I love Japanese culture, do you?

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

From Irezumi tattoos, to Sushi, to the cinematography, to manga & animation, to the zany pop culture which "promises to banish dirt to the land of wind and ghosts" to the egg-hotdog-octopus-pizza, to vending machines with dirty underwear, to Ukiyo-E, to shinto, to fights in the Diet, etc...

I love it!

p.s. - I know thats a spoof reference so I atone with this : http://www.japander.com/japander/schwarz.htm

[name not needed]

1. for lucky best wash, use mr sparkle

:)

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

3. You have very lucky dishes!

:)

[CanuckAmok]

7. Awesom-a Powah!

Geat away loafers, can't you see I am serious?

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

10. Join me or die! Can you do any less?

What a brave corporate logo! I accept the challenge of Mr. Sparkle.

[No2W2004]

21. Hey! That's my favorite lucky T-Shirt!

[CanuckAmok]

28. What's my face doing on a Japanese box?!

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

33. I'm disrespectful to dirt.

Can you see that I am serious?

[Donkeyboy75]

38. Can you see that I am serious?

All your base are belong to us.

[Kagemusha]

2. It's kind of my life now.

I started as a Canadian who really hates language politics and knows both official languages. Since I was a really young kid, everything I saw that had any relation to Japanese culture tended to catch my eye. Now I translate manga and novels from Japanese to English professionally and have a lot of similar cultural interests to fulfill. Makes the hard, long road to get into this for a living seem worthwhile.

But, I've never physically set foot in Japan due to poverty, and that's going to have to change...

[Southsideirish]

4. I want to learn Sum-e, Japanese brush stroke painting, but my local

Japanese Cultural Center no longer offers the course. Its beautiful - the long, single stroke, always black on white paper, with, maybe, a bird or a twig. Its very simple yet powerful.

[jayavarman]

5. Japan Rules

So many interesting discoveries to be had in Japan, I would go back in a second.

[Rabrrrrrr]

6. So much so that my partner is Japanese

:-)

Can't get enough of it. Great culture. Not without its bad points and dark sides, of course, but it just feels *right* to me. I very much miss Japan, and I was there for only two weeks. Been fascinated with Japanese culture since I was a kid loving the monster movies, and that fascination has never left me. Living in Hawaii was GREAT and I finally could experience Japanese culture somewhat first-hand, and experience it in the midst of experiencing many other Asian cultures for comparison.

Sigh.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

8. No wonder You're so cool!

Just sayin'
:)

.end gratuitous buttkiss

[Rabrrrrrr]

13. Thanks!

You, too!!

[Dover]

9. I love their reverance for beauty...

something we here in the U.S. just don't quite 'get'. I would love to immerse myself in their culture for awhile. The only drawback might be the cultural attitudes toward women and that whole "shame" thing.

[Don_G]

11. Not Their Modern Culture

But their architecture, furniture, art, metalworking and general "make do for less" attitude until Perry arrived.

[testing123]

12. I love Japanese food and I was also dumped

Because I am not Japanese.

Sounds strange huh....it's the truth.

[Az]

14. My avatar should make my position clear

Met my GF of 10 years because of Japanese culture (we met at an anime fest). I worked for a Japanese company until it was bought out 3 years ago. Still work for the company that bought them.

The Japanese are a very interesting culture to study. But it is not a place I have any desire to live. My stay there showed me why they are so interesting to study. Their society is so incredibely oppressive that the extremes of human nature tend to squeeze out the ends. Thus you have extremes of sublime to perversity.

[Kagemusha]

16. My girlfriend and I met from shared interests just like that too.

We've been a couple for a long while and hopefully now that my career's settling (hers isn't) the stage's set for some permanence. She doesn't want to live in japan either. I can live with that.

[Az]

17. Trust me

Its much more interesting to be entertained from Japan by afar. There is a saying in Japan. The nail that stands up gets hammered down. I am 6' tall with long blonde hair. I stand up where ever I go.

Space is another consideration. There is none. Buildings crammed on top of buildings. Alleys inches wide.

Then there is the culture. It is dying. The social path Japan is on has left its culture behind. Shrines and tourism still preserve some of it but it is not the place it once was.

[Insider]

15. moving to japan next month

(okinawa) i HOPE i'm gonna like it! that'll be home for about 2 years

[Az]

19. It depends on your personality

I am far too much of an extrovert to survive Japan. My excesses would be far to outside the social expectation.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

34. Insider! You're gonna stay in touch, right?

RIGHT???

[Insider]

36. DU goes everywhere!

can't imagine being without it :D

[Hammie]

18. No

I've spent about a year there off and on, including a 6 month stint in beautiful Sagamihara. There is alot of cool things to do and see in Japan, but I wouldn't want to live there.

Almost all of my Japanese colleagues that have been on extended duty in the US have indicated that they would prefer to live in the US to living in Japan.

