Good and Bad things about Japan?

[relentless 254]

The big point alluded to is not just the repression of sexuality in Japan, it's the repression on Female Sexuality that is the issue. There was an entertaining bit on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart that covered how any bit of displayed female sexuality is heavily suppressed (and in cases some people face jail time), where as men have festivals dedicated to blowing up gigantic balloon penises and celebrating their triumph over a demonic vagina with teeth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also, totally off topic but I had to mention this: Lolita is in no way about the "sexualisation of a minor". Whether you consider it to be an allegorical tale about totalitarianism or not, the ultimate focus is placed on the main character Humbert Humbert and his personal struggles, and not just about his sexual adventures with a minor, though many have been lead to interpret it this way. Kind of like how Kafka's Metamorphosis isn't just a story about a guy who wakes up one day and realizes he's a bug.

[nullmoon 784]

men have festivals dedicated to blowing up gigantic balloon penises and celebrating their triumph over a demonic vagina with teeth.

Whut? XD

[relentless 254]

Whut? XD

 

 

 

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

 

 

As for The Daily Show segment, it was on the July 24, 2014 show.

[Peace Heavy mk II 7200]

Has anyone even mentioned a good thing yet? Shumai are awesome.

[JukaForever 758]

Sushi

[nullmoon 784]

Mochi

[Nyasagi 259]

Good things: visual kei, poop toys and accessories, interesting traditional culture, good bdsm porn, many hot guys, people have many interesting ideas for their business (like cat and owl cafes), and things to sell (like poop toys, I mentioned before, square watermelons or bras for men, this is just funny, no other nation has such awkward ideas and this is great xD).

[keyinjpop 89]

I love JRPGs, does that count as a good thing?

 

I like the fact that Japanese has ways of writing; kanji, katakana, hiragana, and romanji. I find this to be very helpful and creative and it helps that some cases like manga and video games, kanji have furigana attached to them so you can pronounce that kana without going through a whole book of kanji.

[hiroki 5521]

 

I like the fact that Japanese has ways of writing; kanji, katakana, hiragana, and romanji. I find this to be very helpful and creative and it helps that some cases like manga and video games, kanji have furigana attached to them so you can pronounce that kana without going through a whole book of kanji.

 

As an aside it's probably interesting to note that the topic of written Japanese has become somewhat of a controversy in Japan in recent years (or decades even), because the poor Japanese kids have to learn THREE different scripts (hiragana, katakana, kanji) in school whereas pretty much all other languages only have a single script. The question is whether it's possible to reduce all writing to just hiragana. Some time ago the government tried this out but it didn't work at all cuz the Japanese people protested that it's impossible to read written Japanese when everything is written in hiragana. Yet it had worked for Korean (everything is written in hangul these days, and hanja - "Chinese characters" which are the Korean analog of Japanese kanji - have become pretty much obsolete), so maybe they'll try it again in future..

[paradoxal 2948]

--

Also, totally off topic but I had to mention this: Lolita is in no way about the "sexualisation of a minor". Whether you consider it to be an allegorical tale about totalitarianism or not, the ultimate focus is placed on the main character Humbert Humbert and his personal struggles, and not just about his sexual adventures with a minor, though many have been lead to interpret it this way. Kind of like how Kafka's Metamorphosis isn't just a story about a guy who wakes up one day and realizes he's a bug.

 

Tbqh Lolita is a brilliant book, thank you for summarizing it efficiently for me. I have read it myself when I was 15 or so, and it definitely belongs among one of the best of English literature.

 

 

Then something on-topic:

The thing that I find to be most disturbing is definitely the work culture. I could never stand working overtime without extra money. 

[JukaForever 758]

How about for job security?