Interesting Japanese Facts

I was just surfing along the other day and came across some interesting facts about Japan from a blog I happened to stumble across. Here's the link: http://www.geishablog.com/

1.  Sometimes the trains are so crowded railway staff are employed to cram passengers inside.
2. Tokyo has had 24 recorded instances of people either killed or receiving serious skull fractures while bowing to each other with the traditional Japanese greeting.
3. The term karaoke means “empty orchestra” in Japanese.
4.  It was customary in ancient Japan for women to blacken their teeth with dye as white teeth were considered ugly. This practice persisted until the late 1800′s.
5. A can of Coca-Cola costs more than one dollar US from a vending machine.
6. Japanese people, in general, can’t drive very well.
7. At many businesses in Japan, they offer alcohol to the employees after six pm.
8. On Respect for the Aged Day, tobacco companies will hand out free cigarettes to the elderly outside of train stations and department stores.
9. The Japanese love corn, sesame seeds, and mayonnaise on their pizza.
10. There are no 24 hour ATMs in Japan (closed on holidays and many only open during normal bank hours).
11. The green traffic light is called “blue”.
12. Slurp your soup.
13. Newspaper editors make their headlines so as to not attract attention.
14. KFC is the place to be on Christmas Day.
15. In the Japanese language, it is considered rude to say the word “no” directly.
16. You can buy batteries, beer, wine, condoms, cigarettes, comic books, hot dogs, light bulbs, and used women’s underwear from vending machines.
17. Gas station attendants will bow as the car pulls out of the station.
18. McDonalds employees will run outside to give you your drive-thru order.