Anyone have a fascination with certain world regions?

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My second girlfriend was Korean.

Tim

Although not a 'Stan, Mongolia is culturally related to Central Asia. The only real difference is that Mongolia is predominantly Buddhist, while the 'Stans are predominantly Muslim. The Mongolian language has a vertical alphabet, but has officially used the Cyrillic alphabet since the 1920s.

The Uighur people of Northwestern China are also culturally related to the 'Stans.

Also, while on the other side of the Caucasus, Azerbaijan is culturally similar, but more secular. The former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan should not be confused with a province in Iran with the same name. Also, Tajikistan uses a language related to Persian, while the other 'Stans use languages related to Turkish.

Besides Turkish, the Kazakh, Turkmen, Uzbek, and Kyrgyz languages have the following "relatives": Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian, Mongolian, Uighur, and possibly even Korean and Japanese.

Also, I am focusing mainly on the former Soviet 'Stans--not so much Afghanistan or Pakistan (which, except for being predominantly Muslim, is almost identical to India).

Tim

Come to think of it, I have always had a mild fascination with the nomadic "horse people" of the mongolian steppes. I saw a documentary about them once, and ever since have sort of wished I lived there.

My cousin had a one-year stint in Afghanistan doing support staff work for Halliburton. He had a layover in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and he said that Bibles were confiscated, and there were prostitutes in the hotel concierges.

Uzbekistan is very secular, despite having a president named Islam Karimov.

I like the ex-leader of Kyrgyzstan, Askar Akayev. He looks like a "Central Asian Danny DeVito". Becauss of the way his head is shaped, I call him Egghead. Not as interesting as Turkmenbashi, but still very noteworthy.

Tim

Wow, Tim, that's impressive, Your vast knowledge of the 'Stans has me interested in them now!

Also, as for your anime-loving cousins... awesome. The world needs more anime fans.

Thanks!

Tim

The Swiss Alps

I am interested in learning about Shinto a little bit more.

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

This is Okami's doing that makes me more interested.

That does have a lot to do with my interest in Japan, as the Shinto belief was a big part of the people's lives at the time. The people's thoughts and beliefs have everything to do with society at the time, and Medieval Japanese society is probably my favorite.

Are you interested in any Japanese literature? It can be kind of difficult to understand sometimes, (just look at Genji; none of the characters are referred to by name, and it ends mid-sentence,) but it gives you a good understanding of how people of the time lived and felt. If you're interested, PM me and I can give you some links.

I have a fascination with all regions, though there are some I might forget.

i can become obsessed with almost anything

i'll be looking up buddhism one second and reading about toothpick processing the next

The moon's backside (that's a 'world,' isn't it?)

The British Isles.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. And it's so much better with the internet available, than when I was in high school and had to rely on sketchy/outdated atlases/fact books.

I am just very much intrigued by geography in general. I'll investigate a particular region for a period, and then move on. I also love looking out the windows of planes and identifying geographical features of the U.S. It actually gives me butterflies.

i used to have a big obsession with finland

never ever got to visit the place though

Great Britian