2 cents in 2 minutes - Episode #1 - Bumper Stickers

[shalashaskalives]

2 in 2 is a great concept for vlogging. like a 1 person 'pecha kucha'.

[myargonauts]

@shalashaskalives yeah - exactly. I like the time restraint; forces me to be brief and on point. A new one coming this week.

[Xallys15]

Someone might've already said it, but we don't really see them at all in the UK, either, although I have no idea why. You just never see anyone selling them or wiht one on their car.

[rachgoesviral]

There are tons of bumper stickers in the St. Louis area. Most have to do with political or religious opinions. I think people here really like to make sure others know what opinions that have about things. It's almost like secret clubs... you see someone with a darwin fish on their car and you think "ooo! a club member! I like that person" even though you don't know anything about them. haha

[shavaughn1980]

I use to have a pro life bumper sticker on my old car but I don't have any now.

[smilernats]

In England the only signs I can think of are for 'baby on board' or football teams. I don't think we really do bumper stickers :S Any English people disagree with that?

[theSoldi3r]

Around here in central Florida, I don't see them very often. Maybe about 1 out of 15 cars I see has one. I usually spot a radio station advert, some religious, or one of those stick figure things with everyone in the family + dog (usually on minivans..ha)

[Ido013]

I don't really see the appeal of bumper stickers.. so I think the only sticker I'd put on my car would be the beginner sticker if I start driving in Japan with my Japanese driver license~ (I guess I'm considered a novice even though I drove here for like 7 years). I see from times to times stickers but it's rather rare. The most common kinds of stickers I see here are the hockey team Canadians' sticker or a sticker of a flag of their country..

[videouzleg]

Maybe japans and asians have closed kind of culture that they never openly express themselves in western open way. But on the contrary westerners are very open people one of the thing is putting bumper sticker to express own mind. From asian/japanese mentality I'd say putting bumper sticker would be like "overly expressive public announcement". So this mentality very likely to be sensed as closed and/or overly shy way for western perception.

[h33I0]

Two minutes...irony perhaps? hahaha

[jeffkantoku]

glad you enjoyed the Social Network... great movie!

btw, what city and movie theater did you see it at?

[myargonauts]

@jeffkantoku went all the way to Hiroshima to see it, but worth the trip - will for sure be buying it on Blu Ray

[hojoojoh]

@myargonauts did you have some okonomiyaki??? Hiroshima okonomiyaki is the bessssst!!

The 6+ storie building near the arcade has some of the best cooks. 4 of those floors are ALL okonomiyaki...

heaven.

[Deathsight580]

I'm so used to your longer videos I don't know how to get used to shorter videos. Well, I guess it's good since we will still get the longer videos so that means more videos in total.. I would hope. Good job like always, can't wait to see the actual ones with this new format.

[Bex1074]

Heya, I have a white mazda 3 that I drive in Australia and at the moment I have the 2010 AFL (aussie ruls football) premiership sticker for the 'Collingwood Magpies' on my back window...

[Maguti2723]

Ive noticed a decent amount of the ribbon style stickers on the cars here in Mie prefecture around Ise, but no where near the same number as back home in the states (near chicago)

[Degenskonto]

People rarely have bumper stickers, and those who do are either 18 and put it on their first car or are wt. Some people get those that say like "Warning - Dog in the car" or "Baby onboard" etc, but those go on the inside of the rear window.

Sweden.

[sonikku10]

Jason, I sent you a PM with a link to a photo I took when I was in Japan a couple of years ago. Granted, this person HAD to be American, but it comes to show that they do exist even if they are few and far between :P

As for myself, I don't have bumper stickers on my car, but I'll consider it when I get a new car. I get more long-term use out of my sticker lol.

[myargonauts]

@sonikku10 got the PM - thanks for the links and pics

[markshmily]

I'm guessing they're leasing their car so they can't put a bumper sticker on it.

Question is.. do they sell a lot of bumper stickers in convenience stores or super markets? I am thinking they might not be as available as they are here in the US.

I live in the city of Seattle and I don't see alot of them either.. but I also work the graveyard shift and it's often times to dark to see them.

