japan is fucked up!

tl;rs,str (too long; read some, skimmed the rest)

My favorite moment of tone-deafness:

I think, in general, the Japanese seem to be comfortable stereotyping and being stereotyped.

His rant is right on most of the facts but lacks all perspective. A lot of his trouble seems to lie in the fact that he lives, works and plays in Tokyo despite admitting trouble dealing with noise, crowds and confusion. He really should move elsewhere, and not to Osaka either. Smaller (but still big) Japanese cities offer almost everything you can get in Tokyo (minus the bleeding edge cultural stuff) and are much more comfortable to deal with on a daily basis. He should look for a transfer to Sapporo or Kobe or Kyoto.

Most Westerners I met in Japan who had similar complaints were under the misapprehension that their home country was somehow welcoming to foreigners, or at least much easier for people coming from other cultures to get used to.

A major challenge to most Westerners living in Japan is dealing with the ongoing culture shock -- some of which can be overcome in a few months by learning a bit of the language and getting used to managing independently in new circumstances, but much of which persists as an irreconcilably different view of human nature and social interaction. Japanese culture is generally quite successful by Western standards (public transport, education, food and culture, commerce, etc) -- it's hard to see how American culture and habits taken as a whole would make life better on balance in a city the size of Tokyo. So it's hard to dismiss Japanese culture completely (despite the Kotaku writer's valiant attempt), which takes away the unhappy traveler's best defense -- believing that the locals are backward, benighted people who've yet to see the light of the American Way.

Every semi-naturalized gaijin has a long list of experiences that are psychologically jarring, whenever something Japanese strikes them as jarring or incongruous or intolerable on a personal level. Unless the matter can be written off completely as crazy or racist or stupid or "fucked up", the gaijin has to consider the unpleasant possibility that the problem is with his/her reaction to the situation, and not the cultural differences themselves.

Which leads to a lot of pointless ranting...

Long been recognized that cultural norms are widely divergent between cultures. Another thing to carry one set of norms inside oneself and live inside a completely different set. Gives some insight into sociopaths, I suppose.

maybe it's because i'm in a "punk" mood since this morning after watching "The Tomorrow Show: Punk & New Wave' trailer" on youtube but i found parts of article interesting . (not the parts that complain about meat and smoke, as it was noted, or not finishing soups or something.)

i lol'd at the assholish equation "the Japanese have distilled "social life" to a point where it is literally a part of work" = poor state of the economy/ low birth rate. keep on keeping society in check, punk rocker :-)

the screaming in circle thing was new to me. the way he puts it , it is sort of creepy.

also nu2me : screaming nonsense in a megaphone to give a certain overdrive ambiance in a store = lol'd.

"I once met a hardcore Japanese punk rock dude who brought up his own out-creeped-ness with the semantics of Japanese customary greetings completely independent of my input." would have liked to hear more from that guy.

... punk rawk!

would have liked to hear more from that guy.

Would have liked to hear more from any of the Japanese people the Kotaku author dealt with to see what they really think of him!

It's quite clear they thought he should smoke more and eat more bacon.

i can't believe tim rogers is still getting paid to write

Long been recognized that cultural norms are widely divergent between cultures. Another thing to carry one set of norms inside oneself and live inside a completely different set. Gives some insight into sociopaths, I suppose.

So fucking OTM

Kind of like people who stay on messageboards they vehemently complain about day in day out...

http://scarletjohanson.info/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/lost_in_translation.jpg
ilx is fucked up

lol:

Maybe you know the story about how Gran Turismo got started because Kazunori Yamauchi, on his first day in the Sony Computer Entertainment offices, wrote out a sample game design idea consisting only of the words "I want to drive my car on my television."

― noted schloar (dyao), Thursday, 4 March 2010 05:06 (18 hours ago) Bookmark

this is one of the funniest things i've ever read. i don't know why.

http://singularityhub.com/2010/10/20/this-rocking-lead-singer-is-a-3d-hologram-video/

trippy vid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhHo6CUq4-o

At first I assumed it was male, but now I'm not so sure.

http://achewood.com/index.php?date=03242005

i always feel a little sad now when i read earlier, funnier achewood

Communicate with Shiri? Is this going to be in the next iPhone?

