Land of the Rising Sun

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I noticed while reading people's intros that quite a lot of us have an interest in the country of Japan. I merely wanted to create this thread so that people could talk a bit about their experiences in Japan and other stuff like that.

Me, i personally have never been to Japan, but i have family that used to live there (my aunt once removed on my father's side, and her daughter [my cousin]). Now they live with my uncle in Boulder, CO, but they still travel back to Japan every so often to keep their citizenship. Usually on their return i'll beg them for a souvenir

That's all i have to say. take it away.

Roxas

I am trying to come up with a clever Kingdom Hearts reference, and I am failing miserably! But yes, I would agree, a number of us seem to like Japan or it's culture. I love video games (specifically RPGs), anime, manga, etc. Maybe Japan holds the key to figuring it all out.... KEY! I MADE THE JOKE

Ha ha. Maybe you should consider something besides stand-up comedy for your career...

Just kidding, that is funny. And you do have a point. Which makes me wonder... how many aspies do you think live in Japan?

Interesting...I just joined and am trying to get a feel for the comm here..anyway I'm writing this from Japan. I'm sitting at my LaVie laptop in my tatami room in Hikawa cho, on the island of Kyushu.

I've often wondered about the obsession many people have with Japan. Having come here, I've gotten over my unrealistic ideas about it, but there are other aspects of it that I like a great deal. However I tend to think that a lot of the fascination with Japan, the otaku culture, the tendency of people to use kawaii smileys (^_~) and the like are more expressions of the idealization of a distant, largely unknown culture. That is, we have a lot of the anime and manga that come to the states, and some of the music, and some of the clothes, and an insane amount of kanji tattoos that their owners cannot read, but I'm not sure this equates to people really knowing a lot about Japan.

Having said that, it isn't that I think having an interest in Japan is in itself a bad thing, or something I sit around scoffing at while eating hamburgers and fries, or whatever--but I do think that some of the interest is less to do with the Japan that actually exists, and more with the Japan that is marketed to us as an idea, and most especially, as an idea of something that is physically far away, psychologically different, and which thus offers an opportunity of escape. I've observed that many of the people who come to Japan and then remain for a long time seem to be running away from something in their lives, or trying to run away from something in themselves. Alas for them, this does not actually work.

I can't say that this is all true, or a blanket statement about all people in either Japan or other countries--I do think you're likely to find a bit of these things in everyone, but I'm sure there are many other reasons for the interest and the desire to come to this side of the world aside from, "Japan will make me happy and fill this hole in my life," though I suspect you will also find people who fall neatly into that category.

i haven't noticed the "man, im gonna go to japan to run away". people could just go to canada and not have to bother with the language and the cost of the trip if they wanted to do that..

but for me, i want to go to japan for several reasons:

1. My ancestors are from japan (well atleast one side of them)
2. I think Japanese culture is the best... shamisen, geisha, taiko drums, gigantic festivals, tea ceremony etc.
3. The language makes more sense than English, imo.
4. My two biggest likes are from japan: videogames and anime (and manga).
5. A lot of people find a lot of the Japanese antics to be 'f*****g crazy' like playing pranks on people using the porta-pottys or '21 leg' races but i find it to be fascinating and a source of pride.

Well, as in most cases there is a wide spectrum of people wanting to go to Japan. I suggest you take a mosey over to deviantart.com and boggle at the wide variety of people drawing in the anime/manga style, and consider the reasons. When I was a kid, of course I was the only person in my entire frigging school who had an interest in anime and manga; now it's everywhere. So there is a sort of subculture, especially on the internet but also among people in a certain age- and interest-range, that has developed recently and has less to do with Japan and more to do with the idealization of Japan.

But yeah, the realities of the culture kick the illusions' asses any day. Taiko is made of *awesome*, tea ceremony is beautiful and strangely meditative--not a big fan of the geisha thing or in general the Japanese attitude toward women, but the hair and clothes are terrific, and of course the videogames and popular culture can keep a person occupied for thousands of years. The only reason I don't own a Wii is because I'm waiting to get back to the states (hoping they will be in supply) before I buy one.

As far as the going to Canada thing--what I mean is, Japan seems to people to be far away. More than simply in a geographical sense, it occupies a space in the minds of many westerners, and within our culture in general, as being representative of what is "other". It's like Orientalism, back in the 1900s--people constructed a view of a world which was more true to their imagining of what it was than to the real thing. This happens; it isn't that different from the attitude many Japanese people have to westerners. So people in western cultures construct an idea in their own minds and through a shared mental structure created by the various subcultures contained within the larger one, they latch on to that.

However it makes me wonder, why Japan? Why not China or Korea? Or why not India? In the end, I just don't have enough information to answer that question, but I'll posit a theory (or hypothesis if you prefer ^_^): Japan captured the imagination of America and the west in the 80s by becoming an economic powerhouse fueled by sheer dedication to the principals of work before pleasure and the need to save money (people in Japan even now have a cultural prohibition against frivolously spending money, or so I've heard) which forced this relatively unknown and wildly different culture into the spotlight, allowing people to marvel at all the things in it which were different. Try watching the movie "Brazil" and think about what the samurai in the film represents--Terry Gilliam himself said that the use of a Japanese cultural icon was due largely to the association at the time of Japan with almost frighteningly advanced and powerful technology. Thus we were presented with a culture wholly different from anything we could understand, and which persisted in being different.

Arrgh this is too long. Long story short--Japan looked different and is different. To this day although there have been many superficial adaptations of western- culture and ideas, Japan remains at its heart and core fundamentally *Japanese.* Westerners can sense this, and for some people it comes to represent in their life an idealized realm that is vastly and wildly different from their own world, which they've come to reject. Is this true for me? Probably to some degree. But I've been lucky to discover that this idealization is a gateway to a larger understanding of a culture and people far more varied and wonderful than anything any idealization on my part could conjure up. Japan will always be a part of my life.