[myargonauts]

@markshmily yeah - I don't see them a lot at the conbini, but there is a shop at the local mall that sells them

[Anoano]

In the Netherlands they tend to be pretty rare aswell.

The most common one's you see are of two kinds: either something along the lines of: "baby on board" or "don't get so close!". Both relating to road safety I guess. We have pretty busy roads and highways and road-rage, including driving too close to the car in front of you seem to be the main pet-peeves of Dutch motorists.

[lateblossom]

Well, then you might ask the question, do they even sell bumper stickers in Japan? Because I don't know.

[myargonauts]

@lateblossom well, I've certainly seen that basic size sticker for sale, and you could put it on your car, but they're not as common in shops as they are in the States

[Cleavemyer]

oooo be honest... none of these videos will be 2 min lol :p

[myargonauts]

@Cleavemyer just you wait - next one is gonna be under 2:59 or you can all make me eat sushi or natto... :P

[xoxChineseRulerx]

@myargonauts If it's 3:00 or above you should post a video of you eating natto xD

[aLittleTooTony]

I can honestly say I've never had a bumper sticker. I just like my cars too much, I suppose. Also, 2 minutes? Hmm...I'm skeptical, but good luck.

[dogpup23]

I live a little bit to the north of Seattle, Washington and I can't go a day without seeing a few different cars with bumper stickers on them. People aren't really afraid to speak out about their political views, or just touchy subjects in general so there are a lot of bumper stickers like those, but there is also a fair share of just silly ones, or dirty jokes and stuff. I probably wouldn't put one on my car but it's fun to see them on others :)

[kaguyagold]

@dogpup23

I live in the same area and I agree, there are bumper stickers everywhere. I think the one I see the most is the coexist one.

[CultureQuirk]

I live in Texas and yeah people use a lot of bumper stickers here :) But I'm originally from Belgium and I can't really remember if I ever see them around, but I think not...

I do like your long videos just fine, but I'm also looking forward to these short ones!

[baddogonline]

I like the longer videos; I learn more about Japan. :(

[draken295]

I've lived in London, England and Ottawa, Canada most of my life. I've also been in various European and Mediterranean countries for vacations. Can't say I've seen a lot of bumper stickers, I do see some out in Ottawa occasionally. From what I've seen, custom license plates seem to be much more popular these days. Especially in London, saw those back in like 2006 en masse there.

[koeme]

i like to settle in for the long haul :c

[yeoldehipster]

only 2 minutes with jason?! that can't possibly be enough. btw, JETinterview announcements should be coming here in the next week or so.....

[WhiteMatrix2006]

I personally do not have a bumper sticker on my car and I do not see a whole lot of them anymore. However, for some reason when I see a vehicle with 1 bumper sticker that vehicle usually has a ton of bumper stickers. I live in Florida and if I see a bumper sticker it usually involves Christianity in some way and I find it annoying. I remember when a lot of the bumpers tickers were mainly jokes and such, but I don't see those very often anymore. =(

-Billy-

[lifeCinematic]

Cool Idea. I will probably watch these much more frequently. It's not that I dislike your other videos, it's some sort of mental block I have for videos that are longer than 5 or 6 minutes. I let them sit in my subscription box until there is nothing left to watch. Maybe I just have a short attention span. I don't know.

[bobblez8bobblez]

France. No bumper stickers.Never seen any in Tokyo (6 years there)

[ampmjuku]

we don't have many bumper stickers in my part of FL... mostly just that tailgate accessory (the balls hanging off the back) on all the redneck trucks; the stickers we have are of radio stations

[JordanJ88]

apartment vlog in under 3 min!

go!

haha jk. I hope when ur house warms up you'll treat us to a 20 min tour!

-Jordan

[toracatgirl]

Good luck with the 2min limit ^^

[JammySTB]

No bumper stickers here in the UK...

[spanky812]

Can't wait to see more Jay!

[galvanchristian]

Bumper stickers are very, very popular in Mexico City.... there is a huge variety of them... I guess people just like let the others know what they like, believe on, agree with etc thru the stickers... However, when you move to rural areas, this kind of "phenomenon" is not as seen as the city itself! I lived in NYC for a long while and I can certainly say that I did see pleny of cars using bumper stickers... but not as much as Mexico.... here they go totally crazy with that issue....

