High speed trains.
Heck, trains in general.
My first weekend living in Houston I wanted to take the train to Dallas... To see the landscape and enjoy the train ride... I've seen the train tracks.
Took me 2 hours googling to find out there's no people transport. Insane
Texas is ridiculous. They drive like crazy people and have no trains from outer towns going into the larger towns for work commutes. At least Nashville has trains. Texas does not.
Nashville has a single train that no one rides from Lebanon to downtown. Nashville does not have trains.
The US has a very extensive train system. It is however mostly used for freight.
Taxes included in the price tag
It's so great to be able to see a sign saying "$15 lunch", walk in, eat lunch, then walk out having paid precisely $15. The price is the price in most countries.
In the US, it would be "$15 lunch", then some random assortment of state and local taxes, maybe some random weekend surcharge, then a tip, and you're lucky to get out for under $20.
Don't forget the service fee that doesn't count as a tip.
Also the fee fee
I’m an American who has been to Europe a couple times for work and vacation, I loved the towel warmers in the bathroom.
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This thread is full of things for my new house. I’ll have to start saving up
Just kidding as I continued to scroll it was just bidets all the way down
Toilets that piss back at you and warm towels, what more does a person need?
We have them here too, in the older buildings. We call them radiators.
In my previous house, our toilet paper hanger was right above the radiator. Talk about engineering genius.
I cheat and aim a space heater at my towel in the winter to warm my towel. I have a very small bathroom so it heats the room as well.
Fully enclosed toilet stalls. I mean, ffs.
I prefer eye contact with the guy washing his hands
Can I interest you in bidet too while at this?
We installed a bidet this past spring and I don't know how I went 40 years without one!
Bold of you to assume a guy is washing his hands.
Japanese nail-clippers
Bought some online and they put everything I had ever used before to shame.
I’ve been giving these as the most low priced luxury gift, and everyone RAVES
can you share a link to the ones you give as gifts?
Last time I bought nail clippers, I wanted something that would stay really sharp for a while and searched r/buyitforlife
I saw stuff like Seki Edge recommended a lot so I ordered 2 of the SS-106 direct from Jatai International (the NA distributor). Very pleased and while $16 is really expensive for a nail clipper, it's way cheaper compared to other luxury purchases.
Edit since people keep asking: They're sharper, cut super clean, stay sharp longer, built from better materials with tighter tolerances, don't rust as easily, etc. It's like looking at a photo of a high-end knife and saying it looks the same as a $20 knife you found at Walmart. Like, yeah, they're made to do the same job so they have a common shape/function. Not built to the same standards though.
Also SS-106 is not necessarily the best or most preferable model for everyone btw. I just picked that one as best for my preferences after researching the different material options and comparing sizes (many premium clippers are quite large which I didn't want but some people do).
It’s not like you’re not gonna use them lol they probably already paid for themselves
Most of the answers have made sense, but this one…. What? Why?
Every once in a while a Japanese person decides to optimize a product that the rest of the world thought was doing fine. That’s why all your zippers say YKK.
I’ve noticed this. Are you saying Akron is no longer at the forefront of zipper technology?
Craftsmanship. When I visited Japan, my sister asked me to buy mechanical pencils. They have a rotating gear or something in the head that makes for a more even writing experience. I don’t use mechanical pencils, but it makes sense.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Q70J0vBcjHw
for those wondering what he's talking about.
yea sometimes the japanese just decides to optimize something to ridiculous levels and it works out.
The Japanese have a strong tradition of good cutting tools, especially scissors. I would assume they apply similar knowledge and craftsmanship to production of nail cutting tools?
My understanding as a woodworker is that iron/steel is very scarce in Japan, so steel tools are very prized and taken care of. Also explains their elite tier mastership of wood joinery without nails or screws.
Years ago my father introduced me to Japanese woodworking saws. They're definitely better for small to medium pieces of wood but they're so much easier to use, mainly due to the saw teeth being in the opposite direction of standard wood hand saws. This means they saw when you pull towards you instead of away. You have greater strength pulling than pushing, so they end up being more efficient and easier to use.
They’re sharper and less flimsy than regular nail clippers. It helps cut nails more predictably and less chance of rough bits.
