I've lived in Japan going on six years and was initially surprised by how ordinary things were - and that that's not necessarily a bad thing. Sure, there's an element of truth to some of these articles but you have to go looking hard to find it.
In general, it felt pretty normal.
If they'd said "surprising", "confusing", or "unfamiliar", those are all statements that are relative to the speaker's experience.
Until one day two of the young male japanese students asked in hushed tones if it was true that the extremely flamboyant guy in our group was gay. Kinda weird, but ok, maybe that's just not something that's culturally normal to acknowledge in Japan. They then continued, saying they were concerned that, since they were unable to get dates, they would become gay.
That was a fairly shocking moment.
I've visited Japan many times over the years, during my first time I was amazed by it all. Even though I spend many years in Asia at that point, and had gotten used to the culture, Tokyo was different. After a few days that feeling wore off, and the things that were different compared to other cities just became normal. I went back last year, and I'm still amazed by the city, but there's not really many things that stand out anymore.
But one thing I've learned after almost 10 years in Asia, things that look "weird" to Westerners, are often completely normal to people living in Asia. And things that are "normal" in the West might be weird to people in Asia. (That really goes for any kind of cultural difference)
Even the game shows?
Edit: quickly found this gem on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fend1-nnNKk