"Shiri, where is the nearest train station?"
*left cheek twitches*

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2013/jun/14/eyeball-licking-fetish-japanese-teenagers-sick

Tokyo FAP Wednesday who's in

me!
wait i'm not in japan yet

No panty Shabu Shabu FTW

calstars u in japan?

Sadly, no. I only go there to see the wife's family for a week at a time every year.

You?

in october, waiting for working visa approval. will live in atsugi city.

Sadly, no. I only go there to see the wife's family for a week at a time every year.

You?

― calstars, Wednesday, July 29, 2015 2:17 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this will be me soonish

dylannn, i guess you'll be hitting up yokohama to keep yourself from getting bored?

supposedly tokyo is easier to reach on odawara line
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odaky%C5%AB_Odawara_Line
but yokohama is reached on same line + transfer at machida

or roughly same time from hon-atsugi to shinjuku as hon-atsugi to yokohama

Good idea to study up on getting around ahead of time

i dunno, hope so. before i moved to guangzhzou i thought i had carefully like researched it and knew what i needed to know about the city and getting around and then i basically started from scratch when i got there as i never had any idea where i was without baidu maps. but i managed a daily commute from the most distant suburb without much pain so i hope i can manage the same from kanagawa->shinjuku.

forgot if railway has english options for purchasing tickets.

regular trains within the city do, for sure. worst case, it'll be like matching up cards from the map up top to the bottom screen where you buy your fare

under the impression that: chinese literacy but will never figure out native readings of kanji + being able to read hiragana katakana + still developing c conversational japanese ... it'll be awkward but fine to get around

unlike my china experience though i have no particular fascination w or romantic vision? of the country and know maybe a bit about japan but not that much. i dunno.

kanji is such a bitch. you'll see romaji at train stations, but i'd probably carry with me the kanji of the stops i need with their equivalent romaji just in case. some of the train staff can guide you a bit if all else fails. just show them the kanji of the stop you need to go to and they should be able to point you to the right direction.

wouldn't hurt to learn stuff like hidari and migi. my girl taught me this silly mnemonic. "just think of H&M". hidari means left, migi means right.

now that i remember, when i took the osaka to tokyo shinkansen i saw no romaji for the most part

Yeah. Very limited romaji. Add in the truly labyrinthine maps hung on the wall above the ticket machines (bring your glasses if you wear them) and the throng of thousands of salary men and office ladies trying to get to work, and you've got one bewildering, overwhelming experience.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-34581340

as my country voted for a more "hip" prime minister, i read this in the news today and think what the need is to involve fashion to attract supporters.

this is by no means a japan thing, but i've noticed it more in japan. there is a tendency to take on a western "style" of any type of art form, whether it's music, fashion, dance, or "attitude" and "fashionise" it -- i know that's not a word. they copy a style purely for its aesthetic reasons and on the rare occasion that they do delve into studying its meaning, they come up with the most vacuous and oversimplified things. a lot of it is due to their interpreting of individual western cultures as a huge, single oversimplified culture, and another is basing their opinions on hollywood/movie, advertising, etc., stereotypes that feed into their distorted view.

this happens with north americans' interpretation of japanese culture, as well, of course. but it seems like north americans are trying a little harder to break that barrier because we seem to favour open, blunt, honest discussions in classrooms and in open spaces readily. the japanese are surely adopting this stance but at a very slow rate. what makes this a little difficult is the whole tatemae/honne and an image-conscious society.

there are many things i love about japan, but this is not one of them. and in ways, it is contentious, because it's like arguing who the real punks were, where you have some that went against it as a fashion movement, and those who in 1977 were in the business of making punk a fashion "statement." it's tricky.

