HN user
Actually you'd be surprised. Kyocera started selling ceramic knives in the 80s. They are still literally hand-sharpened by old Japanese dudes in specialist workshops. Great video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFnT5INymiY
I did a year of Rotary exchange to a Japanese high school, and can confirm that we students did in fact clean the toilets. Our school had porcelain "squat" toilets, and they were quite disgusting to scrub. Yet everyone took their turn, with a minimum of complaint. It was normal.
Nope. North Koreans made "The Big Lebowski Bowling" back in 2007: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-06/kim-jong-il-bowls-f...