Spotted on Japanese social media:

One person praised their hotel in Japan: polite service, a clean room, good amenities. Then came the catch.

"The front desk was a dinosaur. A dinosaur that speaks four languages."

It bowed, too.

#JapanHub #Japan

Spotted on Japanese social media:

A doctor told a patient the tooth should come out under general anesthesia, and offered a referral to a local hospital's oral surgery department.

The patient: "I'm the only anesthesiologist at that hospital."

Silence on both sides.

#JapanHub #Japan

One reply to the ninja at Nagoya's airport: 忍べてない (shinobete nai).

The "nin" in ninja (忍) comes from shinobu, "to move unseen." So the complaint is a ninja who can't ninja.

"Terrible at hiding" was the best I could do in English. The pun doesn't survive.

#JapanHub #Japan

Spotted on Japanese social media:

An emperor penguin wandered up to Japan's Showa Station in Antarctica, and every crew member who could step away lined up to greet it.

It called out to them, looked back as if to say "Wait, you're not penguins?", and walked off.

#JapanHub #Japan

The ninja at Nagoya's airport have one problem. They are not very good at hiding.

Suggestions followed. Put them somewhere harder to spot. Put some on the ceiling. One person heard they hired real ones.

#JapanHub #Japan

Spotted on Japanese social media:

Someone in Japan took a young relative from the city out on a boat to go sea fishing. The boy started crying: "I'm going to fall!"

The water was so clear he could see the seabed more than 20 meters below.

#JapanHub #Japan

Spotted on Japanese social media:

One person's mom called them in a panic: "What are cookies?! Is it okay to agree to them?!"

Their answer: "Nobody really knows what cookies are. Everyone just agrees without knowing, so you're fine."

#JapanHub #Japan

Spotted on Japanese social media:

A high schooler in Japan earns his allowance by making his own lunch: 200 yen a bento, plus bonuses for color, packing and washing the box.

His parent grades a month at a time from his photos. Six months in, the photography has improved too.

#JapanHub #Japan

An 18-year-old minivan named Rappy-chan sat tangled in weeds, battery dead, because Dad couldn't say goodbye.

His daughters asked a TV show for a One Piece-style send-off.

Dad cried over a letter he wrote himself. The daughters laughed.

#JapanHub #Japan #knightscoop

Spotted on Japanese social media:

Someone shared a method for packing over 1 kg into a fill-your-own Lindt chocolate tin.

Step one: throw out the Lindor truffles. They only get you about 600 g.

The replies: "I don't want Lindt chocolate. I want Lindor."

#JapanHub #Japan

Spotted on Japanese social media:

A haiku by a 14-year-old: "In the city, I hear, there are galaxies above and below."

Some assumed a kid from the countryside wrote it. He lives in Tokyo, near Haneda Airport.

One reply: "The galaxy below is office workers doing overtime."

#JapanHub #Japan

One reply just said マツケンサンゴ.

Matsuken Samba is the actor's gold-kimono dance hit. Sango means coral. Change the last syllable and the song becomes the reef the fish live on.

In English it's "Matsuken Coral," and the samba is gone.

#JapanHub #Japan

Spotted on Japanese social media:

In Japan, a "senbero" bar deal is supposed to get you properly drunk for 1,000 yen. One person complained the word has lost its meaning: now it's just one drink and a snack.

A reply: "A bar I know has a senbero set. It costs 2,100 yen."

#JapanHub #Japan

A Japanese aquarium's lumpsuckers have settled on the head of an actor famous for playing a shogun.

Some viewers thought of Edo-period executions. Others proposed sinking a Matsuken reef to attract more fish.

#JapanHub #Japan

Spotted on Japanese social media:

A cat in Japan yowls nonstop if there's no lettuce in the house. Only fresh outer leaves will do. Cabbage is refused.

Lettuce prices shot up, so the owner went store to store hunting for a cheaper head.

Owner vs. cat. Winner: cat.

#JapanHub #Japan

Spotted on Japanese social media:

A tennis coach once explained the ladder to a student: the sand on the road is you, this pebble is me, that boulder is a pro in Japan, that star is Kei Nishikori, and the sun is Federer.

The student: "I'm sand, but I'll keep trying."

#JapanHub #Japan

締まっていこう (shimatte ikō), "let's keep it tight," is the rally cry a baseball catcher yells to the fielders.

Three grannies at a hot spring gave their team a very rude name. Someone replied with exactly that cry. The pun survives in English. The ballpark doesn't.

#JapanHub #Japan

Spotted on Japanese social media:

A man in Texas once told Japanese users: "I'll pay for your flight... we'll eat the big meat and you can swim in the big pool."

Months later, their replies talked him out of a trip to Prague. He went to Japan instead.

#JapanHub #Japan

Two boys got scolded at a Japanese hot spring for a potty word. Three grannies behind them quietly one-upped it.

By the end of the replies, someone had turned it into a three-line life motto. Another person adopted it. The author told them not to.

#JapanHub #Japan

Spotted on Japanese social media:

Someone on a mountain in Japan felt eyes on them and braced for a bear.

It was a cat, staring. One reply, in the cat's voice: "Child of man, why have you entered this mountain?"

#JapanHub #Japan