I bought like a 20 pack of cheap nail clippers to spread around the home and several in my bathroom drawer to act as decoys for the family. I’ll use a cheap pair without any real issue, but I prefer the nice Japanese pair for cutting just a little bit cleaner.
Twenty decoy clippers!
European Fanta, with real juice. As an American, it's so much better
Orangina is the best drink. I live in Australia, so it's very rare here. But given the choice I'll have an Orangina over a beer anytime
We have Orangina in the US. Agreed, it's great.
Why does Orangina sound dirty to me?
Easy.
Because that name ends with -gina.
There you go.
It's a name that rhymes with a female body part and isn't Mulva.
We have Orangina in some parts of the US, it is absolutely top notch and I love it
Fanta Lemon rocks!
Oh man, we just got back from Greece and fanta was everywhere. I didn’t even get it a second look and couldn’t figure out why it was so popular because imo fanta sucks here
From the UK and I recent got to try American Fanta while travelling and you are absolutely right. American Fanta doesn’t even taste like orange, more of a fake chemical man made orange, and holy crap that stuff was excessively sweet
Fanta is not standard, which country is your favorite
Heated floors instead of vented heat
I'm familiar with this type of heat, at least when it's hydronic. It's slow to get going and stays warm long after the thermostat stops calling for heat, but by god it's the most comfortable heating method in existence.
If your feet are warm, you're warm. You can drop your set temperature by a degree or two and still be more comfortable than you'd be with forced air. Since the heat is everywhere the floor is, everywhere is heated evenly and there aren't any cold spots. Get it done throughout an entire house and all the rooms stay much closer in temperature to each other, since the amount of heat is proportional to the size of each room... unlike the first house I bought, which gave the 32sf bathroom, the 80sf bedroom, and the 120sf master bedroom one forced air vent each.
I lived in Asia for a few years and radiant heating floors. On really cold days I’d lay my clothes out on the floor the night before so when I woke up I put on really warm clothes before I went out to my cold car. Loved those floors
I’m pretty sure this is really common in newer buildings.
& in the houses of rich people
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I was scrolling for universal healthcare but this works too.
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Bidet
we have the addon ones on both toilets. a cheapo one, and the main bathroom has a more deluxe one with heated seat/water
it's nice.
We bought one of the bougie ones. Heated seat, heated water, different pressures and angles and so forth.
Now it seems absolutely barbaric to poop anywhere but home. I keep some StallMates at work for when I have to go there.
Bidets are actually a game changer. They're cheap on Amazon for the basic ones and easy to install. And my asshole loves it.
That’s no way to talk about your husband.
A lot of us have those. There was a big shift in during the toilet paper wars of 2020.
Bidet to you, sir.
Toyota Hilux.
Wish we could get them stateside! I'd love an old lifted Surf.
Wait, Yanks can't get a Toyota Hilux? Is it not big enough or something?
A4 paper. I think it’s the perfect size.
And it maintains its aspect ratio when you fold it in half.
As a fan of paper airplanes, this sounds amazing!
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A0 is 1m square in a ratio of 1/√2. Folded in half lengthways is A1, same again for A2, A3, A4, etc.
Envelopes follow the same pattern large enough to hold their equivalent paper.
The area of A0 is 1 square meter.
Oh what Americans don't use A4. I wondered what all those weird paper sizes are when I print documents.
HP printers display "PC LOAD LETTER" (Paper Cassete, load letter sized paper) because people try to print US letters on A4 paper.
Has confused people for decades now.
"PC LOAD LETTER. What the fuck does that mean?!"
Actually is an even better joke now. What was A4 paper doing in Initech?
To translate A4 is a smidgen wider than 8 1/4" x but a scooch shorter than 11 3/4" (8.27 x 11.7") versus the standard 8 1/2x 11" we have in the US.
Smidgen and scooch really are the appropriate terms
TIL americans don’t use A4 paper
When I was in England, they had these dual handle showers. Like on one side was the temperature, which you could just leave wherever you liked it. And then on the other side was the pressure where you turned on the water.
It’s not just one handle! Absolutely blew my mind!
