In fact I remember seeing these “Big America” burgers when we were in Japan filming last winter, though none of us tried them. The idea is that each region/state/city gets their own America burger. Of course, not all states are represented, not even by a long shot. Most Japanese, let alone Americans, don’t know what a North Dakota is, after all, and Ohio is just how you say “good morning.” Basically, they’re picking and choosing famous spots from around the US, figuring out a stereotyped feature of that place (missing completely, sometimes), and then putting it in a burger.

Let’s take a look at these “Big America” burgers while we wait for McDonald’s line of “Small Japan Burgers” to be released.

Texas Burger & Texas Burger 2

This burger’s first run was so popular that it got itself a sequel! The Texas Burger 2 comes back with a “wilder” taste (not sure what to think of that), and has chili beans, bacon, onions, a slice of American cheese, old-fashioned mustard relish, and a quarter-pound of beef. I think the creators of this burger watched one too many cowboy movies.

Yeehaw!

Grand Canyon Burger

Sadly, they don’t cut the Grand Canyon Burger in half when serving it to you, nor does it contain donkey meat, but it does have an egg McMuffin-like round egg disc, cheddar AND mozzarella cheese, crispy bits of onion, steak sauce, and Big Mac-esque bun and beef layout. Not sure how this has anything to do with the Grand Canyon, but maybe they were going for some kind of Arizona vibe? Even that doesn’t make much sense to me. Maybe if we watch the commercial it will all come together?

No, I’m way more confused now.

Las Vegas Burger

Once again, I feel like McDonalds failed to capture the essence of the location this burger was named after. They should have a system where they fill one in a million burger containers with money, then at least there’d be some gambling involved. But no, they had to go with LV staples like sauteed sliced beef and onions, lettuce, and cream cheese? That cream cheese is so money, baby.

Broadway Burger

Broaaadway!! ♬ Nothing sings “Broadway” like mozzarella, bacon cured pastrami-style, mixed vegetables, and a mustard and cream cheese sauce. Okay, I take that back. Many things sing “Broadway” more than the featured Broadway Burger items listed above.

California Burger

California is a big place, but this burger tries to capture it all, from the sands of Los Angeles to the redwoods of the north. Can you guess what makes this burger “California?” I would have guessed avocado, but came away pleasantly surprised. Between two “artisan” buns there’s a quarter-pound of beef, spicy cheese, bacon strips, tomato slices, and lettuce. This isn’t all that “California,” though, so they up the ante and top it with a special sauce made from red wine that’s actually produced in California! Gotta give this one an “A” for effort, at the very least.

Beverly Hills Burger

Unlike the “improvement sequels” that we see with the Texas and New York burgers, the Beverly Hills Burger is something unique and different from its geological predecessor, the California burger. This burger’s unique features are: guacamole, cheese, Cesar salad dressing, an egg, and the meat of abandoned chihuahuas. For some reason I don’t see the people of Beverly Hills ever buying or associating themselves with a burger like this.

Idaho Burger

As if you didn’t see this one coming. The Idaho burger’s special feature? Potatoes. Like, a whole breakfast hashbrown worth of taters, but more circle-shaped. In addition to this is bacon, onions, a quarter-pound of beef, cheese, a peppery sauce, grainy mustard, and an onion bun, because Idaho makes a lot of onions too.

What kind folk you have out there in Idaho!

Miami Burger

The Miami Burger simultaneously concludes that “all Hispanic people eat at Taco Bell!” and that “Florida is filled with these homogenous Hispanic peoples.” The purpose of this burger is to evoke the feeling of “tacos” and in order to do that they insert tortilla chips, shredded cheese (because that’s so tacos!), a “spicy tomato chili sauce” (sounds like an unholy matrimony of salsa and ketchup), a quarter-pound beef patty, and something that looks like it might be taco meat, but I’m not totally sure. For all I know it’s meat made from a leg that washed up on Miami beach.

Personally, if I were McDonalds, I would have taken the “Florida is filled with retirees” approach and blended the burger into a smoothie and added vitamins to it, but I suppose that would be too much work.

New York Burger

Kind of a boring burger, to be honest, the New York burger has Monterrey Jack Cheese, bacon, tomato, lettuce, and a grainy mustard. Maybe they realized that this burger wasn’t all that great, which is why they made a sequel to the New York burger and zeroed in on Manhattan:

Manhattan Burger

They weren’t happy with the New York burger so they made a follow-up. The Manhattan burger has everything that the New York burger has but adds a slice of pastrami and two servings of sour cream sauce to provide a “modern, airy, refined taste.” Mission accomplished? I’m not so sure.

