Love Japanese Culture? Want To Live There?

[Reichu]

Elaborate, pls

The Japanese are generally xenophobic and from what I understand they're lagging somewhat in gender issues compared to the US (which is itself lagging compared to some other countries).

But if some good looking gal came up and grabbed my crotch? Awkwardness aside I don't exactly see it as a negative thing.

What a weird world I live in, where people think that sexual assault is okay so long as the perpetrator is attractive. :p

(Okay, yeah, your body and all, but the attitude "everything's alllll reeeeet if she's good-looking" has far-ranging and rather dark cultural effects you probably don't need nor want me to go into.)

[CJD]

What a weird world I live in, where people think that sexual assault is okay so long as the perpetrator is attractive. :p

Well, don't get me wrong I mean I'm not saying this should be law or something, just in my case I wouldn't mind. I mean, if they're attractive then I find them sexually arousing, which means I want them to touch me.

(Okay, yeah, your body and all, but the attitude "everything's alllll reeeeet if she's good-looking" has far-ranging and rather dark cultural effects you probably don't need nor want me to go into.)

Eh I'm not sure I see them. At worst someone who does it might think it's okay, and then do it again to someone else who doesn't like it. But there's no net loss there. Either I was going to get offended and press charges, or the next person was.

[Dream]

When we had taken a trip of over an hour to the other side of Tokyo, they got really antsy when I insisted on staying twenty minutes longer to finish the job in one trip rather than going on time but having to do the whole journey again the next day just to finish up. That twenty minutes was out of their drinking time!.

Woah. Japanese salarymen sure love their drinking, apparently.

As for Japanese society being xenophobic: It's... It's complicated. Opinions vary a lot on this subject but personally all i can say is that it's complicated and you should try to avoid viewing and analyzing the data just from a western perspective. It's also somewhat complicated on the gender issues topic, but overall yeah women do have it rough on some areas, specially when it comes to work culture.

[MisatoCrush]

The crotch grabbing/anus poking was referring to young children doing that.
That is not a thing adults do, at least not more so than aggressive women in any country.

Long working hours: Unless you'd be trying to work at a corporation this wouldn't apply to you. English teachers have it pretty easy. At least that's the case in Korea, but I interviewed that guy about teaching in Japan and he never mentioned oppressive hours for English teachers.

In Korea drinking after work is very common and I'm guessing it's true in Japan too.

I don't think you should feel embarrassed if you can't speak Japanese or you're not knowledgeable about their history. That's just cool stuff you can learn later (history), and the language, well, I didn't realize people on this forum are expected to speak Japanese? ^^
I've lived in Korea almost 3 years and I can barely speak Korean. I get by just fine. Though it does make friendships and dating hard if the girl can't speak any English whatsoever.

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned the beauty of the Japanese people. Japanese women are gorgeous imo.

[A.T. Fish]

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned the beauty of the Japanese people. Japanese women are gorgeous imo.

They are too flat... no but seriously, I don't think they are particularly beautiful, it's also weird how they usually look younger than they are.

[MisatoCrush]

They are too flat...

Well overall I'd agree that most JP women are less endowed than other ethnicities, but there absolutely are JP women with huge breasts. They exist. Naturally.

[Reichu]

Reichu kindly requests that the ethnic fetishism talk be kept to the absolute possible minimum.

[MisatoCrush]

My apologies. But in my defense I wasn't in fetish mode.

[UrsusArctos]

The Japanese are generally xenophobic and from what I understand they're lagging somewhat in gender issues compared to the US (which is itself lagging compared to some other countries).

True, the Japanese are xenophobic, but that xenophobia extends more towards immigrants than to tourists or guests. BrikHaus, for instance, said he was very happy during his stay in Japan, and I know a whole lot of Indian nationalist figures in the early 20th century who were welcomed in Japan. They don't let their xenophobia always make them behave badly - unless they have reasons to hate a particular country. (The Chinese and Koreans are historically acceptable targets to the Japanese public - and the hatred here is mutual given Japan's colonialist, hypernationalist past.)

Gender issues - yes, they're lagging horribly. And it's not merely their attitude in this case - it's their behavior towards women in public that is atrocious.

By the way, CJD, the "sexual assault as the perpetrator is attractive" attitude is neither cool nor funny, it is appalling.