I've seen that type of shower in hotels in America. The answer to most things in this thread is that the option is available in America, but it's probably an expensive option so it's not the most common thing you see.
Jim Green boots from South Africa. Hazet/Wera/Wiha/Knipex tools from Germany. Ko-ken tools and Vessel screwdrivers from Japan.
Knipex! I only have cutters from them, but I've had them for over 20 years and still going strong. They cut wire like butter!
German windows, I love how they open for ventilation and with a twist of the handle it opens like a door
Only if we get to keep our screens.
I genuinely don’t understand why screens aren’t a thing for many of these windows. They open inward so it shouldn’t be a problem.
No tipping culture
I went to Europe and thought this was great. Also, they bring the credit card machine to you, so the card is never out of your control.
This is how it is in Canada. Also we just use the tap or chip reader. Never swipe cards anymore
Those bottles of coke from Mexico that are imported into the US and sold at most big-name grocery stores. They are a taller, skinny bottle that has a white nutrition facts label affixed to the side showing it’s from Mexico.
What makes it great is it is made with real cane sugar instead of whatever coke puts in their regular cokes nowadays. Much cleaner taste and just overall better.
Coca-Cola makes real sugar coke for the US around Passover because a lot of Jews don't drink corn syrup then! Around April keep an eye out for coke bottles with yellow caps and load up on those
There's a big orthodox community down the street from me and there's a Safeway that gets the Kosher Coke, and it's pretty incredible. I'm normally a Pepsi girl, and the only Coke I'll drink is Mexican or Kosher (although the UK one is decent too).
Yup no grain! Lots of different gluten free items around Passover too.
So it's grains in general that are the problem? I was always confused because corn wasn't a thing in Israel back in the day. That makes more sense.
Yes. Anything that is a grain and leavening agents are also not allowed. Ashkenazi also avoid Kitniyot beans and legumes too but that’s more tradition than a rule. Sephardic people can have rice and beans! Less observant Jews like myself also allow rice and beans. :)
Wouldn't this be most sodas across the world? I had a Japanese soda that.. actually contained grapes. It's the only grape soda I've had that actually tastes like grapes. Shocker.
Grape soda tastes like the color purple and Nyquil tastes like the color green and you'll never convince me otherwise 🤣
Japanese brush pens, fountain pens, fineliners, and mechanical pencils. There's a reason comic artists used to fly to Japan just to buy this stuff. You can find everything from 2mm lead holder to a 0.15mm fineliner.
Pain au chocolat amande.
Can you translate that to freedom?
A crescent roll that weighs about the same as a half full 1911 magazine with dark chocolate and almond paste. It will change your life.
Half full 1911 magazine is the most American unit of measurement ever.
It’ll change your life, also.
I'm a languageologist. It roughly translates to having pains in your chocolate almond.
Sunscreen. EU and Australian sunscreen is so vastly superior.
Korean sunscreen is great!!
Yup, Korean/japanese are way better than American. Not oily, last longer, and better coverage.
How so? I’ve never tried it and now I’m curious!
https://www.mentalfloss.com/posts/why-american-sunscreen-falls-short
Basically due to how the FDA handles testing the EU and Australian sunscreen is now considered superior UV protection. I also find that Australian sport sunscreen handles sweat way better than US sunscreen.
Australia spent many years beneath a giant hole in the ozone layer. They know a thing or two about skin cancer and its prevention.
1 in 3 Australians contract skin cancer in their lifetime so it's drilled into us from a young age. At schools you must have a hat to go out and play at recess and lunch, with a strict no hat no play rule applied.
I grew up in Oz in the '70s and '80s, when Sid the Seagull first appeared. Slip, Slop, Slap is forever branded into my psyche.