If that McDonalds car was stuck in the middle of the intersection in real New York people would be dead right now. DEAD. Then who would eat your burgers? Fuggedaboudit.

Hawaiian Burger

Did the Hawaiian burger just blow my mind by not including pineapple in any shape or form? Of all the opportunities that they had to capture the (stereotypical) essence of a geographical location in America, this was their chance! Still, it doesn’t look too bad. The Hawaiian burger features a special gravy, an egg-disc, chopped lettuce, an American cheese slice, bacon, and of course a lot of beef. It looks like they were going for a pseudo loco moco, so I gotta credit them on not going straight for the obvious pineapple cop out.

Now the only thing missing is spam. Lots and lots of delicious spam.

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There you have it. I summed up the answer to “what is America” via McDonalds hamburgers eaten in Japan based off of American places. If this trend continues, I can only imagine what they’ll come up with next. Maybe a crab/salmon/oil burger from Alaska (that actually sounds good)? Or what about an Oregon burger that’s topped with kale and kombucha? Maybe they could even do a North Dakota burger where you open the box and there’s nothing there. The possibilities are endless!

If McDonalds Japan were to do a burger based off your state/city/region/province/country/landmark, what do you think they would do? Not so much what they should do, but how will your location be stereotyped in burger form? Let me know in the comments.

Bonus: Here’s a papercraft I came across of that weird McDonalds RV that’s in all the “Big America” commercials.

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Bonus Wallpapers!

[2560x1600] • [1280x800] • [1280x800 Animated] • [700x438 Animated]

One word, convenience. Over the years, Japanese fast food chains have come out with some of the most (theoretically) delicious as well as most expensive fast food items money can buy. While “fast food expensive” is going to be a lot less than “Batman expensive” I think you’ll all agree that these expensive fast food items are, well, very expensive for fast food. Plus, your butler deserves a day off once in a while, right?

Let’s go through some of these gastronomical fast food dishes. They’re sure to make your wallet thinner and your stomach thicker.

The Quattro Prestige

Cost: ￥3900 (~$40)
Where: Domino’s

If it has the word “prestige” you know that it’s probably pretty good (and expensive). The Quattro Prestige pizza has four segments, all with a different “I’m-a-super-rich-dbag” toppings:

1. Snow Crab And Shrimp Gratin
2. Mangalitsa Pork With Bordeaux Sauce
3. Fresh Mozzarella And Beef Stew
4. Margherita (boo, how boring)

I’ve come across some other similar variations as well, including things with truffles, jumbo shrimp, Iberico Ham, and more. You can get the quarters as single pizzas as well, though if you’re going to go all out, go all out on one pizza. Your stomach will surely thank you.

Lobster Surf n’ Turf Burger, Premium Caviar & Lobster Sandwich

Cost: ￥1280 (~$13)
Where: Wendy’s

For what you’re getting, ~$13 isn’t all that much. There were two burgers being offered:

1. Lobster Surf n’ Turf
2. Premium Caviar & Lobster

Not sure why they have to specify that the caviar is premium (what about the lobster?). I suppose they would be missing out on that huge caviar connoisseur market if they didn’t mention that additional selling point. If a sandwich/burger isn’t enough for you (or if you aren’t into those things), Wendy’s also offered a salad at the same time, combining the best of both worlds.

Garden Sensation Salad With Lobster & Caviar

Cost: ￥1580 (~$16)
Where: Wendy’s

From what I hear, the Garden Sensations Salad is a regular thing at Wendy’s. Now take that and add lobster and caviar to the mix. This is what I imagine rich people doing to their fast food salads anyways, so it all makes sense to me. I wonder if I’d just eat the toppings, though. Everything else just looks so un-premium to me.

Kobe Beef Steak Pizza

Cost: ￥5800 (~$60)
Where: Domino’s

Kobe beef is one of the most delicious beefs in the world. The cows are massaged, fed beer, and live the most amazing life a cow could ever live before getting slaughtered to become Domino’s pizza toppings. Excellent Beef + terrible pizza dough? Sounds like a recipe for people picking off the toppings (you can give the dough and cheese to that weird kid who only can eat cheese pizza, at least).

The large is 5800 yen, and the medium is 4800 yen. Me? I’d rather get a $50 kobe beef steak, I think. That’s really the only part I’m here for anyways, Domino’s.

