Added: 2 years ago
From: dereksivers
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  • I never knew this till now thanks

  • So what happens if building 3 on a block gets torn down. Does the replacement become No. 3?

  • @Song4Alex

    How ironic. Everything that happens to Americans (pearl harbor, 9/11), you get hurt in your ego. You become the greatest victims in all history and everyone is a terrorist. but if you do something similar or worse even, its okay. Throwing the nuclear bomb on Japan for instance.

    I wonder what would happen if 9/11 was a nuclear attack.

  • I love how the buildings are in number order then you can see how old or new they are :)

  • 14 people havent gotten over WWll

  • Writing your address in Japan is also unbelievably logical. It goes from the largest thing (your 'ken', or state) to the smallest thing (your name). The zip code is written across the top of the envelope, or on top of everything. So you write: (ZIP CODE), Ken (state), City, Ward (neighborhood), Chome (district of ward) - Block - Building number, Apartment building name, Apartment number, Your name. Your address zooms in on you from an all-Japan view!

  • i think i like japan's system is beter, it looks easy to understand, while i get all confused when i look at a bunch streets

  • This is fascinating how different things can be in other cultures.

  • more egg sexx baby japan 

  • many japanese streets were originally animal paths.

    most of them are winding meaninglessly because of that.

    there were unnamed streets first and people settled around there later.

    in american cities, the people paved the roads and named the streets first.

    then the people settled along them.

  • my life has dramatically changed in the way that i think, mind blown

  • you get lost easily in japan. just as you are lost in translation. being lost in japan, and finding someone else who is also lost. you both explore and find your way out. you both end up being even more lost. you both keep looking for a way out, but find many things along the way. being abit lost becomes fun. lost in a foreign culture, in a foriegn land. so alienated. but you have someone to be lost with. eventually you both find your way, and you both have to part. i never forgot about her..

  • I really enjoyed this video. Very clean, intelligently put together and well thought out. I live in Japan and "think" I understand their address system but even after 2 years I still have trouble explaining it to people back home =S I'll just show them your video next time.

  • Man this is so true. I get lost EVERYTIME I try to find somewhere new. What makes it worse is that the address isn't often clearly displayed (if at all) on lots of buildings.

  • They've got the same system in Mannheim, Germany, at least in the city center, which is made up of square blocks. Each square has a letter and a number, which thankfully go in order (letters right to left, numbers up and down). So to go from N1 to M2, you go one block up and one block over. The house numbers on each block do go in order, although I still haven't figured out where the numbering starts. So sometimes you have to walk around 4 streets to find the house you're looking for.

  • so when you are outside the city, does the roads, freeways etc have the name or even simply the number E24 etc?

  • before to go to japan; i have to wacth again that video

  • @rabia846 And if you don't speak Japanese, you might want to work on those English skills.

  • Wow very interesting! I was directed here via PostCrossing, it's amazing that there's such different postal systems in the world! Though I definitely like how we have the numbers in order - so much easier on the brain!

  • Just wonder which other countries have the same address system as Japan.

  • 2:20 this map blow my mind

  • this is a freakin amazingly interesting video

  • good vid!

  • WOW, so the addresses in Japan are the opposite of the ones here in America. Hmmm, seems simple enough here but I bet it's a misson and a half to find some place in Japan without some kind of map. =/

  • Very interesting.  Thanks

  • This video is excellent. But there is one mistake.

    ★Japan has Street names and Block names

    ★U.S.A has Street names

    This is correct.

  • In Tokyo area, address system was streamlined probably 50 years ago. Houses are now numbered in clockwise within a block. Finding a house from an address was an easy task not only for mailman but also for anyone else. So, I was surprised to learn this numbering system!

  • smarter

  • You did a great job! This video is a very helpful...!

  • hmmm... i`m really confused oO

  • @pitbohl then you should watch LOST!

  • At least someone watches Ted Turner.

  • Memories... I remember my first time in Japan in 2006. I knew beforehand that streets didn't have name. I had to look on the little "block signs" all around the place when I was lost.

  • this guy is wrong in china they will still chargeyou if you are sick.

