u/alexthe5th

It’s Japanese, just poorly written with a number of mistakes.

Escolar is banned for human consumption in Japan.

Odysseus was one of the sharpest minds among the Greeks, he was very witty and charming. Also, don’t forget that he was a favorite of Athena, who often intervened to alter his appearance.

Pakistani is totally different from South Indian cuisine and you’d lose out on a lot of amazing dishes. There’s also great beef cuisine in Kerala and other parts of South India.

Here are a number of famous Japanese people that of course not every American would necessarily know, but are plausible names to know if they're passionate about a particular subject:

Sports: Shohei Ohtani, Ichiro Suzuki, Naomi Osaka, Hideo Nomo, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Hideki Matsui, Yu Darvish, Yuzuru Hanyu, Mao Asada, Midori Ito

Film: Akira Kurosawa, Yasujiro Ozu, Hayao Miyazaki, Ken Watanabe, Hiroyuki Sanada, Anna Sawai, Juzo Itami, Toshiro Mifune, Rinko Kikuchi, Osamu Tezuka

Music: Yoko Ono, Seiji Ozawa, Joe Hisaishi, Kyu Sakamoto, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Nujabes, Utada Hikaru

Literature: Yukio Mishima, Osamu Dazai, Yasunari Kawabata, Natsume Soseki, Murasaki Shikibu, Haruki Murakami, Junichiro Tanizaki, Kenzaburo Oe

Games: Shigeru Miyamoto, Hideo Kojima

Art & Architecture: Yayoi Kusama, Takashi Murakami, Kenzo Tange, Tadao Ando, Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Hiroshige

Fashion: Issey Miyake, Rei Kawakubo, Yohji Yamamoto, Nigo, Kenzo Takada

Business: Soichiro Honda, Akio Morita, Kiichiro Toyoda, Masayoshi Son

Politics & Military: Hirohito, Shinzo Abe, Hideki Tojo, Heihachiro Togo, Isoroku Yamamoto, Oda Nobunaga, Tokugawa Ieyasu, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Miyamoto Musashi

Culinary: Masaharu Morimoto, Jiro Ono, Hiroyuki Sakai, Kenichi Chen, Masahiko Kobe, Nobu Matsuhisa

Of these, the ones that are most likely to be known by an "average person" (not someone passionate about a particular area)? I'd guess Hirohito, Yoko Ono, Kurosawa, Miyazaki, Osaka, Ichiro, and Ohtani.

My mind was blown when I found out that Indonesia has a population of almost 300M, it’s such a low-profile country on the world stage. There’s such little export of Indonesian food, media or culture, most people know very little about it.

Even in major cities around the world, coming across an Indonesian restaurant is very rare.

The Wire

It’s a training facility for helicopters with eight runways in a star shaped pattern.

I miss the culatello too.

Las Vegas

There are so many international tourists in Vegas.

Blue Öyster Cult

I just had a look at the menu. Escolar, seriously?

It could also be a large stamp, as opposed to a printing plate.

I’m surprised I don’t see many mentions of Tokyo. There’s a wonderful and vibrant literary scene there (primarily in Japanese, as you'd expect), and a lot of people still read books. There are many incredible bookstores, both architecturally and in terms of selection. There's even a whole district of Tokyo (Jimbocho) that's famous for used and antique books, with something like 200 bookstores and an annual festival where there are over a million books for sale.

I even know of a few cocktail bars where writers, poets and other literati tend to hang out. It's a really fun scene.

https://preview.redd.it/w15ys0of4dxh1.jpeg?width=698&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=51610d83f2007c8eb15175175759661247bc989b

Hulk Hogan’s Pastamania!

So edgy

“Underrated” is a tricky term. LPGS is one of those prestige Champagnes that’s held in very high regard by people who know wine, but not very well known by the general public. Similar to, say, Bollinger RD.

Dom and Cristal are in movies and songs, I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone mention LPGS that wasn’t a wine nerd.

You can! With that said it’s rarely done if you’re serving the rice by itself, but it’s very common in mixed rice dishes where you’re cooking the rice together with meats, mushrooms, dried seafood, and so forth.

Sushi.

The manga it’s based on (深夜食堂, “Shinya Shokudo”) is so good, too!

Kanji readings, by far.

Kanji are absolutely crucial, they’re not optional in any way. To be literate at the level of a high school educated adult, you need to know all 2,136 general-use kanji taught through primary and secondary school, including multiple readings for each.

I’ve lived in Japan and speak Japanese. They’re normal people, the whole “wacky Japan” thing is mostly a trope parroted by people who have either never been there or didn’t interact with Japanese people in any substantial way.

Japanese media has all kinds of silly stuff but that’s not day-to-day life.

As others said, it’s only natural as a toast, or occasionally you hear it as a “thanks” at a bar when the bartender hands you a drink.

In virtually every other situation it’s distinctly British.