NO HAT NO PLAY
God forbid you had one of those fucking legionnaire's hats too. Adult me recognises the flap at the back of the neck was good to stop your neck getting sunburnt. Undiagnosed autistic kid me would rage every year when my mum got me one of those neck-tickling fuckers, and demand she'd buy me the broad-brimmed hat instead.
north american sunscreen is limited to benzo uv filters or the 2 mineral uv filters, titanium dioxide or zinc oxide. THEY SUCK ASS. they pill, they feel shitty, and to get high uv protection you need a really THICK formulation so it sucks ass. the FDA has absolutely DRAGGED their feet on testing new uv filters. meanwhile the eu, south korea, japan, australia have moved on and use modern uv filters.
if you want to feel the difference, you can buy some pretty budget sunscreen that is a thousand times better, try biore's aqua rich watery gel spf 50 pa++++, that one's japanese, or the korean one that's really good beauty of joseon relief sun rice spf 50 pa++++. also avoid buying these from amazon, there's been a lot of counterfeit sunscreens on amazon.
oh also, in north america they don't have a rating for uva protection, they just call it broad range sunscreen but you have no idea how much uva it blocks. spf just measures uvb protection. european, asian, and australian sunscreens have a rating, it's the pa rating. the highest rating for uva protection is pa ++++, less pluses = less protection.
my favorite sunscreen for years no is still the biore one. i use it everyday and i work outside, shit is amazing. i know they recommend you reapply every 2 hours, but i use it once in the morning and i'm good the whole day usually unless it's raining or crazy hot and i sweat like nuts.
edit: there are a couple of sites that ship stuff out of korea, and you can get asian sunscreens from there, like stylevana is a site i use often.
Zojirushi rice makers.
I have one of their water bottles. My coffee burnt the shit out of my mouth when my flight landed at around 3pm.
10/10 would recommend.
I got one for my wife for Christmas a few years ago. She said it is one of the best gifts I have ever given her.
Electric tea kettles are great.
These absolutely exist in the US. Ours gets used multiple times a day.
One thing though, I think the electric kettles in the UK heat water much more quickly, I assume due to the higher wattage there.
These are pretty commonly owned in the US...
Kotatsu, it’s like a coffee table, but it has a built in heater under it and you can put a blanket over it to trap the heat but it has a slide on top so you can still use it like a table. It’s not as much as a fire hazard as it sounds.
Actual fucking robust public transportation that is adopted to US infrastructure. It’s ridiculous that we don’t have this alternative transportation for those who do not want to drive.
I say this as a car guy. We need alternative transportation so these shitty car corporations can’t lobby against our best interests in favor of us buying their shitty overpriced cars.
God, I'd give my left nut for light rail to the airports in Chicago or Indianapolis. As it is, I either drive a few hours or I hop a couple of trains if we fly out of Chicago.
Most surprising thing is that you guys don't commonly have train stations at your sports stadiums. My state even offers free transport with your event tickets to reduce the amount of drink drivers on the road
The Cowboys Stadium was purposely built in a city that promised to never allow any form of public transportation because the owner wanted to charge obscene amounts for parking.
What's wild to me is that you have all these politicians who say that this would impossible to create but we have something close in the system working perfectly fine right now. Every school year, you have millions of children in every state being picked up and dropped off in the morning at school and then picked up and dropped off home. And very, very rarely do we hear stories of it going off with a hitch.
But for someone reason, taking that idea and making it for general public? Ohhhhhh, too hard. Can't be done.
Nope. It can be done. Public school busses prove it. Now make it for everyone else.
Something I've previously seen mentioned as an import-worthy item:
Toiletpaper holders that aren't just a freestanding rod but have a metal sheet cover that rests on top of the roll.
It's just heavy enough that you can easily tear off the paper from underneath it without using both hands and in decades of having cats none of them have ever gone after the toilet paper - removing the need to mount it "mullet-style".
The rest of the cubicle.
So... private offices?
Yeah, you need that for serious business.
Yall gotta get on furikake. Stop eating plain white rice.
That sounds like an obscene act that involves furries
I'm listening
Well stop
You had my curiosity, but now you have my attention.
Nah as an Asian American, plain white rice is an essential side dish for our dishes
Pretty common topping at the poke places in my town in Northern California. Good stuff.
We eat rice that isn't plain also.
Y'all need to get more creative with your rice dishes if you think simply adding furikake to it makes it not "plain"
Affordable economy cars.
Jamón serrano or jamón ibérico. Spanish ham. You'll never go back to American "ham."
