Last summer, my friend Marc forward me a hilariously dry comedic 'how-to' video on eating Sushi. Totally brilliant and just subtle enough to screw with those who don't really know Japanese culture that well.
The other night, my lady and I spent an evening looking up funny stuff on YouTube and we found a whole trove of these NIHON NO KATACHI videos. Woah.The brainchildren of comedy troupe 'Rahmenz' (aka. ラーメンズ) (about whom I know amazingly little), directed by the mysteriously named "Namikibashi" and produced by the if-ever-there-was-a-fake-company-this-is-it "Japan Culture Lab," these videos are short perversions of Japanese 'traditional' culture featuring riffs on Origami, the correct protocol when bowing, tea ceremony and other things 'Japonica'.
I highly recommend these videos and while they don't always hit, enough of it does that it's well worth your time. (While there are some English subtitles and voice overs, Japanese ability is recommended...)
I've embedded two recent favorites: "HOW TO USE CHOPSTICKS" and "HOW TO MAKE RICE BALLS"
As a final note, apparently these were included Short Film Competition at the 2007 Berlin International Film Festival. I wondered how many people these videos duped? (link)
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