[gatotsu911]

marked as derogatory material  SPOILER: Show

Reichu kindly requests that the ethnic fetishism talk be kept to the absolute possible minimum.

I just find it interesting that the Japanese take more of an interest in pronouncing Latin properly than we do (even though English-speakers, with their extensive phonemic advantage, would have no trouble getting it right).

I guess the lesson is, you have to be subtle about worshipping our glorious Nihonjin overlords

[delispin25]

Reichu kindly requests that the ethnic fetishism talk be kept to the absolute possible minimum.

Don't women of all races have breasts, or am I wrong?
Also, big boobies. Amateur stuff.

[Dream]

Man, poor CJD. He was just trying to make a joke and express a bit of his thoughts/feelings and he gets repeatedly jumped by two admins for it. To be fair i think i understand why they feel the need to do so but still...

And yeah, like Ursus said the issues with Japanese xenophobia (for lack of a better term) comes more with inmigrants wanting to live there rather than guests in general. Basically, they love and respect other cultures and countries, but it's damn near impossible for them to accept anyone other than them as "Japanese" people, so you get cases of foreigners who have lived there for years or decades still being asked things like how long they're planning to stay in Japan. It's fucked-up and insulting if rather innocent (from what i read they genuinely have no idea this might offend an inmigrant) but i guess that's (one aspect of) Japan for ya.

[MisatoCrush]

Similar things happen in Korea.

[CJD]

By the way, CJD, the "sexual assault as the perpetrator is attractive" attitude is neither cool nor funny, it is appalling.

You know what? That's fine by me that you don't find it "cool or funny," because honestly I wasn't trying to impress you or make you laugh. Truth is, I couldn't care less that you find what I think appalling, especially not when gender relations are concerned. Sorry m8, maybe on another issue I'll give a damn.

[MisatoCrush]

Kyoto.

Has anyone visited the thousand year old temples, shrines, and palaces of Kyoto?

I read that during WW2 one of the American politicians who had lived in Japan extensively diverted the nuclear bomb strike away from Kyoto because it would have been such an abominable loss of culture and art.

And my new Japanese friend says that Koreans forgot how to construct their shrines/temples/palaces because they kept it super secret. So they never wrote it down. So now they can't remember how to do it from scratch the authentic way.

But the Japanese wrote everything down meticulously, so they could rebuild their stuff the traditional way if they want to.

Man, if I ever become a super millionaire I would hire the descendants of the master carpenters and artisans to build me a traditional Japanese palace. But in Malibu or Ibiza.

[Catamari]

R1cepurin (a user I know outside of EGF) is currently visiting her sister, in Nara. She's sent me quite a few pictures. I'd like to visit it, sometime.

Also, I want to see Akibahara. Totally not for maid cafes, of course. No no no. On a more serious note, I would love to peruse the electronic parts stalls.

[MisatoCrush]

Also, I want to see Akibahara. Totally not for maid cafes, of course. No no no. On a more serious note, I would love to peruse the electronic parts stalls.

Could you elaborate about Akibahara? What sets it apart from other parts of Japan?

Yeah that would be like, 3 whole days of wandering around the electronics shops and manga/anime shops.

I hear there is also an NGE store somewhere, perhaps with giant statues of Evas?
I'd have to pay homage to the full sized Gundam statue too.

[Catamari]

Could you elaborate about Akibahara? What sets it apart from other parts of Japan?

Yeah that would be like, 3 whole days of wandering around the electronics shops and manga/anime shops.

Ah, you haven't been here, too long. I'm really big into hobby electronics. I love to build things. From what I understand, Akibahara has a lot of store for buying electronics parts. Microchips, capacitors, and the suchlike.

[MisatoCrush]

I love to build things.

Like RC cars and such? : P
That's a hobby I wish I'd gotten into as a kid. Wanted to make Rc cars so bad, but too expensive.

[Baz]

Kyoto. Has anyone visited the thousand year old temples, shrines, and palaces of Kyoto?

I was only there for a day and a half, but I went to Mt. Kurama (the home of the mythical Tengu king) which was great because the path up the mountain had at least a dozen temples and shrines from various points in history.

But the Japanese wrote everything down meticulously, so they could rebuild their stuff the traditional way if they want to.

The world's oldest company is Kongo Gumi, a Japanese construction company that builds Buddhist temples. Perhaps you can get them to do some work for you.