I dated a Spanish guy casually in college and he went to Spain on a trip to visit family and brought me back a book about ham as a souvenir. Thanks for bringing back that memory. 😆
The metric system. Patriotism is great and all, but imperial weight and measures are awful in comparison
Nobody knows.
We officially moved to the metric system in the 1970’s.
I remember that well. We ended up with coke in liter bottles. I think that's it. Lol
The lack of privacy in American bathroom stalls is honestly baffling, how is this not a universal standard? Also, after trying heated towel racks abroad, I can't un-feel the disappointment of grabbing a cold towel here. And don't even get me started on how our Fanta tastes like sadness compared to the European version.
Stroopwafels!
Aldi carries those. I agree. They're delicious
Black Currant. Far better than "grape", but iir, US logging interests killed it because a particular bug (harmful to trees) used to use currant bushes to breed and they didnt want to lose money. Grape was the US stand in. Jam, juice, candy, take your pick. Black Currant is better.
Does that mean you don't get creme de cassis?
A dash of creme de cassis with sparkling water and ice is possibly my favourite summer refreshment :O
I mean, that at least sounds like a decent reason to prohibit them. Sustainable logging is important, definitely moreso than a moderately superior particular flavor
A compact hatchback
I drive a mazda3 hatchback here in the states. I hope it lives forever. It’s perfect in every way.
However in Europe the same model had a 4 wheel drive option I would have liked.
Could we have wagons? Please? At least one that isn’t a luxury brand?
Bring back the Honda Fit!!!
European toothpaste. All kinds of flavors that are not mint, like anise or orange blossom.
We have other flavors, like cinnamon or bubble gum. But we want to be minty fresh. Ugh
But try finding other flavors in a regular store. Mint makes me nauseous, and I'm forced to use strawberry toothpaste that has Spiderman on the tube. I would far prefer cinnamon or citrus.
Or at least Batman on the tube. Something more adult.
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Please don't make us cry.
Crying is a preexisting condition.
If you or someone you know is crying crynomore might be right for you. Warning: may cause blindness, dry eye, constipation, certian thoughts, or sudden death.
Germany’s privacy law.
Healthcare coverage as a basic service.
Desserts that aren’t insanely sweet.
Efficient nationwide train service.
Siestas from 11-2 for everyone.
Paid vacation, *ternity leave, and sick days. This means time to recharge, not squeezing out a four day trip while answering emails…
Rashers, especially. Lived in the UK (Norfolk County - St Mary de Magdalene and Feltwell villages). I miss not having all the food additives and carcinogens in the food supply, better meats from the local butcher, kebab and Chinese takeaway, Sunday dinners at the pub, the pub being in walking distance and kid friendly until evening. Bank holiday fancy dress nights, Inexpensive air travel, trains, autos that got great gas mileage and seated 7 (Vauxhall Zafira)...I miss most of it really. Oh, and open air markets, Faires. Walking villages.
I wish I could find blood Orange Juice in the US.
Universal health care. Maternity and childcare Leave. Affordable post secondary education. Young offenders act. This list goes on ...
A respect for introverts
I'd settle for respect for everyone.
Brompton bicycles.
They fold small enough to take on the train our for in a suitcase while traveling.
sidewalks everywhere
Ireland’s Keogh’s Crisps.
Best potato chips in the world.
I’m particular towards Tayto’s. I love them so much I pay for import fees to eat them here in the states.
Kewpie mayonnaise.
It's from Japan and has a slightly different flavor but if you like deviled eggs you'll like Kewpie.
Edit: Yes I know it's easy to find. Despite this fact, many people have not tried it.
Make some sushi rice, squeeze Kewpie on top, drizzle Bachans, crush up a Big Roll. Delicious.
Yes! You can get this in the US (Costco, Amazon) but read the ingredients- the Japanese version has msg and the US version doesn’t, plus they add water. Japanese one is way better.
Edit: typo
The character assassination of MSG will forever destroy the taste of US foods.
We have that here! I loved the bottles because you can get out every bit.
This is sold in a lot of grocery stores in the states.
Butter on sandwiches.
My Scottish family introduced us to "Bacon Buttys" which is a bacon sandwich on a soft fluffy roll smeared with thick yellow butter, only the "bacon" is British back bacon or pork loin.