  • lol, his accent does sound a bit peculiar, but hey, give the guy a break, at least he's interested in learning the language. No one is perfect. No one pokes at YOUR ghetto accent or improper grammar so you should leave people alone

  • he did say gozaimasuta, right?

    nevermind bout that. there's worst things in life.

  • THANK YOU SO MUCH ! Dude the address thing in Japan has been driving me crazy. Why they have no street names and the order of the building puzzled me for years. No one could answer my questions. Japanese would just look dumb founded and say they didn't know. Very helpful I subbed.

  • Taoism.

  • U sound very intelligence....and it's funny that most people in America think that the world is the same as the way they "think it should be"...not really....

  • @WaiWu

    thats not really fair, because in the video the japanese man was also confused...

    sounds like you have a prejudice there =P

  • so they have unside down maps?! crazyyy. btw thnx for the video this will help a looot. XD

  • good post. it helps me to explain it when people ask me about the difference of China and Europe:)

  • nice, I understand well, but it's gozaimashita, you pronounced it gozaimasta

  • actually, he said "gozaimashita" which, when pronounced right sounds like "gozaimashta". The 'i' is omitted from the phonetic in this case.

  • No it doesn't, maybe in English, but not Japanese, you're talking with a man who speaks Japanese here.

  • your awesome

  • Very nice and understandatable English, but the "gozaimashita" in the end really sucked :P

  • @NixGerit Are You Japanese Or Something?

  • No, I'm not, but my native language allows to imitate japanese quite well and I had countless contacts with Japanese, so I think that I can say whether or not it sucked. Previous commentator thinks it as well, as you can see :P

  • your map is an accurate mercator projection rather.. so.. only relatively accurate.

  • the chinese health care system is a way better than the europe ones! they could cut off a piece!

  • Another simple yet commonly overlooked opposite is in telling the time: Most people in the UK (or the rest of the english speaking world for that matter) say 'half eight' refering to 'half an hour past eight o'clock' or 8:30. In Germany they say 'half eight' meaning 'half an hour before eight o'clock' or 7:30...

  • I guess we jp use street name as pretty much same as block name.. hmm actually no. we don't really use block name except sending shipments. Especially in Tokyo where I used to live for over 20 years

  • I published this video on the Dutch website WELSTIJL (2 february) Kind regards Sem Mallée

  • I was along for the ride up until the part about houses being numbered in the order they were built. That information is particularly irrelevant to a system of spacial coordinates. Sure it may be meaningful to the local community, but it seems like its just going to waste the time of people looking for an address.

  • For those who can't envision doing this: I agree that the "other way" may seem absurd at first, but ultimately it's all a matter of what you grew up with. As Mr. Sivers points out, BOTH of the persons asking for help felt confused.

    Neither system is better or worse. This is an excellent example of how our perspectives can limit us.

  • hhhhhhhhh

  • Japanese addressing is much like addresses in Brasília, Brazil. Streets do have names here, but they are unimportant. More important are blocks names -- actually, numbers.

  • Jeez, I can't imagine how much of a pain it must be to give directions.

  • Directions generally involve convenience stores as reference points (you can't go a block or two without seeing one). In Tokyo driving is relatively rare so street names are kinda irrelevant.

  • Interesting.

  • I just came across this in a link.. that's really interesting! Thanks for the video (:

  • i would not want to be a Mail-Man over there then.

  • @RealityGameWorld i don't think its that hard of a system to follow. Just getting the writing down would be the most difficult I think. I think we have a harder time here in the US because some blocks can border multiple streets and therefore sometimes its hard to tell which street a building is on or the address is on.

  • ok  a very useful information

  • digitalek7 - Ty też źle napisałeś.....

  • Domo Arigato Gozaimasta po co pytasz jak i tak nie zrozumiesz?

  • He never said it was an Indian Map. Watch again and listen if you don't believe.

    The Map is perfectly accurate and in the grand scheme of the Universe and our Planet it is our assumption that the North is up and the south is down but there is nothing that says that must be right the opposite is perfectly possible.

    As for the addressing system in Japan that system actually makes a lot more sense to me than the western forms even though I was born and grew up in the western hemisphere

  • I didn't say he said it was an Indian Map... there were quite a few people in the comments who thought it was an Indian map, giving sufficient evidence of subliminal messages...

