A question for Americans/Canadians...

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I've been very fond of Japanese culture for years. Everything about it is so appealing to me. Since I was in junior high, I've made visiting Japan one of my top goals in life.

I have a neutral opinion on it. I'd probably like it more if I wasn't constantly bombarded with anime by American Japanophiles. No one can draw anything these days that doesn't have huge eyes and pointy hair. I think the traditional culture is interesting though.

some disconnected jejune thoughts-

i grew up with japanese culture filtered through a partially americanized japanese person in the form of my late mother, who was from a tiny town called fukui. i ate some japanese food although i couldn't stomach anything with suction cups or anything raw, or hot radishes- but i ate most everything else of a japanese flavor, especially seaweed. i love japanese junk food, the colorful and joyous packaging with happy faces on it, makes me smile, and their [largely] msg-infused savoriness makes my stomach smile as well.

when i was younger we'd drive up to seattle to visit uwajimayas, a large japanese department store which was where i saw my first VCR [1973], and had my first taste of nicumanju [steamed dough meat-pocket sandwhiches]- very tasty. speaking of VCRs [am old enough to remember when that was gee-whiz cutting edge tech] i believe japan is about 10 years ahead of us technology-wise- they had by-gawd bonafide dick tracy watches a decade ago, and we still don't have that technology here. some of their cars have electronic noise cancellation, a technology which still is missing here. they sell actual laser-phonographs [called the ELP Laser Turntable] for playing old-fashioned phonographic LP recordings- Gawd, i want one of those!! ! [but they cost as much as a toyota ]

they have a hare-kuyo [shinto needle shrine] for old and broken sewing machine needles, where temple priests venerate the needles which rest in vats of soft warm tofu, in gratitude for their years of service to their owners. when i first read about that, i cried fat tears. they designate certain of their emeritus population, as "living national treasures" for having uniquely anachronistic cultural talents which tie today's japan with its past. i get the impression the elderly there are treated with more respect, than is the case this side of the pond.
the defense language institute deems japanese to be a "level-5 difficulty" language which even native speakers sometimes stumble-over. my mother tried to teach me some but i was too slow and dense to learn any of it. i wish i were smarter, as it is a fascinating language. their culture is far more earthy than american culture, at least until recently. i remember as a child 4 decades back, leafing through some of my late mother's japanese magazines and being shocked at the nudity and body function jokes/cartoons inside. the strict social hierarchy would be something i'd have trouble negotiating without frequent slip-ups, like knowing exactly how far to bow to somebody socially senior to me, for example.

they have universal health care with absolutely no controversy, theirs is a far more communitarian culture than our own, to our detriment. obscene american-style CEO salaries are frowned upon, for the most part, and i find that to be an exceptionally decent thing. their public transportation makes our own seem like nothing at all- one doesn't need a car at all in japan. they are a tiny piece of real estate crowded with 127 million folk, elbow to elbow but still peaceable and orderly. they ingeniously created land out of the sea, to make more living space, and there are plans afoot to build underfoot [literally] subterranean living spaces carved out of the rock 100s of feet underground. i believe their crowding has forced them to be clever on multiple fronts.

i wish i could visit there. but i wouldn't feel comfortable without a japanese-speaking guide, as the only allowance they make for non-japanese speakers are signs printed in romanji [japanese expressed alphabetically]. without a guide i'd be totally lost.
please forgive the bulky verbiage.

I thought so, too, until I saw it firsthand. Now I am no fan of either.

I won't really answer the question, because for me that could be a twenty-page essay, but I will say that I have always found great beauty in aspects of its culture: the language (though I only find it to sound beautiful when spoken by a woman) and the concept of "mono no aware," in particular. I also do not care for the freneticness that is so pervasive in aspects of their modern culture.

auntblabby: The healthcare system leaves a bit to be desired, but the fact that anyone can afford to go to the doctor when they need to is just fantastic and so worth it. How I worry about my own healthcare now that I'm back in the States. >_<

I know that the Japanese are very resourceful with what they have being on an island, also they are big fans of baseball.
That's about it for what I know right off the bat.
-edit- I just realized I made an unintentional pun.

Last edited by Brainfre3ze_93 on 13 May 2011, 7:44 am, edited 1 time in total.

then kindly remember to punish via the polling place, any politician who opposes universal health care. there are many things america could learn from japan, and their universal health care system surely tops the list of things we should be taking notes on and further studying.

One of the topics that I think (from my limited understanding of Japanese culture) would be interesting to look into would be the differences not in the education system itself, but more on the different levels of importance that Americans place on schooling vs. Japanese people. I'm not sure what part of the country you live in, but I live in the south. I think that less than half of the people in my graduating class even applied to college, much less went to a major university. It's interesting to note how little American parents push their children to achieve in the required schooling, much less a higher education.

Another interesting difference I've noted is the different roles social drinking plays. I have heard that drinking among businessmen from cooperating companies is a sign of trust and is a necessary "must do" for Americans who are considering working with most Asian countries. I would say that Americans view drinking in any sort of job-related context negatively. There are obvious exceptions of course, most of which revolve around celebrations, but it would be a topic of interest to look into.

Another topic on that same note would be the emphasis on "team building" activities in Japan. I hear that members of a company are expected to go out and do social events together, such as karaoke. Actually, it'd be really interesting to look into the social views on public singing. An average American male, for the most part, would not willingly stand up and sing karaoke without some very strong incentive. Publicly singing is viewed as Americans to be (in most social situations) incredibly embarassing. Again, there are exceptions, such as singing happy birthday, the national anthem, hymns in church, etc. Even singing along to the radio in one's car is something that should be done only among close friends and family members, and is seen more as an annoyance to the fellow passengers than a pass-time.

Wholeheartedly agreed.

Welcome back Kaybee

I should just say in regards to your conversation

NHS FTW

Well, we settled WWII enough to not go into that much. My grandfather was in the army air corps at Guadalcanal (though that didn't keep him from being handed a rifle and sent to the trenches around the airfield sometimes), so he had a bias against the Japanese and gave us a bit of a cold shoulder for a while for associating with Japanese foreign exchange students. Most of the foreign exchange students were pretty cool. They worked hard and studied hard and weren't arrogant about it like Hispanics and some other Asian groups get. The vast majority of them stayed out of any kind of trouble. No matter how small. They were also impressed by how we did everything big, huge stores, big houses and cars, huge freeways and infrastructure, get them away from the cities and they were really impressed by our landscape. I once knew a couple of teenagers that thought my family was a bunch of criminals when they found out my parents owned guns, and that took a lot of explaining. The most curious thing was that they would NEVER get caught dead running late, where here, a set time to be somewhere is frequently interpreted as a suggestion.

The traditional culture seems like it would be pretty easy to learn since all the social rules are pretty well stated compared to other cultures. Japanese pop culture is extremely baffling to me though and I don't think I'll ever figure that out. I don't understand why they continue to be so strict about guns still. There are no more samurai fighting by traditional honor codes with swords and there are no more peasants to keep oppressed, no more statist emperors to oppress people, and Japan is one of the last countries that would ever need strict gun laws. The Japanese people have remained unbelievably civil in the disaster despite bureaucratic incompetence. About the only thing to criticize them for is that learning disabilities are stigmatized and special education is not funded or utilized as much as it should due to stigma.

The globe portion is only true if 95% of Americans are using a globe of Venus.