Quote Originally Posted by Maciamo


1) Being loud in places like restaurants, cafes, etc. Especially laughing very loud. This is true for most people, from little children shouting and running, to groups of teenage girls, to business people to women on their 50's or 60's. I don't mind laughing in a movie theatre, but not in an expensive restaurant. Japanese tend to be amazingly quiet in cinemas and too noisy elsewhere.

Interestingly Japanese seem not to be very sensitive to noise, and the one I know do not care much about being quiet when people are sleeping (eg. coming back late and talking loud on the phone so that even the neighbour can hear).

2) People carrying an umbrella when it is (almost) not raining. What can be more annoying on a crowded pavement/sidewalk, especially when you are riding a bicycle and those umbrella-carriers do not care about people around and suddenly wave it into your face or arm.


3) Pushing people to get in or out of the train. Shall I also mention men groping women ?

4) Slurping noisily their tea and their food (not just ramen, but everything). This is particularily true of elderly people.

5) Touts and sales people. These can be quite tenacious. At the very moment I was writing this thread, one of them came and rang at my door. I don't open anymore as I get them at least once a week, to sell goods or try to convince me to repair my roof. Really annnoying, especially when you open, they see you're a gaijin, they feel embarassed and don't not what to say, but explain anyway, then I tell them I don't need it, but people from the same company come back 3x the same month ! Won't they understand ?!
1. I think Japanese people don't like others being loud as well but perhaps they don't tell them to be quiet, cause Japanese people tend not to communicate to others that they don't know.
In western culture people tend to talk to others even if they don't know them but this rarely happenes in Japan.

2.Hummm, I can't really blame on them doing it cause I sometimes do it too though I don't want to. The thing is at crowded and narrowed places you can't really stop doing it.
and if you are in a ctouwded place, I think you shouldn't ride on bicycle first of all.

3 It is matter of too large population and not enough space in trains for them.
I've never seen men groping women before but seen this kind of things on the media many times.


4 Slurping food actually annoys hell out of me but I can't say it to them cause I was brought by my father who hates people doing it and he told me not to, I think it was because he knew a lot about western culture. In result, as I wrote above, I can't stop them from doing it cause how you eat food is really up to you in Japan, I think.
Oh, by the way, I eat something like noodles with making sound, cause I'm a Japanese!!!

5 Yes, indeed it's quiet annoying and really dirty job. What one of the gus who came to my house did was after my father refusing his negotiation the guy kicked the entrance's door and ran away.