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.