Everybody loves Japan

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Ever read Kimi ni Todoke?

Dear god, I hope not. If that's what the world is coming to, I want off. Talk about sensory overload! Modern Japanese culture is very non-friendly toward the sensory integrationally-challenged. Then there's the inanity of many of their amusements.

Modern JAPANESE MEGALOPOLIS (*cough* Tokyo *cough*) culture.

Frequently, people fail to realize that there is more to Japan than anime, manga, cross-dressing, and Tokyo.

Go somewhere nice and snowy in Hokkaido, or down into the relaxing beaches of Okinawa.

It's like assuming everyone in the United States is like people in New York City; or everyone in France is like the citizens of Paris.

They're not.

Aside from the food, girls, anime and such...


its the fact that in their society it is the norm to simply ignore people around you. Hence, your awkwardness is mentally blocked PLUS you being a foreigner means you're forgiven for any weirdness or social mishap.

its quite relaxing to be in that environment.

Trust me, I'm aware. Even those areas are touched by what I referenced.

There are a lot a thing about Japan I find interesting, but I think the reason is, that they are even more focused on details than I am. In DK I'm seen as a bit weird, when I have to do things a surtain way for them to be right, In Japan, that is more or less the norm.

You're right about that, but try living here a while. You'll start to see that as a downfall. I have seen people get hit by bikes in the street, collapse on train floors and be physically assaulted in public and no one even stops to help. It's pretty scary to think about what might happen if the worst happened to you.

I have lived here for 5 years and I find it very cold. The people are not warm and friendly and are downright rude in public. The only reason I stay here is because I enjoy my routine, you don't have to drive to get around, things are generally convenient, and I don't feel like such a weirdo here. I'm a foreigner so automatically weird. Those are the good points. But Japan is certainly no pleasure cruise for an Aspie.

That's where Super Mario originated... and Pokemon too! And they had a special event in McDonald's for Pokemon Black/White! You don't see that happening in McDonald's here. Also, anime, but I don't watch it much.

It's one of the countries I want to visit for a week or two.

I lived for about 6 months in Tokyo and spent a month traveling through different cities.

Its funny that you mention that you've lived 'here' for 5 years... and your profile puts you in Osaka....I found Osaka and Kyoto to have the rudest people I've ever met... Kyoto being the worst and Osaka just being cold shouldered... in all other cities I spent time in I found the people to be very polite and outwardly friendly.

If you dont mind me asking... how did you get to live there?

Actually, they weren't.

Actually, they were. I've been various to various places in Japan, from Tokyo to middle-of-nowhere farming towns. It may not be as bad as in Tokyo, but it is there.

Never been there, but i'd like to go very much.

i'd like to explore the traditional and the new culture in its beautiful and weird glory.

in any case, for me it seems that most of the things you see base somewhat on practicality and effeciency, efficient language and writing systems that base themselves on context rather than loads of different words. Even in the food you can notice the traits of Japanese effeciency.... just look at sushi, onigiri and such.

but mainly I want to learn the language and how to read their writing... it's just one of the things I want to before I die

That's quite an undertaking! I highly encourage it, though. It's a fascinating and beautiful language, though becoming literate requires quite a lot of time and dedication. If you're looking for free resources and are prone to spending time on the computer, I recommend checking out www.renshuu.org. I haven't used it for learning grammar, so I don't know how helpful it is in that regard, but I've found it quite good for learning vocabulary/kanji (and it can be used for their phonetic alphabets as well).

Well, I said "here" cuz we were talking about Japan.

I actually HAVE heard from others that Tokyoites are more polite than Osaka folk. I wonder why...

I decided to work here just on a lark really. I got obsessed with living in Japan, for no reason. Maybe some subconscious desire to get away from myself. I have been to Tokyo once and it was far too crowded for me. I felt anxious the whole time.

I'm Japanese American and I do not like modern Japan very much....dont get me wrong the technology is amazing and there are many many smart people who contribute to all fields from Japan... but as a culture the Japanese are deteriorating into a weird mix of some traditional Japanese traits mixed in with a tsunami of western things and ideas that the Japanese jump on REAL FAST. As a country, its struggling to find its own identity and failing in my opinion...they are like the 14 year old kid who tries so hard to find his/her identity that he or she becomes a a poser for a while, just gathering fads and ideas from other countries and adapting it to themselves. Then again Japans been doing that since the 3rd century with China so its not surprising.

