[deleted]

[soldoutactivist]

[deleted]

[SundownKid]

In Japanese V/LN/Anime/Manga, you have things like the molasses-like social structure, ever-present trains, convenience stores, vending machines, narrow, one-way road suburbia, and so on.

What are some traits, events, or aspects do you think best exemplify the American way of life? Particularly those you would share with foreign friends.

I think there are various tropes for "rural America", "suburban America" and "urban America". It's not really so homogenous that you can lump the American way of life under a single set of tropes. Whereas most current-day Japanese animes take place in cities so it applies more towards those.

[soldoutactivist]

[deleted]

[fleet]

The USA is huge. It takes several days to drive from the central part of the country to either the east or west coast.
The geography is varied. Deserts, swamp lands, mountains, prairies.
Most gasoline stations are also convenience stores, selling groceries, tobacco, beer and wine.
WALMART stores are everywhere, and you can get just about anything you need there.
The USA has an extensive system of controlled access four lane (or more) highways. When gasoline is cheap (like it is now) people tend to drive on long trips rather than fly or take a train.
Many people watch high school football on Friday nights in the fall, followed by college football games on Saturday, and professional football games on Sunday. Emphasize that American football is not the same game as the international community recognizes as football. That game in America is called soccer, which is gaining in popularity.

[gekiganwing]

What are some traits, events, or aspects do you think best exemplify the American way of life?

I recommend using local references. In other words, things which you have observed in specific cities and regions. Don't try to be super-specific or obscure... just talk in your story about recognizable places and behaviors.

I've lived near Chicago for quite a few years. A couple things that I have noticed...

* In the city proper, it's expensive and often inconvenient to have a car. There are reliable buses and trains. However, if you live just a short way from the city, you're fortunate to have just one reliable bus or train nearby.
* If you're lost in an unfamiliar neighborhood, ask for help, rather than check a map.
* Getting in or out of O'Hare Airport can be frustrating. There are smaller airports as alternatives, along with Amtrak trains and city-to-city bus lines.
* Suburban sprawl is rather recent. There were farms not too far from my home just thirty years ago, but they have been slowly pushed away from the city.
* A good number of city neighborhoods have their own character. Some suburbs are distinct, but many of them blend together.

A few things I have noticed elsewhere:

* Major bus routes in other cities do not just go east-west or north-south. I noticed this the most when I visited Seattle... and had trouble figuring out where buses leaving downtown went.
* Unless you're willing to walk everywhere, it's not often easy to get around a city for free. I was fortunate to find several useful free buses in Baltimore just a few years ago.
* City versus suburb distinctions can be pronounced. Austin, Texas was fascinating and different. But when I traveled just outside the city, I wondered if I had returned home.
* If you're willing to explore a city for a while, you can find quirky places that stand out. For instance, there was a retro video game bar in Denver with working pinball tables, and there was a peanut butter jelly sandwich restaurant hidden in NYC.
* In most cities, you can avoid chain restaurants without spending excess amounts of money.
* Sometimes you'll notice an unexpected store. For example, most local and chain DVD rental stores died years ago. However, the chain Family Video did not grow too large, and it survives in many locations.

[Karl_C]

What are some traits, events, or aspects do you think best exemplify the American way of life? Particularly those you would share with foreign friends.

As a foreigner who has never been to the US: What about the "gun culture"?

I don't want to start a discussion if it's good or bad, but this is one aspect where the US differs to most other countries on the globe? In my country for example, it's nearly impossible to legally own a gun due to very strict "gun control laws"?

[Katta]

I've been to America only once and for a short time so I haven't noticed anything special (except maybe the longest queues I've seen in many years), but from what I've seen on tv I'm really impressed by coupons, that you can take thousands of dollars worth of stuff and not pay a cent (the store may even owe you).

[soldoutactivist]

[deleted]

[YossarianIII]

If you want to see the best part of American culture, go to a Kendrick Lamar concert.

If you want to see the worst part of American culture, go to a Trump rally, get seriously injured there, and then attempt to take out a loan to pay for your hospital bills.

The biggest misconception about America is that it has worse beer than Europe. Unless you're stuck in a dive bar in the middle of Kansas, you can probably find a domestic stout that's better than Guinness pretty much anywhere.

The biggest true conception about America is that Taylor Swift is everywhere. She is!

[Green Glasses Girl]

Some other tropes that come to mind in addition to Sundownkid's post are Everytown, USA and Eagleland (also read Eagleland Osmosis). I think things can be narrowed down to show whether your visual novel takes place in the American countryside, American suburbs, or American city. Once that's decided on, it's easier to break it down from there. It's kind of difficult to pindown something that exemplifies Americana without getting specific.

Note: The old depiction in fiction of Eagleland are variants of a 1940s to early 1960s of the American Dream - an upper-middle class family consisting of a father, mother, two kids, a dog, white picket fence outside a 2-story house in the suburbs in the mid-west, northeast, or New England states with scenery nostalgic of famous paintings of Norman Rockwell and Edward Hopper. (See movies such as The Sandlot or The Iron Giant). Oddly enough, I've been to countries outside the U.S. where I've met people who believed that most Americans live like this because of television and movies. The idea generally surrounded baseball, American football, hamburgers, fries, macaroni and cheese, apple pie, desert plateaus, Native Americans, 10-gallon hats, red pickup trucks, and Golden/Yellow Labrador Retrievers.

[Kingv]

What are some traits, events, or aspects do you think best exemplify the American way of life? Particularly those you would share with foreign friends.

As a foreigner who has never been to the US: What about the "gun culture"?

I don't want to start a discussion if it's good or bad, but this is one aspect where the US differs to most other countries on the globe? In my country for example, it's nearly impossible to legally own a gun due to very strict "gun control laws"?