  • @Amadeus2k8,

    Really? I mean the numbering (not naming) of blocks really is a great thing, the numbering of houses chronologically is a totally crazy/unhandy way of doing things. I always like the new york aproach of numbering streets, i would have taken it further and would even have the others street named A,B,C so u know exactly where to go when u know at which street crossing u are and are given go to D7.

  • Lol looks like you have found a whole new audience over here on youtube :-) -Atul-

  • No word is fit to describe how much I love this video. O_O

    I woke up in a surprisingly bad mood, sitting at work looking at the wall while waiting for the customers that never arrived.

    Then I get home, watch this and... wow... Im all sunshine again ^_^

  • Has this guy been to Japan? I think you'll find street signs..

  • did not know that

  • Absolutely excellent. Learn about randomness. The all time realm, or the quantum Lactating superconcscious, Where ever perception spins into implosion, we are nurtured with dharma. All probabilities exist until you observe. Be Observant

  • the india map is just ridiculous

  • I reckon the block system is brilliant, maybe not the numbering on age if the block was huge, but I don't know, it's just interesting.

  • Very nice video. As a student of culture studies, I think this is a really great example about how you can educate people that any point of view can be perfectly valid and their own is not any better than any other.

    Well done.

  • Amazing!!

  • I want a map like that, hehe

  • I think that paying docters when your not ill, is great... But I am affraid that in western society everything will stop, because we do not like paying and love being "sick" instead of working

  • well when China can achieve the high life expectancies of, say, Northern Europe, I'll agree with you

    anyway nothing in this video really goes against the principle of non-contradiction

    he's just talking about different conceptual schemes

  • Uhh, interesting. Block and house numbers would seem a little easier to me haha.

  • thank god I live where I live.

  • call me stupid bUT WHHHHHAT?

  • Awesome vid, very interesting.

  • Very interesting video.

    For another pair of opposites: I once heard that both "Universe always existed" and "Universe started at Big Bang" are true, since time starts at Big Bang as well. Think about it.

  • very interesting

  • Thanks for sharing!

  • very informative... tks!!

  • good lookin on the info. Very interesting.

  • Thanks for sharing this knowledge!.

  • This was one of the most interesting videos I've ever seen! I learned so much from it.

    Thank you for posting it on here. :)

  • Hi Derek,

    interesting-ish video. could you be any more of a douche though? if i was going to give you some piece of trivia - such as say teaching you about gordon of khartoum or how oil is refined, I don't think i'd pretentously try to give "life lessons" about it as you seem to want to do. the pseudo intellectual accent and the japanese thank you at the end doent help you either. still, i appreciate that you're trying to do something good - just try a little less douchey next time.

  • i think his name says it all..

  • In Brazil, houses are numbered by the number of meters they are from the beginning of the street.

    That makes so much sense. Think about it. If you want to get somewhere in the street, you immediately know where it is, and the distance it is.

  • hmmm....doctor gets paid when you're healthy, and not when you're sick....and who administers the billing system? how do they discern how healthy or how sick you are? If I've got a headache on Tuesday the 23rd, is that considered "sick" or "healthy"?....getting drunk on Monday the 22nd, and waking up hungover on Tuesday might be cheaper than paying the doctor for an otherwise :healthy" month....

  • wow i'm surprised someone can be so close minded....

    imagine the kind of questions the chinese would have for our healthcare system

  • they would ask, "isn't your HMO system similar to this?" to which we'd answer, "pretty much, especially if the plan uses a capitation formula to pay the "providers". They get a set fee for your enrollment, whether you're sick, healthy, really, really sick, or never even have a visit. If you're sick, the attention they have to devote to you burns up that set fee pretty quick."

  • Now there's a health care system that makes sense.

  • Interesting!!!

  • This is a wonderful short introduction to ethnocentrism at its most practicable - extremely well done. Kudos, Derek.

  • I've lived in Japan for 20 years, and it is simply the worst addressing system on earth. Even Japanese postmen cannot find their way around. Top sellers on every street corner are fat books of detailed city maps because no one can find anything without them. Taxi drivers would never get you to your destination without their GPS, on and on.... Anyway, just me mouthing off.

