I find that a bit funny given that in the last 15 years or so Japan has officially done a lot to attract tourists. Wanting to become a tourist destination, branding themselves as a place for holidays. I’ve seen so many “Visit Japan” campaigns, usually sponsored by the Japanese government, in the last decade or so. I get that it sucks for the people living in those cities and good for them that their city council does something to help, it still feels weird after years and years of campaigns to attract more tourists to Japan.

I could name you at least 10 off the top of my head in the city I live in.

You know they don’t want to do that. If they did, people would ask questions like “How come my 40$ homemade Spaghetti with fresh spinach sauce lists soylecithin, yeast extract and xanthan gum as ingredients?”

I’m shocked that it isn’t a law already. It’s been obligatory in the EU for 10 years. Although a lot of restaurants don’t follow it…

There’s this café in Nagoya, Japan, that serves sweet spaghetti: the spaghetti are flavoured with strawberry or chocolate and then you have fruits and sauces on top. It’s delicious.

I think is is fascinating how much time Japanese teachers spendon extracurriculars

From what I know, a lot of hobby activies happen in school in Japan and are supervised by the school’s teachers: choirs, soccer teams, guitar lessons, baseball, judo etc. These are all things that in most other countries aren’t connected to the school system and are organized either by volunteer groups or professionel instructors (e.g. in seperate music schools or neighbourhood soccer clubs).