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Tenderloin Beef Truffle Sauce Burger

Cost: ￥1129 (~$11)
Where: Lotteria

While I’m more of a MOS Burger guy myself, Lotteria can be pretty good too. This burger definitely makes me lean over the “which-fast-food-is-my-favorite?” fence a little bit. Anything with truffle sauce is going to be a winner, and the price tag isn’t Kobe Beef Pizza level, at the very least.

Their selling point is that the luxury meat coming from the cows to this burger exists in only 3% of the cow, making it especially premium and rare. To me it looks pretty plain but I’m sure the taste speaks for itself. Sign me up.

Matsuzaka Hamburger Steak Burger

Cost: ￥1800 (~$18)
Where: Lotteria

Not to be outdone by… themselves… Loterria does the Matsuzaka Hamburger Steak Burger once every year on November 29 (more on that in a sec). The meat is supposedly a “wonderful hamburger” and for the price and occasion, I should hope so. You see, November 29 is “good meat day.” How did they come up with that? Let’s take a look:

November 29 = 11/29

11 is the い and い of いち. It also coincidentally looks like “ii”.

“ii” is the romaji for いい, which means “good”

29 in Japanese, if you read them separately as numbers, is 二(に) and 九(く). That equals にく (niku)

Niku means meat (肉) in Japanese.

Therefore: いいにく day is “good meat.”

Since it’s a day, it’s “Good Meat Day.”

I like that bun, too. 11/29 seems like a good day to me.

Foie Gras Rossini Burger

Cost: ￥1280 (~$13)
Where: Wendy’s

While foie gras is illegal in parts of the US now, Japan certainly isn’t shy about eating things that are controversial. The foie gras burger by Wendy’s is one of those examples. Not only is there foie gras paté on the burger, but there are truffles as well. This is about as rich as it gets and was one of the first of several ridiculous premium Wendy’s burgers to hit Japan. As they’re trying to get a foothold in the very competitive Japanese fast food scene, they wanted to stand out and well… I think they did (and continue to do) a pretty good job.

Iberico Bacon Burger

Cost: ￥980 (~$10)
Where: Wendy’s

This has the word bacon in it, so I’m sold right from the beginning (did somebody say bacon?). Iberico is a specifically premium and thick cut bacon that looks incredibly delicious, though I’ve never had it myself. While regular bacon on burgers looks good, this looks a lot better than any bacon I’ve ever seen in the fast food scene. Of course, you’re going to have to pay the price… a price that isn’t all that bad, all things considered.

Takumi Burger

Cost: ￥1000 (~$10)
Where: MOS Burger

The Takumi Burger (匠味/artisan flavor) was a series of burgers by MOS Burger that included Tasmanian beef patties plus ten toppings (some of which were: sliced avocado, grated wasabi, and other seasonal ingredients). I’m always a fan of MOS burger burgers, so when they make something good I’m guessing it’s quite good. I’ll definitely be looking out for this one in the future to pop up again.

Quarter Pounder Jewelry

Cost: ￥1000 (~$10)
Where: McDonalds

For the first time ever, McDonalds has put out a 1,000 yen burger in Japan (and possibly the most expensive McDonalds burger ever in the world).  This “jewelry” series is, I’m guessing, supposed to make the burgers seem more valuable. Unlike some jewelry, though, these burgers are only limited item and certainly not forever. If you’re in Japan right now, this is the one and only premium fast food item from this list that you could possibly buy, so pay close attention to the dates. You’ve missed “Gold Ring,” but “Black Diamond” and “Ruby Spark” are yet to come. I’d recommend getting in line right now.

The flavors are:

• Gold Ring: Pineapple, thick cut bacon, quarter pound patty, Monterey Jack cheese,, BBQ sauce, and 10 different spices.
• Black Diamond: Truffle sauce, quarter pound patty, grilled mushrooms, and melted cheese.
• Ruby Spark: 5 slices of chorizo, avocado, quarter pound patty, pepper jack cheese.

Based off the names, I was hoping they’d contain some very illegal Pokémon meat, but I’ll manage somehow. If the current level of fanciness isn’t enough, apparently there was one Mcdonalds that gussied up some special seating just for people who ordered the 1000 yen meal:

I guess some McDonalds didn’t think you were getting enough value for your 1000 yen meal. Just you wait, this will become so popular that they have to get rid of the 100 yen menu section and replace it with the 1000 yen menu section. One can dream, anyways.