  • @Kevinontheroad in Poland there is exactly one street at which the numbers of the houses were given chronologically ... and it is a tourist attraction.

  • Now THAT is how addresses should work. None of this "on the left or right side?" crap.

  • @Digeridude Obviously you have never had a delivery job.

  • Chinese medical system is how thing should be, seriously. Sweet video!

  • @harleybayo ... you did not get the interpretation. Failed.

  • YA still dont get it

  • Very cool, I really like the map at the end

  • Hey Derek, your video was actually really interesting!

  • very informative... ty 4 postin

  • This was interesting thanx for the post

  • nice demonstration.

  • wut? wat are u trying to say? O_o

  • Very informative! You explaine this so well and your voice is soothing and nice to listen to, which helps when listening is needed. LOL! Great video!

  • hey that's pretty cool! i didn't know that. thanks for the info and the easy-to-understand vid ;)

  • wow, didnt know that, great story to explain it!

  • cool

  • interesting man

  • This is great! I wish videos from my past foreign language classes had cilps like these.

  • knowledge is power!

  • thank you, this is great!!!!

  • I learn something new every day! :D

  • Where do you get your info? I live in Japan on a street and not a block.

  • wait, what does India have to do with this??? They make their maps upside down???

  • excuse me, "what is the point of this video?"

  • The district municipalities can choose if they want to have a road name based system or a block based system in Japan. So there are some cities and towns that use the road base address system and usually it is popular among the towns people because it is much more practical. in Imperial Japan's pre-colony Manchuria the Japanese built towns and cities with an address system like the rest of the world. When Kyoto was still the capital the country used street names as the address system.

  • The reason why they ended up adopting the block system was the during the feudal age, the military made roads and passages as complicated and twisted as possible to prevent the enemy from invading the main castle, and did not give street names as Roman tradition taught europeans. So during modernization they decided to use the block address system because cities were already in a complicated layout with non existent street names.

  • hmm interesting... I grew up there till I was 12 but never knew how the address system always worked :) This is definitely one of the things you don't bother learning until you look at it from the outside.

  • Tiger Woods On Oprah!

  • hi reddit

  • fail.

  • 0:31

  • I love this video!

  • Being a japanese person living outside of japan, i never really knew this :O

  • Do tashimashite

  • super ta vidéo mon pote!

  • Ha! That was fun and interesting

  • your voice is beautiful :D hehe

  • Wow!!! Thanks so much. That was fun to learn -C

  • In the spirit or this article, I would also like to point out that there are serious disadvantages to the Japanese system (though there may also be advantages). Under ideal circumstances, the number street names would be as little as the square root of the number of block names. Under all circumstances it will be less. Furthermore, by providing a linear path on a street in address number, you can always orient yourself relative to your destination once on the correct street.

  • So some Afrikans say 2,3,4,1? Do you mean 4,3,2,1 O_o

  • arigato ogozaimas!

  • what about rural streets?

  • that small fact about china is just simply not true

  • Heeeey, I know that chinese herbal shop he showed! (= It's in San Francisco Chinatown<3! Mayor Gavin Nwesom went in there ;D

  • Comment removed

  • In Finland we have names for streets, but also for blocks :D

  • @TheRoopertti In Finland there's names for streets, numbers for houses and letters for apartment stairs (as far as I know)

  • Yup, but the blocks also have their names :p

  • Comment removed

  • very true my friend appreciate the video

  • I lived in Japan for 4 years. Streets have names!

    So if I want to tell someone where to meet me I don't use the block system, I say meet me at the Mos Burger on Bell road, ext.... However Addresses are wrote in the "Block System."

  • For more in-depth study, see Weird Al's "Everything You Know is Wrong."

  • very cool! my brain grew. thank you! :3

  • In American Subidivision there are lots, blocks and street names.

  • Quite interesting. But how do you know in which direction to go when you're looking for a house in Japan?

  • that makes a lot of sense

  • what i want to know is, how do they give directions in japan?

  • most streets and intersections do have names.

  • interesting stuff thanks for the video

  • ouch that world map hurts my brain

  • thanks for this useful vid :)

  • not true abouth china doctors.

    well,not true nowadays.

  • @ching105 he never said all chinese doctors. there must be some who still work that way.