Japanese Oddities Trivia Quiz

Answer: Eating a hamburger on the subway

Japanese people don't eat on the move - it is considered quite rude to stroll along munching away on a meal. Most big banks, such as UFJ, Sumitomo and the Bank of Tokyo, tolerate smoking in the branches and even provide ashtrays. Urinating in public (discreetly of course) is fine as there are virtually no public toilets. Many internet cafes SELL alcohol.

Answer: True

Sumo is one of the few remaining sports where women may not take part in any way, whether officiating or competing. Prefectural governors have sometimes not been permitted to present the winners of tournaments with trophies on these grounds. The rules have recently been relaxed for certain life and death situations.

Answer: all of these are available

There are more than seven million vending machines in Japan. Machines selling alcohol and cigarettes may do so only between 5am and 11pm.

Answer: Car dealership flyers

Information or flyers from car dealerships don't arrive very often. Supermarket and real estate flyers arrive quite regularly, but by far the most common form of junk mail comes from (you guessed it) the other category. This kind of advertising was restricted on February 1st, 2003 in several prefectures, but remained in force for only 14 days.

Answer: You notice the passenger next to you casually light up a cigarette

Smoking on the subway is not permitted (this is surprisingly observed). On long distance trains it isn't a problem. Children rarely stand - on school trips for example, teachers often stand whilst all the children are seated. Parents often stand in crowded trains too, whilst their children are seated. Any unintentional physical contact is tolerated remarkably well, with both parties usually apologizing - the affected party often first!

Answer: 20

The age for alcohol consumption is 20, although this is often not respected.

Answer: Newspapers

75 million newspapers are purchased every day in Japan, 12 million more than in the USA being in the second place. Another interesting item which puts Japan in the first position are bottles of hair dye.

Answer: left

Nothing odd about it if you're from the UK, India, Australia, NZ or any other of the 60 countries that also do so, right?

Answer: Georgia and Ghana

Georgia coffee seems to be available in almost every soft drink vending machine in the country, while Ghana, distributed by the Lotte confectionary company, is Japan's most popular individual brand of chocolate.

Answer: Grape

From the ten flavours released in Japan, "grape" accounted for 41% of Fanta sales in 2002. A difficult quiz, but I hope you found it interesting!