Which of the three do you want inside of you most?

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Sadly, almost all of these items were only temporary, meaning you’d be hard pressed to find any of these right now. That being said, the future is bright! Wendy’s can’t seem to stop with their ridiculous PR-inducing premium food items and now even McDonalds is in the mix. The other fast food chains will surely do something again at some point as well. It’s not a matter of “if,” it’s a matter of “when.”

If I could rent out my time machine to you so that you could go back and eat just one of these items what would it be? For me I think it would have to be the Matsuzaka Hamburger Steak Burger because, well, I don’t know. That meat just looks so good and different from the rest (not to mention the bun as well). How about you? Anyone else holding out for a future special ￥4000 panda ear truffle burger from McDonalds?

As you might have guessed from my Ramen Survival Guide, between all of the different broths, styles, and toppings, you can find a ton of different varieties of ramen in noodle shops in Japan.

For most people, that variety is enough; but some ramen shops go completely off the map to push the limits of ramen and entice customers with novelty dishes. Strange toppings and unusual broths help noodle shops stand out from an increasingly saturated market.

The strangest thing of all? Most of these strange dishes are actually really, really good. Here are some of the strangest ramen dishes that Japanese noodle shops have cooked up in recent years:

Tequila Ramen

Unsurprisingly, Japan makes notoriously bad Mexican food, so I was a little apprehensive when I first heard about the tequila ramen at Kouno noodle shop (麺や河野). But against all odds, the Tokyo restaurant’s concoction of lime, a shot of tequila, and cilantro work well together.

Maybe it shouldn’t be surprising that the combination tastes good—after all, Vietnamese phở also uses lime and cilantro as garnish, so maybe throwing in some tequila isn’t that radical after all.

Ramen Burger

Japanese fast food chain Lotteria is notorious for cooking up some strange, strange hamburgers; past hits have included the oversized shrimp burger named in honor of Japanese comedian Sugi-chan, and a nine patty burger to celebrate an anime movie.

More recently, Lotteria teamed up with ramen restaurant Menya Musashi to create a ramen burger. A batch of ramen is fried up in the shape of a patty, then pork and mayonnaise or added before it’s placed between two buns.

Not quite the traditional way that you see ramen served, but more or less par for the course for Lotteria.

Ice Cream Ramen, Colorful Broth

If you’re looking for strange ramen, look no farther than Tokyo ramen shop Kikuya (菊や). Kikuya offers unusual ramen dishes in all varieties, using all sorts of ingredients and tricks to interest even the most dyed-in-the-wool ramen eater.

For one, there’s the color selection:

At Kikuya, you can get ramen with broth of virtually any color, including purple, red, and sky blue. While it looks pretty unnatural, the colorful broth is anything but; the color comes from natural ingredients like red cabbage, and clever mixing.

Kikuya also offers a ramen dish topped with an ice cream cone slide down the middle. According to ramen lore, a child came into the shop on a hot day and asked for ice cream, joking with the chef that an ice cream ramen would be ideal.

Being the genius that he is, the owner decided to turn this joke into a reality. Before long, Kikuya’s ice cream ramen became its signature dish.

The strange menu at Kikuya is way too long to go through in full here—between the colorful broth, ice cream ramen, and other oddities like cheese (think Kraft singles) ramen, cocoa ramen, and battery (think alkaline) ramen, you could spend weeks sampling Kikuya’s unorthodox offerings.

Pineapple and Strawberry Ramen

Ramen is a very savory dish; you don’t grab a bowl of ramen when you’ve got the hankering for something sweet. Because of that (and the fact that you don’t find too much fruit in ramen to begin with), the sometimes sweet dishes from Tokyo ramen shop Papapapapine (パパパパパイン) are a little surprising.

Papapapapine’s most famous dish is its pineapple ramen, which comes complete with chunks of pineapple and a pineapple-based broth. You can see Papapapapine’s pride in its specialty dish from the pineapple-shaped lantern hanging outside of the shop, its pineapple-yellow counters, and the ceramic pineapples adorning the restaurant.

Aside from its signature dish, Papapapapine also offers a strawberry ramen, aptly named Susususustrawberry. Like the pineapple ramen, Susususustrawberry has chunks of fruit floating in the soup, and the broth is strawberry-based with a little cream.

You can add condensed milk to taste, for a combination that seems more like a dessert than a meal. Despite the unorthodox combinations, reports are that both dishes are actually pretty good.

