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There's a particular blend of coffee here in Japan called the American, which seems to be the default thing several of my friends get when ordering coffee. Not being a coffee person, I'm not sure how it's different. All cofee tastes revoltingly bitter to me.

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Is it the same as an Americano? That term comes from Italians' observations of how WWII-era U.S. soldiers took their coffee: they watered down the strong Italian espresso to approximate the weaker coffee they were used to sipping over long periods back home.

Americano [1], sometimes called American, is a style of coffee all over the world, though.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffè_Americano

Lol, I (an American) also first heard of Americano in Japan, but I wasn’t confused about it being a Japanese word.

Different thing. "American" coffee in Japan refers to light-roast drip coffee.

Yes, they have separate Japanese Wikipedia articles:

"American Coffee": https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A2%E3%83%A1%E3%83%AA%E3...

Caffè Americano: https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A2%E3%83%A1%E3%83%AA%E3...

The "American Coffee" article introduction paragraph even clarifies that this is a completely separate thing from Caffè Americano.

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