[The Dark Wolf]

Originally Posted by Naren

And, yeah, the people who read porn on trains don't care that the people around them think they are complete and utter losers. They also don't care that it's illegal. But, if one of the board members came to Tokyo for 1 week, I doubt they would see anyone reading porn on the trains within that period.

Unless we were the ones doing it.


(A little more of that sarcasm thing, there. Personally, I'd wait until I at least was off the train, and sitting at the station, before I busted out my porn. )

[Cancer]

Originally Posted by Naren

First of all, anime is not a place to look for info on real culture. Anime is meant to immitate a false reality and oftentimes the futuristic sci-fi world in some animations is meant to mirror a futuristic US culture. Because, Japanese are writing it, Japanese culture is a big part of it. But, because of that: it's like a mixture of American culture, Japanese culture, made up fictional culture, and more stuff. Anime is one of the last places to look for reality. Do you watch "Mickey Mouse" or "Looney Toons" to find out about how dating in the US is?
I don't even need to mention "hentai." That's like watching American rape porn and S&M videos to see what dating is like in the US. I mean, there might be twisted guys who watch extreme Japanese porn and think "Oh, Japanese girls must be like this." or "Japanese guys must be like this." But, you could do the exact same thing for any country and you'd be wrong every time.

Uhhh, forgive me if I didn't CLEARLY communicate that I understood that anime, hentai, and the news, were not accurate representations of your culture.

Since this may take too long to adequately explain in this forum, could you perhaps recommend a good book.

[Naren]

Originally Posted by psyphre

Since this may take too long to adequately explain in this forum, could you perhaps recommend a good book.

Man, that's difficult. I don't think culture can be properly explained through a book and some of the traditional anthropological books I've read on Japanese culture struck me as just plain insulting (such as The Sword and the Chrysanthamum). If I had to recommend a book, it definitely wouldn't be one you'd find in a regular bookstore...

Modern Japanese culture is quick complicated. Traditional elements are still present, but they have faded away quite a bit. This is the type of thing that is hard to learn through a book. What do you want to know? If you want to know how Japanese view things or perceive things, you could read a book on Japanese philosophy, but then you'd get into a lot of stuff you might have no interest in like Shinto philosophy, Buddhist schools of thought, Neo-Confucianism, etc. If you want to know about the "Japanese way of life", you could get a book on "society" or "culture", but then you might get overloaded with that and not have a balance there.

I really can't recommend any books... sorry...

[Cancer]

Originally Posted by Naren

Man, that's difficult. I don't think culture can be properly explained through a book and some of the traditional anthropological books I've read on Japanese culture struck me as just plain insulting (such as The Sword and the Chrysanthamum). If I had to recommend a book, it definitely wouldn't be one you'd find in a regular bookstore...
Modern Japanese culture is quick complicated. Traditional elements are still present, but they have faded away quite a bit. This is the type of thing that is hard to learn through a book. What do you want to know? If you want to know how Japanese view things or perceive things, you could read a book on Japanese philosophy, but then you'd get into a lot of stuff you might have no interest in like Shinto philosophy, Buddhist schools of thought, Neo-Confucianism, etc. If you want to know about the "Japanese way of life", you could get a book on "society" or "culture", but then you might get overloaded with that and not have a balance there.
I really can't recommend any books... sorry...

Perhaps some background would help here....

About a year ago TechTV (before the <sarcasm>Awesomely Great G$Tv</sarcasm> took over) they have some show about an American videogame designer who moved to Japan. He said alot of things about the video game industry, but one thing that always stuck in mind was (and I'm paraphrasing) "If one wants to see the future of the world, one only need to look to Japan, as they truly are the only post-apocalyptic culture presently on Earth....", the show they went into how the cellphone was a dating tool of choice in Japan, with strangers meeting up for sex after text messaging each other...yadda yadda yadda G$TV sucks yadda yadda.

Since I'm one of these bright and cheery souls who believes the world is heading for some kind of major catastrophe that we will no doubt survive, this is all very fascinating to me, and since the survival of humanity depends at least in part (unless we go back to cavemen ways) on human dating and mating, if I can get some glimpse into what the future is like well then ...super.

That and I'm fledgling japanophile who wants the inside track on dating Asian women.....

[The Dark Wolf]

Originally Posted by psyphre

Uhhh, forgive me if I didn't CLEARLY communicate that I understood that anime, hentai, and the news, were not accurate representations of your culture.

Hey guys... I guess you could argue that since he lives there, it's his culture, but that's a bit of a stretch to me, since he's as American as apple pie. I know him. FTR, Naren is a big, strapping white dude. He ain't Japanese! But he does know as much if not more about Japan and such than probably most Japanese people, plus he's totally fluent in Japanese.

I think lots of people get the impression from being on here that you're asian, E.

[Mastodon]

Hmmm...how would one describe american culture?

[The Dark Wolf]

Originally Posted by Mastodon

Hmmm...how would one describe american culture?

Just like Japanese culture...

ONLY BIGGER!!!

[Naren]

Originally Posted by The Dark Wolf

Hey guys... I guess you could argue that since he lives there, it's his culture, but that's a bit of a stretch to me, since he's as American as apple pie. I know him. FTR, Naren is a big, strapping white dude. He ain't Japanese! But he does know as much if not more about Japan and such than probably most Japanese people, plus he's totally fluent in Japanese.
I think lots of people get the impression from being on here that you're asian, E.

Ah, I interpreted that completely different. When he said "Uhhh, forgive me if I didn't CLEARLY communicate that I understood that anime, hentai, and the news, were not accurate representations of your culture." I didn't interpret that as him meaning I was Japanese. I thought he meant "I understood that animation, porno, and the news, are not accurate representations of anyone's culture." I thought the "your culture" was the all-encompassing "you." For example, "History is not a good representation of your culture" (whatever culture that may be). Note: that was just an example.

Yeah, well, if anyone thinks I'm Japanese, all they have to do is look at the "real name:" field next to my post. 100% Caucasian.

Originally Posted by psyphre

Perhaps some background would help here....
About a year ago TechTV (before the <sarcasm>Awesomely Great G$Tv</sarcasm> took over) they have some show about an American videogame designer who moved to Japan. He said alot of things about the video game industry, but one thing that always stuck in mind was (and I'm paraphrasing) "If one wants to see the future of the world, one only need to look to Japan, as they truly are the only post-apocalyptic culture presently on Earth....", the show they went into how the cellphone was a dating tool of choice in Japan, with strangers meeting up for sex after text messaging each other...yadda yadda yadda G$TV sucks yadda yadda.

Cell phones aren't "dating tools." In the US, most people who go to have sex with some complete stranger use some internet website like adultfriendfinder or sexfriends.com or sexsexsexbuddies.org or whatever. In Japan, the internet is not as prevalent as it is in the US, so if someone gets all horny and wants to have sex with some complete stranger, they can do that on their cell phone. That's quite different from dating. I wouldn't say that someone using "adultfriendfinder" to have sex with people is "dating" those people.

And, I work as a translator at a video game company here in Tokyo and you don't see me on shitty TV shows like that, do ya?

[The Dark Wolf]

^ Dude, don't make me sic Godzilla on yo' ass.

[Naren]

Originally Posted by Mastodon

Hmmm...how would one describe american culture?

It would take me over 400 pages to describe American culture, so I won't bother. It's too complicated.

Originally Posted by The Dark Wolf

^ Dude, don't make me sic Godzilla on yo' ass.

Dude, I OWN Godzilla.