I also speak Japanese fluently in addition to English, my main language, and can write hiragana, katakana and some kanji...its a beautiful language for sure.

anybody ever watch the anime Kochi Kame? it was one of my favorites as a kid along with Doraemon

I just took a class on the Art of Japan, and it just reconfirmed my love for Japan. Basically, the one thing that I think would really draw an Aspie to most Japanese things is their philosophy of the 'austere sublimity'. At the end of the class, the professor asked us to write an essay describing what we liked about Japanese art. Here are some excerpts from my essay [please take note that the essays in this class did not follow the regular 'unbiased'/objective format. She wanted us to be very subjective]:

The most unique thing about some of their art is that it conveys so much meaning without overloading the viewer with too much visual detail. When they hit on the ideas of minimal designs, they do not miss any mark. Their minimal compositions are innovative, and they apply certain aspects to their works that define successful modern graphic design, like the use of ‘white space,’ which may seem bare, but is most certainly charged with energy.

I concluded the essay this way:
All of these works were made centuries ago [please look at Sotatsu's 'Ivy Wall', Jakuchu's 'Mother and Child Gibbon', and the Jinbaori of Mount Fuji], but it can be said that Japanese art was almost the father or founder of minimalist art or minimalist philosophy. Artists like Mondrian, Lewitt, Richard Serra, Carl Andre, Frank Stella, and Vignelli all believe or believed that there needn’t be a visual overload in order to convey a weighted idea. In a conference last year*, Vignelli said that he wanted to strip away a lot of complications and leave behind the skeleton, the basic, fundamental part of the work, for the viewer to see. He said that design is not an embellishment—its about solving problems. This is the major ideal in minimal Japanese art—austere sublimity, or the bare minimum without losing its main function.

We were also required to make a museum visit, describe them to someone who'd never seen them, and finally discuss what drew us to those certain pieces. In the first piece, a vase called Dizzy Shadings, one thing that I wrote was:

My ideology coincides whole-heartedly with Sol Lewitt: the idea drives the machine. To me, the idea behind the work of art is just as important as the actual execution. This is why I can appreciate that Sol Lewitt, for example, had weighty ideas that his hired executed in very simple ways. Even in music, I enjoy musicians such as Philip Glass or Arvo Part. They express very profound messages and thoughts in such a way that the mind is forced to work to understand the meanings.

And my conclusion consisted of:
Overall, this piece shows that subtlety does not mean simplicity. I am even sure that there is probably some parabolic, mathematical equation that someone can find in this.

For the second piece, a particular Japanese robe, I wrote:
Humans naturally find things like Fibonacci or the nautilus shell pleasing to the eye, and Fibonacci actually plays a part in the set up of rooms in Japanese homes...It would only be natural, then, that this reoccurring mathematical aesthetic would show up in the clothing as well (seeing as our bodies follow the Fibonacci proportion aesthetic).

Basically, the reason why a lot of Aspies may be drawn to Japanese things [at least their more traditional things] is because the idea of minimalism, of not expending more 'energy' than is needed, has been so deeply ingrained in many of their traditions. However, there is a paradox in the Japanese tradition. Whereas they love the 'austere sublimity' they also have an obsession with overly cute, overly technological, overly complicated things. Where you find Buddhism, you find Hello Kitty. Where you find One-Stroke paintings, you find manga. And Aspies love paradoxes...Lord knows I do *glances at my user name*. I personally am drawn more to their traditional things than their more modern things.

I got into the Japanese culture about...10 years ago, and it was because of this culture that I eventually became interested in Graphic Design [Japan is one of the moguls of modern design]. It was because of Graphic Design and my natural knack for it that I began discovering more things about myself. It was because I because I began discovering more things about myself that I discovered that I may be an Aspie myself. And it is because of that discovery that I am going through a diagnosis now.

I also speak Japanese, and I can read it for the most part. Over the past 5 or so years, I've lost a lot of my skill because of time constraints and not interacting with people who speak the language, but that will be changing very soon.

*I actually had the opportunity to attend this conference.