Taco Ramen

Ivan Orkin is a New Yorker who’s famous around the world for being one of the few gaijin to open a successful ramen business (アイバンラーメン AKA Ivan Ramen) in the fiercely competitive Japanese market.

While being a gaijin has been more than enough to make Ivan Ramen stand out, Orkin’s uses some unusual. In addition to using rye, an unorthodox ingredient by Japanese standards, to make the noodles themselves, a few years back Orkin created his own take on taco rice—taco ramen.

Taco rice is actually a pretty common dish in Japan, but it’s unusual for ramen to be used as a substitute for rice, and Orkin, an American from New York City, adds his own American touch to the dish.

In addition to the house-made noodles that Ivan Ramen has become known for, the taco ramen has lettuce, tomato, and beef with taco seasoning. No broth whatsoever, nor any of the typical toppings you’d see on your average bowl of ramen.

It was a seasonal special a few years ago, so you won’t be able to get it anymore; which is unfortunate, because it sounds delicious (and would probably go well with the tequila ramen).

Ramen has changed a lot over the last century as it’s come to almost dominate Japan’s culinary landscape. New techniques and approaches, like miso and double soup ramen, have become commonplace.

So while you probably won’t find chunks of pineapple in purple broth in your typical ramen shop anytime soon, I think that it’s great that ramen chefs across Japan continue to dream up new dishes that push the boundaries of ramen.

I’ve found that in Japan, you can find a lot more unusual and various types of hamburgers, ones that you would never, ever find here in the US.

When a Hamburger is Wild

A hamburger in Japan can be wild. Japanese fast food chain Lotteria recently offered a “wild burger” in honor of comedian Sugi-chan. Sugi-chan is one of the biggest celebrities in Japan right now (for who knows what reason), and his catchphrase ワイルドだろぉ？ (“wild, right?”) was one of the biggest buzzwords in Japan last year.

In Lotteria’s case, a “wild burger” was an oversized shrimp patty on two comically small buns. Wild, right?

More recently, Lotteria is offering a burger with nine patties. In celebration of the release of the newest Evangelion movie on DVD and Blu-Ray, Lotteria is currently offering a $13, nine-patty burger, after the name of the movie (Evangelion 3.33—3 + 3 + 3 = 9). That seems pretty wild.

When a Hamburger is Candy

A hamburger in Japan can be a candy. A popular type of Japanese candy (popular, at least, with people abroad) is a kind of DIY kit. The kit usually provides you with some powders, some molds, and instructions on how to turn it all into the final product.

Japanese YouTuber RRcherrypie is internet famous (the best kind of famous) for creating step-by-step guides on how to assemble these kits, and one of the most popular (and relevant to this post) recently has been a hamburger candy.

I can’t vouch at all for the taste, but it’s definitely a cool process to watch and, presumably, to try yourself.

When a Hamburger is a Billionaire

A hamburger in Japan can be Facebook founder and hoodie enthusiast Mark Zuckerberg. At least, that’s what some Japanese women think. The way that Zuckerberg’s name is transliterated into Japanese (ザッカーバーグ) sounds a lot like the Japanese word for a hamburger steak (ハンバーグ) which, to add to the confusion.

Fortunately, I don’t think that you’ll be set back too much by these two similar words. But if you somehow are served a live, confused Mark Zuckerberg instead of a delicious hamburger, then you’re on your own.

When a Hamburger is Black

A hamburger in Japan can be black, or contain pumpkin. Japanese fast food chains like Lotteria aren’t the only restaurants that serve bizarre hamburgers in Japan. International chains like Burger King or McDonald’s also cater to Japan’s local, sometimes eccentric tastes.

As we wrote about before, last year Burger King rolled special promotional items like an all-you-can-eat meal, a burger with black buns (dyed with bamboo charcoal and squid ink), and Halloween burgers that included a thick slice of kabocha.

It may be surprising to see these items offered by Burger King when the company’s offerings in its home country (the US) are so tame, but foreign companies have to adapt to Japan’s tastes and culture if they have a hope to survive.

Sometimes a Hamburger is Just a Hamburger

A hamburger in Japan isn’t always wild and wacky, or out there. You can always get a pretty normal, regular burger at virtually any Japanese fast food chain (like MOS Burger or Freshness Burger), foreign chains, or local restaurants.

