Is Japan such a magical place?

plums said:

Pon Pon Video

Is it bad I actually sort of like that song?

It is a country like every other country. That what makes them apear like a speciality is their media and the stereotypes. They have vivid and giant amounts of sub-cultures all blending in for the weekend.

You can never judge a country pure by its media. What western anime fans see is what they want, the magazine, the media, and the anime.
some stereotypes are almost racist because a lot of people never care to investigate what the truth is.

japan : rank 6 in the peace index.
http://www.visionofhumanity.org/#/page/indexes/global-peace-index

edits ; i am on a caffeine forum and game hunt, excuse the typos.

Yes, Japan is magical. It has pink bunnies, rainbows, everyone is always smiling, the sun is always shining, and tentacles.

I don't know about Japan being magical, but onsens absolutely are.

printz said:

all the inherent inconveniences (stores closed early etc.)

Very wrong, bigger cities in Japan are full of 24h super markets and restaurants. Even normal store close very late, although they do open late as well. Makes sense when you consider how long days they work.

Stygian said:

Japan has a serious problem with a declining birth rate. I've heard estimates that its population will have shrunk by 1/3 by 2050. Their workforce is aging rapidly and I believe their national debt is unrivaled even by Greece ($10.46 trillion USD). Young people aren't making better wages than their parents and often continue to live with their families well into their twenties. Also, rising demand for western food is destroying their local farming industry. In short, things are looking bad for "Glorious Nippon".

Japan does have a massive national debt, but it's mostly from domestic creditors so their situation isn't comparable to PIGS. Living with families varies on where you live, and obviously people who move elsewhere to study have to move anyway. Property values in Tokyo, for example, have been decreasing as new and bigger apartment complexes that can house more people are being built. Also, you can't really use that as a negative since living with your family is a very cultural thing. Just look at Italy.

Woolie Wool said:

Do you really think a 45-year-old bank manager in Nagoya with three children would watch Elfen Lied, or if he did, would ever admit to such a thing?

Two words: Rozen Aso.

Sodaholic said:

They're incredibly stubborn even if it brings their downfall (ie Sega of Japan making terrible decisions and not even entertaining the notion that they could be bad).

That's related to the cultural concept of losing face, which isn't unique to Japan. In Japan it's considered extremely rude to tell your superiors that they have done something wrong because you're basically shaming them. If a top executive in a Japanese company makes a decision, he's unlikely to ever fall back on that not because he's stubborn, but because of the perceived shame and losing of face that he'd experience from admitting having been wrong. This is, obviously, a very unhealthy concept in the modern world where things happen and change much faster, and hopefully Japan (and any other countries where this concept still lives) can get rid of it eventually.



Re Japs are racist: Having spent about five months there, I have to say I've yet to see any kind of racism. There's definitely a certain degree of xenophobia involved, especially among older people, but there are also some incredibly awesome oldtimers there as well. I'm convinced that most stories about "racist" Japanese people have involved either the far right lunatics, or the gaijins in question have somehow broken the Japanese cultural norms. They are fairly strict about that, but then again, when in Rome... And as anyone who's been travelling probably knows, there are still some pigs around who think that just because they're bringing foreign money to this country they're allowed to do whatever they want. Well, turns out that the Japanese don't take as kindly to that as Thais whose livelihood depends on tourism do...

Yes, Japan is magical. Nowhere else in the world will you find these:

http://softypapa.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/img_5842.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Picture_Vespa.jpg

http://www.incrediblethings.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Japanese-Giant-Hornet.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_giant_hornet

Those are huge! So are their stingers.

In addition to the concept of losing face, Japan seems to compartmentalize just about everything. Yes, you can find ultra-high-tech toilets, but you're only likely to see them if you go to the camera store. Everywhere else will have a cheaper, simpler toilet, or even a squat toilet. Protip: the handicap stall is more likely to have a western toilet.

Compartmentalization and the notion of never shaming superiors/elders probably leads to the instances of curiously low-tech business practices mentioned in the Cracked article. Who wants to tell the company founder you need to computerize everything? He didn't need it!

My friend and I found the issue with the trains frustrating. Why do they have to close all of them just after midnight? There was clearly stuff to see and do, but taxis are expensive.