Month-long vacations
I saw this comment and my heart skipped a beat thinking about the unholy amount of work that I’d get behind on in that time.
A friend of mine from Germany took a month off of paid vacation to visit the US. Her boss said something along the lines of she'd go over her current allotted vacation time, but not to worry about it, and that she'd make it back up some other time.
Meanwhile, a friend of mine got fired from his welding job a few years ago after taking a few days off after his grandma died.
German here. I’m in negative hours (6-7h) for a couple of weeks now (I’m working part time with a kid and kid stuff just happens) and HR never talked to me. I appreciate that at least some companies trust their employees what they are doing.
We also have 30 days of vacation and when these run out every employee is entitled to another 5 days unpaid.
When a family member dies you only get „special vacation days“ (1-3 days iirc) for first degree family (parents, siblings, own kids) per law. What happens in most other cases is that you just call in sick. I was sick for 2 days when grandpa died. When my partners dad died he was sick for 2 weeks. Basically all employees have paid sick leave for up to 6 weeks per illness. So it’s totally fine to go on bereavement leave as sick leave and still get paid.
And lo and behold, Germany is not a flaundering third world country.
And don’t get me started on all the free stuff/money I got during pregnancy and afterwards!
In all seriousness, I think the main difference between the US and many other industrialized countries is the everyone for themselves vs we’re all sitting in the same boat mentality. In Germany it’s very hard to get super rich (because taxes) but on the other hand you’ll always have a roof over your head (yeah we have homeless but that’s a different root issue). I don’t necessarily want to have more than others, I want everyone to have a good time.
Of course in this country that would have you labelled a communist. Sigh. My eldest is exploring Germany as a potential place to live and work. She is very qualified and wants to get the hell out of the US. Can't say I blame her. She says she would gladly pay more taxes for basic human rights.
If she fits the legal requirements she should start learning German! Reddit will say in Berlin or IT you can get by with English, until you signed a contract you didn’t fully understand…
I think on an average level we actually don’t really pay that more in taxes. But what seems to be real is the perception of what you get out of your taxes. I don’t hear that many people complaining that taxes should go down cause we feel like we get something in return. If my kid wants to get a degree, all I have to worry about is housing. It’s not like I need to start a college fund from birth. Daycare is at least partly subsidized (or even free in some municipalities). The most important expense will actually be a drivers license… if it’s even still needed in 10 years (we’re living in a kinda in between size city, for some routes public transport works great, for others it’s awful).
One of the reasons I hate taking time off… nobody really covers for me as a nurse case manager. I have hundreds of VMs, emails, texts and teams messages waiting for me. It’s truly a nightmare and the reason I dread taking vacation. I hate living like this
It's all about the profits. Hiring an assistant for you would eat into the executive bonuses.
That’s the thing. Companies will always say your work will be covered while you’re out but it never is, not really anyways. They divvy the work up amongst coworkers who are already doing their own jobs.
You're so brainwashed to American (slave-based) employment that you've internalized the workload as "yours" and not the company's. Sad.
I’m American and just took a 6 week vacation. Was glorious.
Yeah, but how many years did you have to work at that job before you were able to do that?
Doesn't even matter for me, I can acru all the time I want, still can only take 1 week off at a time.
The trick is to taking a long enough holiday that they can't just postpone your workload.
Also if management isn't able to divide responsibilities in your absence, they are mismanaging the team, or that means you're indispensible and entitled to a higher fee.
Wait until you hear about long service leave. I get a 13 week block off every ten years of working on top of my 35 days of annual leave
Good grief, I hit my 10-year him with the company this month so I JUST got 20 full days of vacation (and I work in an office for a huge multinational corporation I promise you've heard of). Til now it's been 15 days, and that's considered generous compared to a lot of places, outside of unions (which are dying).
Of course, the extra week of vacation is meaningless since I was told a few months ago that my whole team is getting outsourced to another country and I'll be out of a job in a matter of days now.
Honestly, I don't even know what I'd do with 35 vacation days a year...
I’m a teacher and I usually spend it taking child development classes or working at daycares