Does anybody here like anything about Japanese culture besides anime? Nobody really talks about much else, so I was just wondering. Personally, I hate Japan for some of the things they have done. I enjoy anime but I wish it was anything but Japanese. The more you learn about the Japanese and their history the more you'll dislike it. I'm pretty sure I won't even watch anime anymore if I hear anything else about Nanking or crazy deathcamps.

The Japanese culture fucking owns you. Here is a small list why:

• Perfection is not optional. Talk all you want about the Japanese stealing technology or whatever, but the fact is that whatever they take, they make it better, cheaper, and faster. There is none of that lazy-ass, "I can be a dumbass and the government will support me" shit going on. Every single person is under an almost personal obligation to bring honor to one's family and ancestors, even if that person is not religious.
  
  Want more proof? I was walking around some parks, and look at what even the homeless do for themselves. Yeah, how many New York bums living in cardboard boxes do you see have fucking doors?
• Food/Diet is Healthier. Rice and vegetables are the #1 food group in Japan, rather than Big Macs and fries. I was over there for almost five months and bummed around Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe, Tokyo, and Hiroshima. In all that time, how many fat (non-Western) people did I see? Four. What is more is that all the vegetables and such are cooked in such a manner as to be 100% delicious. I am not a vegetable man in the States, but over there? Fan-fucking-tastic. My favorite dish ever is Okonomiyaki, and its prime ingredients include potatoes and cabbage. Outside of Japan, I refused to even touch cabbage for decades.
• The women are hotter. This pretty much speaks for itself. Sure, you will occasionally see those crazy-ass buck-tooth girls on pictures and TV, but those are definitely not the norm and are generally better than the 60% of hideously obese American women you see everywhere in any case.
• Transit System. You have no fucking clue how hard it was coming back to the States and having to actually have a car to get to places. The Japanese transit system is lightyears ahead of the US, it gets you within walking distance of practically anywhere you want to go, and actual Japanese-speaking knowledge is almost irrelevant (it's color-coded).
• Crime? What crime? There are things like petty theft and those sort of things, sure. But violent crime? Outside of the Yakuza and other criminal syndicates, violent crime is almost unheard of. Across the board, Japan has eight times less crime per capita (e.g. it's lower population accounted for) than the US. Just think about this little factoid the next time you walk to your car: you are eight times more likely to get jacked than if you were in a land of beautiful babes, great food, a train system so you wouldn't be wasting $10,000 on something that will be worth $1000 five years from now.

It is not all flowers and sunshine, sure. But I definitely brought quite a few gripes with me on the 14-hour plane ride back over.

As for the WW2 shit, let it go. If you wanna talk about atrocities, let us talk about my senior thesis on the unpunished Crime Against Humanity that was the atomic bombing of Japan and the strategic bombing campaigns in general. People were hung in Japan, the emperor knocked off his god-pedestal, and the US president that allowed a nuclear bomb to be detonated in the center of a civilian city got... famous? In the newspapers? Curtis LeMay, the mastermind behind the firebombing of Tokyo, freely admitted that he would have been charged with war crimes if the US lost. What, do winners never commit war crimes?

Japan had 60+ years of culture after that fact which did not at all involve the slaughter of innocent civilians, the occupation of foreign countries, or any other embarrassing international incidents. Which is more than most countries can say for themselves (other than, ironically, Germany).

They do support the Kyoto Protocol, and that's awesome. I wish the U.S. would sign it, but we're dumb asses...

It doesnt actually do anything and China is exempt. So bullocks on your papers.

Cheap electronics are sometimes nice. Red Raven would have you believe they are beter than what American companies could put out, and thats not true at all. I would know because my parents fix them for a living.

Too bad they cant figure out a way to make a cheaper PS3.

__________________
I am the only person to have successfully made a bomb out of a woodcutting axe.

Mayday: Never Forget
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One word. Samurai.

-NS

old school Samurai movies are the shit

I also watch J-dramas (japanese tv series in general)
and japanese movies (i say this because i watch the movies that arent based on anime)
japanese music (rock, hip hop, pop)
history
other culture (you know... the lifestyle, norms, and viewpoints)
food
sights (tokyo tower, osaka castle, etc)
technology (bullet trains, and all that other sweet shit)

Japans atrocities in history do not deter me from liking their culture, and their people. America is just as bad if not worse..

i <3 japan

also i'll spends countless hours on youtube watching videos of breakdance crews from japan, korea, france, etc. so i guess that sorta counts.


Theres a lot to like about japan...

I'm going for two months starting in July. it'll be my second trip there, i cant wait!

Ummm... samurai flics, crazy weapons, martial arts, weird anime porn.....

Other than that I think their culture sucks, and anything new in Japan is probably a ripoff of something American. J-pop is sometimes good but still, American is better.

Edit: I forgot Godzilla, sushi, and video games.

Bleh, I forgot all about movies. Zatoichi is a great series.

__________________
I am the only person to have successfully made a bomb out of a woodcutting axe.

Mayday: Never Forget
09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0

I don't know if you guys can just state your opinion on Japan truly, because you haven't had the whole experience. I wouldn't want to base my like/ love for a country based on anime, electronics, or war crimes. I don't want to sound condescending or superior but I think you should actually live there before you make assumptions about a country.

Anyway, as for myself, I think Japan is an alright place but I wouldn't want to live in the city. I found the country to be a much nicer place. I didn't like how people followed all the rules when it was dumb to do so. I remember there being a skinny one way street that no one would cross because the signal was red (but the street was empty!) Also, their love of boy/girl bands makes me cry on the inside. School lunch is very cheap, very filling, and very healthy. I would walk about 1.5 miles to and from school and only rode in a car every other weekend.

Based on appearances of health, society, and animation ability, you could say that Japan is superior to many other countries but there's lots of things that turned me off. Overall, though, I had pretty nice time in Japan. I'm probably just exaggerating a little because (in my mind) you guys don't know much more than you could read from a book, forum, or newspaper article. It's the whole experience that counts, I suppose.

Done and done.