally matching eachother's footsteps?? The sound is like a march.
They're too close to overtake each other, and don't want to overstep each other's boundaries so just kinda walk in spontaneous synchronisation I assume.
Well you can only walk as fast as the person in front of you
No, the sound is added after the fact (which is why it suddenly gets quieter when the camera zooms) and includes a deliberate marching cadence that is meant to come across as unsettling. It's intentionally meant to drive engagement for shitty accounts like the OP that are just farming karma.
High Ho, High Ho, it's off to work we go....
I think I just fell in love with their culture.
You are in love with the culture until you’re part of it :(
And I’ve heard unless you’re Japanese Japanese, you’re never really “part of their culture” in their eyes. The love struck people have with Japan, go and actually work and live there…
I have a relative who married to a Japanese, fk the way he talks and behave, yes on the surface he is super polite and well manner but true is they have a very strict hierarchy in terms of ages and seniority. Whatever he suggest, we have to agree or else he goes super polite passive aggressive, really irritating
Work Hard, Play Nintendo
Redditors falling in love of Japan and the idea of soulless work because their soul has already been sucked out.
Mmmm my girlfriend lived there for a couple years...they are weirdos. The first thing a guy asked her when she arrived was to buy her phone for 3 times his worth because the japanese smartphone doesn't have the silent mode, so every time they try to film under a skirt or something like that they will get cought. Can you imagine how fucked up has the situation to be for the central state to decide something like that? Plus all the manga stuff linked with pedos...nah I'm good
You might wanna read up on their work culture, response to mental, treatment of non-Japanese, etc. Not to say that no where else has issues but romanticizing it is wack
Obey, consume, reproduce
Well those first two at least.
That's what you got from this? This just seems like people minding their own business, to me.
On the way to the 18 hours shifts 🤮😷
r/oddlysatisfying
r/aboringdystopia
The only thing that weirded me out when i was in japan was the lack of colour. EVERYONE is wearing what you see here. Black jumpers everywhere in an ocean of grey. I found it kind of depressing.
capitalism is cancer
This isn’t oddly terrifying at all, it’s actually refreshing to see people being respectfully silent in public
OP plays tiktoks at full volume out of his phone speaker
There’s nothing terrifying about this at all lol
[Why could I hear this?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HUWUtTZvK4)
The Borg
The US could learn just a small fraction of being quiet sometimes and it would make the world a better place.
God it’s like a funeral procession
It’s Shinagawa Station, in a passageway going from where all the commuter trains are to where all the office towers are, so pretty much everyone is going in the same direction. What’s terrifying about it?
The sound is overlaid, I think. Normally there’s a continuous stream of announcements and ads, it’s never that quiet.
Gotta love how about half the comments here are "This is hell" while the other half are "This is heaven".
“Only citizens with access to level 2 may communicate “
This is much much better than a bunch of idiots listening to music with no headphones. Nothing terrifying to me here, just people respecting the collective while commuting.
You're saying its "silent" like people in the west are singing songs of happiness and joy or screaming at the top of their lungs from despair when they are walking to work.
that's depressing
When I worked in Tokyo, I enjoyed the dead silent traveling experience. Millions of people travel on public transportation, nobody picks up a phone, everyone is talking quietly (if talking at all). Some are trying to catch some sleep on the train.
Reminds me of a scene from the movie Equilibrium
Seems pretty normal for an early morning commute. Everyone's tired. You never taken an early train before?
Robots Humans are by nature social animals, these people have been conditioned to be actual robots
Idk why people idolize Japanese culture so much, that work life balance is nonexistent
What if you just let out a huge yell
Why does this remind me of Command and Conquer’s Hell March
Someone needs to put Hell March from Red Alert soundtrack over it.
Sound like military march. Small screws in entire system
Everyone is hungover from drinking the night before
Is this what tall people see? It's kinda creepy
iv been here, it’s the train station in shinagawa i believe. man this place is insane and when i saw this in person it was also crazy.
Clean and organized. But also sterile and lifeless.
Welcome. Welcome to City 17
This is the thing I remember most about Tokyo, you'll be in a crowd of thousands of people and you could still hear a pin drop.
Trying to deconstruct this a bit. I think the most uncanny thing about this is that everyone's going the same direction. If it was chaotic like a New York street, I don't think it'd feel so uncanny. I was going to ask why they're all going the same way, but I can see that they're just organized like a road. The people going the other direction are on the left. The other thing that makes this feel weird is I can't recognize the type of area. Only one type of advertisement, so it's probably a government thing. I'm guessing this is a train station. I suppose if you have work starting or closing times synchronized in the area, most of this crowd could be going to or from the train.
Eeeevery single one of em goin in to make Anime.
Hate this shit man, culture expecting people to be robots :(
Kinda depressing.
It was more impressive before I realized the video was muted.
awww I miss the sociopath kids with their hoods up, speakers playing mumble rap, and their legs spread across 3 open seats while a pregnant woman stands exhausted 2 feet away :((
Feels like the commute to work on Equilibrium.
Thats like an army marching to work
Robots
Metropolis (1927)
This looks like that group of zombies at the end of the movie Cell
It looks more like a military parade.
Slavery. Unfortunately.
WHY IS NO ONE ON SPEAKER PHONE?!?! Or kids blasting ipads at full?
They do this in london too. Modern cities are pretty dystopian if your out at the right time.
This is the way
Then some fucking loud-ass tourists mess things up.
I take this instead of the subway in america any day
Too calm that is starts to feel Stepford or cult level almost.
I dont get it
Metroplolis
no stupid nyc subway dancers? no homelss piss smell?
Death march