[EmoSupernova]

Peace, pokey and pretz? This was awesome! Hahaha made me smile :)

[camlost]

Tell the truth, Jason. You had a "My other car is the Millennium Falcon" bumper sticker. Its okay we all think that's cool.

[myargonauts]

@camlost no, but I was seriously considering getting a personalized license plate that included the word JEDI for a while :P

[smurashige]

I'm looking forward to these, thanks! "Peace, Pocky, and Pretz"?!!?! What a hoot! I wonder whether the bumper sticker phenomenon in CA or elsewhere in the US has to do with an American desire to broadcast a personal identification with something larger, and a greater willingness to be public about it, and related to this is a strong identification with one's car. The U.S. is such a car culture.

[Eljka686]

In England and Latvia (my home-country) drivers do not put bumper stickers, except country initials such as GB or LV... and also it will look funny enough to have a sticker on "posh" car :)

[RyanLRY]

Over here in SINGAPORE, bumper stickers are a rare sight. In fact, you see more stupid yellow signs with random/funnny text hanging in the cars and those printed plasticky films that stick to windows (the people here prefer these to stickers because they're easier to remove and don't leave residue).

I'm not too sure why, maybe it's because the cars here are so expensive no one wants to mess theirs up (a new Toyota Corolla with a license plate valid for 10 years will cost you about USD$35,000).

[thebravedrag0n]

@RyanLRY

"Over Here in SINGAPORE...."

i find it very hard to believe that you are in Singapore. You wrote 2 whole paragraphs and didn't end a single sentence with "la" :)

but yah you're right. driving is a luxury in Singapore and the people willing to pay to drive and not going to vandalize their BMW's or Mercedes with bumper stickers, la. :)

[RyanLRY]

@thebravedrag0n Singlish translation:

Here in Singapore, bumper sticker very the rare because people don't want to screw up their car. At most they want to zhng they only put the yellow sign and plastic thing lor. Maybe cos' car here sibeh expensive you know, 40k sing at least for Corolla!

:)

[Linkintownkar]

On Awaji Island, where I am, I have seen quite a few bumper stickers. These were mostly the "baby on board" bumperstickers. My car that I have from the BOE has a bumpersticker that reminds people not to drink and drive. I have also seen some business vehicles have bumperstickers (if that counts) of their business.

[RedAlert793]

Great idea for a series Jason, really enjoyed the first one! =)

Over in my area of England at least, bumper stickers are common among younger drivers. You don't really see older people driving with them plastered to their bumper. I remember on a sitcom over here one of the chracters had a rather rude but funny bumper sticker on his car. I know you like to keep your comments clean so I'll censor it. It said "Honk if you want a **** job". I think you can guess for yourself what the word was.

[PiratePotatoe]

I think it's mainly an american trend

[gtoyas]

日本ではバンパーにベタベタ貼ったりする人は少ないと思われます­。車の美観を損なうからです。貼るとしても、リア窓ガラスの端の­方ですね。その種のステッカーは日本でもたくさんの種類のものが­有ります。言うところのラジオ番組のステッカーもけっこう地方だ­と見かけます。

[xaurelienhancoux]

In Switzerland, I was used to "baby on board" stickers, but since I am in Japan (8 years and counting), I haven't seen any really. Watching your video, I wonder if it's not simply to spot your car. Considering the amount of cars in the USA (try googling: cars per capita), it's just harder to find your car, experience made on a Texan parking lot... In Japan, you push the button on your key holder and the lock goes off and, blink blink, "I'm here"! Right?

[mimei]

i think people aren't really into that kind of broadcasting in Japan - bumper stickers are often status/opinion-type statements right? i think that's kinda taboo here. another factor could just be that stickets are a way of personalising your car, which probably stems (in part) from the individualist paradigm present more in Western countries than Asian ones (to generalise widely). ^^ just my 2c!

[kantishna39]

I'm from your part of town (Orange County), so you know my answer about bumper stickers.

[kantishna39]

Think you should do Japanese food that you enjoy, how to do things in Japan (buying train tickets, Japanese etiquette, banking, paying bills, etc).