It's pretty easy to own a gun in America. All you need is to have a clean criminal record and be at least 18. I went with my brother when he bought his first gun. It was a surprisingly simple process. We went to a gun shop, he picked out which one he wanted, they did a background check and less than thirty minutes later he left with gun and a permit in hand. I don't remember what kind he bought but it was a small handgun under $400. So yeah, pretty simple. Even though he owns a gun he doesn't have a concealed weapons permit, which lets you carry a firearm at all times on you, since this was brought to keep at home for security purposes. It's not strange to see people walking around on the street or in stores wearing a gun and holster.

coupons

That's a pretty good one.

gun culture

That's a tough one. It's not necessarily a gun culture as much as a freedom culture centered on guns. And the majority of gun-related crimes are not perpetrated by people part of the stereotypical "gun culture", but gang culture. I'm not prepared to tackle that one at all.

I honestly hear more about every other group out there other than gangs when it comes to gun violence these days. Can't remember the last time I saw the news or read about a gang related shooting, at least for my neck of the woods anyway.

[soldoutactivist]

[deleted]

[Kuiper]

Many people watch high school football on Friday nights in the fall, followed by college football games on Saturday, and professional football games on Sunday.

One question that often comes up in non-American circles is "why do Americans care so much about college football? How is it that high school football is such a big part of the culture in some towns?"

The answer is that the USA is geographically large, and thus not every area is proximate to a major league sports team. For example, if you live in Portland, Oregon, the nearest NFL team is in Seattle, Washington, which is a 3-hour drive away. If you live in Salt Lake City, Utah, the nearest NFL team is in Denver, Colorado, which is an 8-hour drive away. So if you want to watch live sports, the local college or high school game might be the only thing available.

As someone who spent late-adolescence (driving age) in California, I developed a sentimental relationship with Highway 99, which I didn't actually realize until years after I left the state and sat down to watch David Fincher's Zodiac for the first time. I think that film really captures a certain element of west coast Americana, which is that the USA, and specifically California, is big. There's a moment in the film when Jake Gyllenhaal's character (who is in San Francisco) mentions that he wants to go to Sacramento to check a lead before work, and his wife points out that driving from San Francisco to Sacramento and back again would take 3 hours. And that's for two cities that are considered to be "close!" A lot of people have this vague notion that San Francisco and Los Angeles are both in California, and so they must be somewhat close, but California is over 800 miles top to bottom, and driving from San Francisco to Los Angeles is a 7-hour ordeal.

I don't want to start a discussion if it's good or bad, but this is one aspect where the US differs to most other countries on the globe? In my country for example, it's nearly impossible to legally own a gun due to very strict "gun control laws"?

Gun laws in the United States can vary from state to state, and even county to county. For example, California has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the country, but most citizens can legally obtain a handgun. However, getting a concealed weapons permit are issued by the local sheriff, so for example if you live in San Francisco it's almost impossible to get a concealed weapons permit, whereas in Sacramento it's easier to obtain them.

Attitudes toward guns in the US vary drastically depending on geography, as well as socioeconomic factors like population density that are often related to violent crime.

I spent several years living in Ohio, which is generally seen as a blue (democrat, "liberal" state), but attitudes around guns in rural parts of the state tend to be pretty "conservative," or permissive regarding guns. Bars would be open late for hunting reason, and people would drive around with rifles visible in the back seat of their trucks. In that area, hunting was definitely part of the lifestyle for many people, not just a hobby; when you consider that a doe can yield 50-60 pounds of meat, it's possible for someone to go out on the first day of hunting season and come back with enough meat to feed a family for an entire year. (Usually the limiting factor is freezer space.)

If I had to describe the attitude toward guns in that area, I'd say it was pretty close to how people might regard a power tool like a table saw or a nail gun--it can cause serious injury (or worse) when used improperly, and it should be treated with some measure of caution and respect as it can be dangerous, but it's a tool, and after you spend enough time practicing with it, it ceases to be scary and becomes more of a household appliance. Even a child can use one with proper training, and it wasn't uncommon for kids (elementary school age, say ages 10 and up) to have a gun that was "theirs," usually a low caliber rifle like a .22.

Perhaps somewhat ironically, Ohio actually has a nontrivial amount of gun-related violence, but most of that is connected to drug trafficking, and tends to happen in major cities and more urban areas.

[soldoutactivist]

[deleted]

[PyTom]

(Actually, reading soldoutactivist's words, the word "interstate" was used, not "Interstate". But I wrote this, so I thought I'd post - since I think it;s on-topic.)

Note that technically, Route 66 was part of the US Highway system, not the Interstate Highway system. In the US, there have been three major generations of long-distance highways built.

The first were the "Auto Trails", such as the Lincoln Highway. These tended to be built by private organizations to which cities subscribed - the result being that the roads would often go it weird places, so as to get to the cities that paid for them. (This was about 1910 or so.)

In 1921, the federal government decided to pay for the improvement of major roads. They decided to do this by paying half the cost, and letting the states do the work. And so the heads of the various states' highway offices came together, figured out the best way to get from point A to point B, and built roads between them. These were called US Highways, and mostly still exist - Route 66 is historical, but you still have US 1 running from the top of Maine to the bottom of Florida.

The US Highways, despite the name, are often just roads - with traffic lights, people's driveways, bridges and so on. They often go right into the center of cities, being main streets and so on.

This is kind of a pain if you want to go places quickly, so in 1956, the US Decided to build the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, aka the Interstates. These are very good roads, that are limited access (you get on and off at numbered exits) and support driving very fast.

In many places, the same stretch of roads has been rebuilt and renumbered multiple times. So there are sections of road that started off as the Lincoln Highway, and then become US-30 and I-80.