Your mileage may vary

[Az]

22. A story

When I started working for a Japanese company I was replacing a Japanese worker who was slated to go back to Japan. 2 weeks before he was to return he disappeared. It was getting touchy towards the end but we found him eventually. Turns out he was running around trying to find another job (unheard of for a Japanese worker, you do not leave the company). He was trying to stay in the states. He was bundled up, put on the plane and sent back to Japan.

When I visited the company HQ in Japan I met him again. He asked me how I was enjoying Japan and I said it was interesting but I was looking forward to seeing the States again (the cramped conditions were wearing on me). I then asked him if he was glad to be back in Japan. He got a very nervous look about his face and while glancing around said "No comment".

[ElectroPrincess]

20. You wouldn't be so thrilled to spend 3 years in Okinawa

In Okinawa, Japan, the average citizen is "pissed" that the US Marine Corps has bases and thousands of grunts on their island. They, like the South Koreans, have a love-hate relationship with Americans. Women, in general are submissive and opressed. Damn, I didn't fit in with the Japanese culture. No dislike but it's not my dance. ;)

On Edit: Oh boy Insider, if you're like most Marines, you'll be chompping at the bit to get back to the good ole' USA. I've lived on mainland japan for a year also. It's not a cordial place for assertive women. That's why I adore the hispanic culture of mostly demonstrative expression, i.e., let it all hang out. :-)

[Az]

23. The Gender issue is about the crack Japan wide open

IMO. This is the next thing about to slam into Japan. Women are beginning to exert their will a bit more and the oppression is ready to burst. Old school men are losing way to newer generations. The coming social revolution is likely to do serious damage to their economy as well. Japan is going to be interesting in the worst possible way for a while. IMHO.

[GoBlue]

24. NO, spent some time their once and they treat

women like shit.

[ElectroPrincess]

25. I concur ...

trust me please, I don't want to be a spoiler. Japan has a beautiful culture and the people are quite dignified. However (and this is a big "however"), women are, and will continue to be, second class citizens. American women will not change these gals, it's honorable to serve men.

That's why it's hilarious when the "machismo type" Marines marry submissive but highly intelligent Japanese women. Many of them divorce their husbands (who many married for their submissiveness) after a year or two back in the States. Why? They've had a taste of freedom and want to enjoy it with a man who genuinely respects them for more than good housekeeping. :P

[Az]

26. Change is coming

And in the stilted societal structure in Japan change brings chaos.

[tjwash]

27. That's starting to change....

...big time. I have a lot of Japanese friends, who come out and stay with us here all the time, and the "submissive Japanese females" are definitely last generation, and not the norm anymore.

[Az]

29. Definately

I have a friend that is a translator. She has an old school friend that would visit our office every once in a while. She seemed to live in constant fear that she would say something that a male might take offense to. Thats over. But of course there will be resistance to change. This is the natural progress of things. The social upheaval and economic alterations of the women freeing themself will hit hard.

[tjwash]

30. Resistance to change Is a lot like the Iron Curtain syndrome.

The people from the eastern bloc countries who grew up with big brother taking care of them, want that system back right now, however, the younger westernized generation wants it the way they have it now.

Same in Japan. It takes about a generation to change attitudes.

[Dover]

31. I've heard many Japanese women like American men

because, for the most part, they are treated much better. Of course I'm not talking about the insecure men who NEED a submissive woman.

[mitchum]

32. Fuck no! Their modern popular culture is even more banal than ours.

I'd rather go to hell than Tokyo.

[SOteric]

35. Hai! So Desu Ka!

[BigMcLargehuge]

37. yep

same here.

[Donkeyboy75]

39. Freakingly over polite.

But I loved the time (2 days) I spent there.

[ElectroPrincess]

40. Yes, they're sooo polite ...

If you're traveling and need directions, never ask a question of a Japanese person that requires only a "yes" or "no" answer. Ummm ... like "We're looking for gate 26 is it this way?" Response: "Yes!"

Every "yes" or "no" question is responded to zealously as "YES!"

LOL

[Lydia Leftcoast]

41. I'm an assertive woman, and I love going to Japan

I guess it's because I speak the language and lived there as a student and have lots of friends.

By the way, a lot of the "submissiveness" of Japanese women is just an act. Sometimes American men who marry Japanese women in the hope of finding a slave are surprised at just how unslavelike they are.

I've been fascinated with East Asia all my life, and the moment I landed in Japan, I loved it, crowded conditions and all. Not uncritically, of course. I could recite a list of its faults even more detailed than the faults already listed here.

However, there is just something attractive about the place, and I would love to find way to live there again.

The traditional culture is not being lost, but rather the nation is evolving, just as all nations evolve. The fact that Japanese people mostly don't wear kimono anymore doesn't mean that they've lost their culture any more than the fct that we no longer where hoopskirts and powdered wigs means that we've lost ours.

Here's my essay discussing Tokyo:
http://www.newcolonist.com/underappreciated.html