maybe i'm missing some key element or i'm misreading the protests don't seem vastly different in attempt at "attention to style, slick visual productions and media savvy" and attempt at a tidy overall aesthetic than umbrella movement protests in hong kong but compared to hong kong, japan has limited historical political turmoil and limited political engagement among young people... you end up with slick visual production and people milling around in shibuya while listening to records? again, maybe my lack of knowledge of contemporary japan is the issue but it just looks like a more low stakes version of the hk protests.

flying to tokyo tomorrow btw

nice! good luck and have fun, man! keep us posted.

i will, i will.
i'd still like to know what you think of character or more the aesthetic of umbrella movement vs. recent japan student protests. maybe i should go to shibuya and have a look.

food is good.

http://imgur.com/O1UddgK.jpg

that's where i live

Lovely! Where you at?

kanagawa, suburbs, forty minutes from shibuya

shinjuku i mean, on odakyu line

Very nice
What are you doing there?

i will, i will.
i'd still like to know what you think of character or more the aesthetic of umbrella movement vs. recent japan student protests. maybe i should go to shibuya and have a look.

― dylannn, Friday, October 23, 2015 11:55 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

just read this.

i didn't know what umbrella movement was but had a quick read on the web.

i don't know anything about hk. does it have a history of large political demonstrations?

from what i understand, japan doesn't usually have major political protests, and nothing big since i've been following their politics loosely in the last few years. after ww2, the anpo opposition movement was, i want to say, the largest demonstration.

there was a point after the protests where passiveness became a kind of hallmark of japanese "activism," which actually was a reaction to ww2, from what i've read. this shifted to an apolitical attitude and a kind of "it is what it is" stance. and only recently has activism been increasing.

if you want a reference point, i would compare it to those hippies at vancouver protests that don't even know the details of what's going on, they just shout back phrases and are there to hang out and dance, and that's all they think they have to do. it's more of a party where people are not aware of the details of the cause/movement they're supporting. i think this is how i interpreted what went on at the protest i linked to above. obviously this is definitely not unique to japan. but i think foreigners are calling for a more active role in politics over there, and it is slowly changing. i've watched interviews of passersby over there, and they do seem to be interested in changing their politics, but they're not doing much to challenge the status quo.

if you go to shibuya, it's just a massive, super busy fashion center. when i got there i kind of wanted to leave soon. in that regard, i guess the protesters are trying to "disrupt" or "inconvenience" people, but i don't know if this will win people over.

i will go to shibuya to have a look maybe -- the news is covering four things today: 1 car flipped over in nagoya, a building in hokkaido is tilting or sinking, u.s. ships floated past an artificial island claimed by china, protests against a u.s. military base in okinawa reclaiming land.

and i'm not really doing anything here. my girlfriend is working and i am accompanying her.

i'm going to get off at yoyogi walk around towards harajuku... end in shibuya. i'll see what i can see. any other tips, friends?

if you had told me in advance that Japan and Sweden would be outliers in the quality of their response to covid-19 I would have said "sure, makes sense" but I would have assumed the opposite of what actually went down.

Among other headlines you wouldn’t expect about japan

Low-tech Japan challenged in working from home amid pandemic

maybe this will finally cure them of fax machines

And hanko! Nice though they are.

https://newrepublic.com/article/160595/new-yorker-japan-rent-family-fabricated

Thanks, good article

decided to do a (long) thread on nazis in anime/manga lol

major tw for nazi imagery, pedophilia, and antisemitism. pic.twitter.com/rhjaSTiBBT

— ube bebe race reveal party (@VlVlISM) April 20, 2021

Some of this is pretty shocking. I've seen a lot of back and forth about what Attack On Titan is really doing but I don't know.

Thanks for linking

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/08/18/drink-alcohol-japan-urges-young-people/

they should hire Viz as consultants for their national "drink more booze, kids" ad campaign

This is a bad idea

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/03/business/tiny-apartments-tokyo.html

The times really seems to have a handle on this theme

i lived in a tiny apartment. the bed was in a loft accessed by a ladder. the loft ceiling was too low to make love in many positions, nothing more elevated than a modified froggy style. to avoid climbing down, it was best to begin and finish in the living room / dining room / everything room.

tokyo is affordable. you don't need to live like this. it is fun for a while.