How to go to a sushi-ya in Japan ("The Japanese Tradition" spoof video series)

I am going to Japan for the first time, tomorrow. I will most certainly follow the absolutely serious instructions in this helpful video on Japanese customs. "Always have a little guilt in your eyes." I understand that these guys are responsible: ラーメンズ (Rahmens), Jin Katagiri and Kentaro Kobayashi. Anyone know how to purchase copies? (thanks, Scott Ghelfi/via G+) A few more clips from them below. The "Japan Culture Lab" videos remind me a lot of Robert Popper and Peter Serafinowicz's "Look Around You" series. A number of readers have pointed out that the "Dating" series is one of their finest. Here is a copy on Vimeo, but it's over-subtitled with Korean, so the viewing experience is messy for English or Japanese speakers. Other clips follow...

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=536486708 Coal Miki-Restall

Here’s the official information
http://www.digital-voice.net/JPT/

Can be purchased here
http://www.amazon.co.jp/JAPANESE-TRADITION-~%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E3%81%AE%E5%BD%A2~-DVD/dp/B000LP66C0
It’s region 2, and isn’t subtitled except for what you see (Sushi has no subtitles). For some reason, I have the official subtitles for the series and as no western distributor seems interested in picking this title up so many years after release, I’m sure I could help if anybody needed them.

That’s me grinning awkwardly in onigiri by the way!! :-)
http://www.facebook.com/tc.lin TC Lin

I think these guys also did the Japanese version of the Mac/PC commercials for Apple.
http://twitter.com/wisevehicle Wise Vehicle

The best thing about this video, for me, is that it’s actually a very easy to understand the narrator’s Japanese, and while exaggerated, it’s actually a fair primer on some of the customs at a Sushi-ya. Sorting out the jokes from the reality might be hard, BUT
If you are learning Japanese, I highly recommend this video.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000541633038 Ayako Miki-Restall

They did indeed do the Mac/PC commercials. I subtitled them as well on YouTube (easy enough to search I won’t link it). Not official as they didn’t ask and it was obviously a work for hire job, but all things considered, let’s call it the official unofficial subs.

Facebook login has gotten my wife instead of me by the way…
Buddy Bradley

Well the original sushi video was covertly subtitled by a British-born Japanese naturalized citizen named Kaori (formerly Colin). The video went viral after that. He was worried that the creators would go after him and yank his version from the interwebz, but instead they offered him a job! Cool guys. I don’t know if he still works for them or not.
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=536486708 Coal Miki-Restall
  
  Kaoru, that’s me. Did a bit of voiceover work for them about 3 years back for an unrelated project, but otherwise they’ve moved onto greener and more profitable pastures, and I’m left basking in the light of a project I was involved in half a decade ago, touring the discussion forum circuit etc. ;-)
  - Buddy Bradley
    
    Yes, Kaoru! I realized that after I sent it. (Kaori of course being a female name…) Well done with the video, it’s mostly because of you that it became so popular. We’ve corresponded many times on the original forum that this video debuted on, you know which one :)
    
    Xeni, hope you’re having fun in Japan, it’s an amazing place and I wish I still lived there!
pimlottc

What surprised me most is that these were originally made for a domestic Japanese audience. It seems custom crafted for us gaijin, playing off our common stereotypes and misunderstandings of Japanese culture.
- 秀平月
  
  Thing is, the average foreigner probably doesn’t know which parts are accurate and what is over the top (I know people who just accepted the sushi and tea ones as fact). Many Râmenzu sketches involve somebody playing dumb and not knowing anything about the Japanese language (involving silly, pseudo-foreign accents) or culture.
Mark

Actually, what surprised ME most is that our Xeni the Hip Globetrotter is just now making it to the Land of the Rising Sun!
Guest

Mmm, sushi… :9
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jon-Van-Dyke/633528766 Jon Van Dyke

There is another series, likely on YouTube, of live performances around the world where they parody the stereotypes held by Japanese of the country where they are performing. The parody typically involves a Japanese language class. Their American classroom is full of high-fiving boisterous sex fiends, students in the French classroom are clad in black turtlenecks and laugh…Frenchly. They’re pretty good at both giving and taking when it comes to cross-cultural hangups.
bcsizemo

Fairlady Z sushi … epic.
http://xmacex.wordpress.com Mace Ojala

I’ve seen (and enjoyed) the sushi -episode before, but never realized there’s more of them. Thanks!
Phart

Good stuff, but pretty half-assed subtitles on the “Ocha” video.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1224134889 Michael McGee

The Taisho has a hidden personnel past. You must never ask about it…
- Spriggan_Prime
  
  Consider it asked about…
MrMarieBlanc

Hope you have a wonderful trip!
http://nelc.livejournal.com/ NelC

Yes, have a good trip, Xeni. Japan is wonderful, I guarantee that it will not be like anything you were expecting. (Though it will probably be hot and muggy this time of year. Drink lots, and stay near the aircon.)
Muse-Thalia

*hehehe* I remember watching these at the Melbourne International Film Festival. There’s one on dating I don’t see here that I loved.

When you are in Japan eat the breakfast your hotel offers, eat your main meal at lunch when you can get nice dishes at a lower price, then have fun at a Japanese supermarket and buy yourself lunch type food for your supper. This way you both have more fun and get more bang for your buck while eating. (Japanese supermarkets are awesome)
snakedart

I have loved these videos for years.

“This is gari. No one knows what it’s made from.”
chumpmeat

So where you going to be in Japan, Xeni?
wrybread

My favorite on the sushi conspiracy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laK4in8DrU8
chumpmeat

How’d you like them apples, just now?
http://www.zone38.net/ codeman38

The Dating clip has been posted with English subs on DailyMotion:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8i1wa_the-japanese-tradition-dating-vol-1_fun