But every time I go to a restaurant in the US that only offers a regular-ol’, everyday hamburger, I wish that it could be something more. Maybe I should start bringing my own squid ink.

Facebook isn’t all that popular in Japan (Mixi is currently king there), but it doesn’t meant that people don’t know about it. After all, the movie “The Social Network” came out in Japan, and I’m sure that Facebook hits the news every once in a while. But what about Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg? Apparently in a recent poll, Japanese women just thought he was a hamburger (for good reason, too!).

The Zuckerburger

In Japanese, the word ハンバーグ (hanbaagu) refers to hamburger steak. This shouldn’t be confused with ハンバーガ (hanbaaga), which refers to those things us Americans order three meals a day from McDonalds (fourth meal, of course, is タコス from Taco Bell). The second half of Mark Zuckerberg’s name, when translated to Japanese, is very similar to the word “burger” from the word for hamburger steak, which makes it sound very hamburgerish.

ザッカー (zakkaa) バーグ (baagu). That’s how you pronounce his last name in Japanese. The バーグ (baagu) is the same バーグ from the word ハンバーグ (hamburger steak). That’s where the confusion sets in.

When asked what “Zuckerberg” is in Japan, 35.6% of women polled thought he was a hamburger. Here’s what else they came up with:

35.6% said “Zuckerberg” is a hamburger.

19.6% thought “Zuckerberg” had something to do with soccer, because the first part of his name, ザッカー (zakkaa) is very similar to the word for soccer, サッカー(sakkaa).

14.4% got the correct answer or something close to the correct answer.

11% chose something miscellaneous.

7.6% thought it was some kind of abbreviation.

The really fun part, though, is when you start breaking down the answers. For example, one person thought that “The Zuckerburger” was a new menu item at McDonalds. My favorite is the person who thought it was a soccer ball shaped hamburger steak. That combines #1 and #2.

P.S. If you don’t know katakana, and want to understand why Zuckerberg is like Hamburger in Japanese, I’m going to (secretly, just for people reading this article) make the Katakana lessons on TextFugu free for a while, because it’ll help you enjoy this article more effectively. If you don’t know hiragana yet, though, you should learn that first (and to do that, you should start here)… anyways, carry on.

Facebook In Japan

One thing that also stood out a bit to me was the answers from the people who got the question right (and kind of knew who The Zuck is). There were only six examples, but two of them had to do with Mixi. One was “He made America’s version of Mixi” and the other was “a person at the Mixi America Branch” (which I’m pretty sure doesn’t actually exist). My favorite in this category, however, was “(Zuckerberg) is the name of the person who made the Internet” (c’mon, that’s Al Gore).

The examples on Mixi, though, are pretty interesting. I’ve written about Mixi, as well as some of the differences (though I’ve mostly just written about how to join and get in via various loopholes… which don’t really work anymore, so don’t ask). Mixi is the big SNS in Japan (though Gree has overtaken them recently… but it’s a bit different), and it’s really tailor made especially for Japanese people.

• People rarely show pictures of themselves for their profile picture on Mixi (compare that to Facebook, where nearly everyone does).
• People rarely upload pictures of themselves for albums (try doing that on Facebook… Where’s your face!?).
• Real names are hidden and nicknames are king (Facebook has a use-your-real-name-or-get-out policy).
• People on Mixi are generally worried about people knowing who they are (Facebook, it’s really easy to find out a lot of info about anybody).

It’s mainly a cultural thing, but Facebook’s openness is basically making it hard to grab a big foothold in Japan (though I think that will change in the next 5 years), though one article I read thinks Facebook is in its own little “professional networking” niche (which I can confirm through what I’ve seen too… pretty sure all my Japanese friends are CEO’s of startups). If you want to know more about Facebook in Japan, this is a great NYT article.

Other “Zuckerberg Meanings”

To close things up, though, here were some other fun explanations people had:

“Something young people say when they’ve seen something unbelievable” (everyone should start yelling “ZUCKERBERG” when you see something awesome).

One person thought it had to do with a lot of bugs because of the バーグ (baagu) sounding like バグ (bagu), which sounds like the English word for “bug.”

“Something you say when you when you want to express the feelings of ‘You idiot!’ or ‘Quit Screwin’ Around’”

“A store like H&M that came from Europe”

“A term for when you have a lot of small things / accessories in your car, and it is becoming dirty.”

P.S. Thanks to @HirokoTabuchi for tweeting about this survey. You should Follow Her On Twitter if you’re interested in smart Japanese things.