We didn't experience racism directed at us either. However, we did see places with "no gaijin" signs. Those were generally in more rural areas with older people who were probably unused to foreigners. That's still not a very big issue. Most of the racism you hear about is similar to the systemic discrimination against ethnic Koreans who have lived there for generations. Old people accustomed to foreigners seemed happy to see us. The guy manning the counter at the MOS Burger next to our hotel in Tokyo was a standout example. He had pretty good English too.

tl;dr: Japan is different and the same. It's interesting to visit, and though it's not truly magical, being able to drink beer from vending machines is magical. :D

Jodwin said:
Two words: Rozen Aso.

http://www.darkmirage.com/2008/09/23/rozen-aso-is-the-prime-minister/

to my knowledge and many magazines, manga are read by a very broad spectrum of ages. i mean c'mon, there simply are things KIDS are not allowed to see.

RUSH said:

Yes, Japan is magical. Nowhere else in the world will you find these:

http://softypapa.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/img_5842.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Picture_Vespa.jpg

http://www.incrediblethings.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Japanese-Giant-Hornet.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_giant_hornet

This honestly has me pretty fucking scared. Please exterminate species, k thanks.

Jodwin said:

That's related to the cultural concept of losing face, which isn't unique to Japan. In Japan it's considered extremely rude to tell your superiors that they have done something wrong because you're basically shaming them.

I still consider avoiding shame a form of stubborness. Regardless of their reason, their refusal to admit that they should change course in the face of trouble is, well, stubborn.

Jodwin said:

I'm convinced that most stories about "racist" Japanese people have involved either the far right lunatics, or the gaijins in question have somehow broken the Japanese cultural norms.

I was just going off of stories that I've heard where Americans that try to make a living there are treated as second class citizens by default. I don't know how true or untrue that is.

Clonehunter said:

This honestly has me pretty fucking scared. Please exterminate species, k thanks.

Not if they're vital to the ecosystem.

Sodaholic said:

I still consider avoiding shame a form of stubborness. Regardless of their reason, their refusal to admit that they should change course in the face of trouble is, well, stubborn.

This is a cultural pathology we still spend a lot of time (rhetorically) beating out of people in the West. Drive me crazy.

Sodaholic said:

I was just going off of stories that I've heard where Americans that try to make a living there are treated as second class citizens by default. I don't know how true or untrue that is.

According to an expat we met in Japan, you can only get a job in Japan as a foreigner if you can do something they can't. This is why most people who move to Japan for a time end up teaching English. He was employed teaching Japanese executives how to better communicate with the American divisions of their companies.

Sodaholic said:

Not if they're vital to the ecosystem.

Not even if they're not. Bug-eating bugs are a good thing for people. Let them be.

Japan is pretty normal. Like China, it is stuck in both the 19th and 21st centuries at the same time. Most extreme opinions about Japan (good or bad) come from people who don't really have a deep experience with the country. I have lived here since I was at high school (mid 20s now) and have assimilated enough to have an idea of what people are really thinking.

Relationships here are based on mutual obligation, which is something a lot of gaijin get burned by when they realize that people are doing things for them only because they feel like they "have to". That's where the "Japanese are fake" meme comes from. I was really happy when I understood this because sending the right social signals is the only way to get people to really chill out and accept you as a real friend instead of their gaijin buddy.

Anyway, the country is a lot of fun. It's good for tourists if you have a reasonable amount of money, as service all around is great and it's really safe and clean. The food is great as well.

The otaku thing is totally true. Kids and adults alike read manga, and people often have action figures and other goods from their favorites.

If you can get certified Level N1 in the Japanese language test, it opens a lot of doors for you in terms of employment. Otherwise you will be stuck teaching English. Frustration stemming from that is why a lot of people think Japanese hate foreigners.

If there is anything else you would like to know, just ask. lol

Oh, so they must've meant you as Mr. T earlier. I was thinking the black guy lived in Japan.

The wasp sitting on the end of the guy's finger is actually kind of cute. It's just so big and cranky-looking that it stops being a bug and just starts being some kind of organic robot thing.

And I'm terrified of wasps.

But then again, it'd probably be a different story with the thing flying around the room erratically and making loud-ass nasty buzzing noises.