Japanese Culture

[SeijiSensei]

TOKYO — A Japanese court on Wednesday ruled that the country’s failure to recognize same-sex marriages was unconstitutional, a landmark decision that could be an important step toward legalizing the unions across the nation.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/17/w...-marriage.html

[AnimeFan188]

Japanese Company Offers Paid Leave for Employees Grieving Over
Their Favorite Idol's Retirement

"Some companies are made by otaku, for otaku. The copywriting company Hiroro, inc.
recently made waves on Twitter when its president Itaru Tsurumi declared that the
company will offer paid leave for idol fans in grief when their favorite idol graduates (i.e.
retires) or gets married."

See:

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/int...rement/.170957

[Honeysuckle]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2JdpOhMly4&t=0s

[Garr]

Even in ancient times, the Japanese already had factories called water scoop mills which were used to power hammers in forge mills, saws in sawmills, stamps in stamp mills used for mining, and to make wool textiles in fullers, and pottery in pottery mills:

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The Japanese already had cannon-armed ironclad battleships called Atakebune during the 1500s:

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[SeijiSensei]

35 Japanese gadgets

https://travelerdoor.com/2020/06/14/japanese/

My favorite might be the doki-doki bra.

Japanese lingerie creator Ravijour created a smart bra AKA True Love Tester to gauge whether a woman is really in love. If she is, then it unfastens, if she’s not, then he remains unsaddled for another day.

The smart bra has sensors determining the woman’s heart rate. The maker explains that when a person is in love, the brain relays the message through an increased rate of breathing, heart rate, and perspiration. Love, much like sexual arousal, gives women an instant boost in excitement.

[Infinite Zenith]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

35 Japanese gadgets

https://travelerdoor.com/2020/06/14/japanese/

My favorite might be the doki-doki bra.

Some of those inventions were seen in Steven Chow's Forbidden City Cop (the shirt with a grid back, and broom shoes). For me, the glow-in-the-dark toilet is a winner

[SeijiSensei]

Lovely travelogue of sakura season in Kyoto this year. It's nearly an hour long, so I only watched the first twenty minutes until I was overcome by a surfeit of blossoms. Nearly every scene highlights the exquisite aesthetic sense of the Japanese when it comes to gardens and nature.

YouTube

https://youtu.be/JNZoW149nA0

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[Cosmic Eagle]

Meanwhile it's been raining non-stop in Sapporo region so it's a front seat to dripping wet sakura and fallen petals all over. Also the temperature plummeted to zero once. In May..... .___.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Japan's country towns were dying, then Covid happened

YouTube

https://youtu.be/csBr5pO_Gfk

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Japan has long been suffering a chronic population decline, a trend that has led to the abandonment of scores of rural villages. Nationwide, 13 per cent of all homes are listed as abandoned.

But the coronavirus pandemic may have started changing this. Fed up with the stress of urban living, some families are opting to go back into the country, to enjoy a slower pace of life, and to return to the basics that many have taken for granted.

For three straight months in the middle of 2020, the number of people leaving Tokyo exceeded arrivals for the first time since 2013. The increased need to work-from-home, as a result of the pandemic, has also shown that it's possible to work from anywhere, as long as one has a computer and a reliable internet connection.

VICE Asia (Nov 12, 2020)

[SeijiSensei]

Interesting, but I wonder if the focus on couples with one Western partner makes this story unrepresentative of native Japanese families. I understand the choice given that Vice makes shows for Western audiences.

Did most people in Japan experience the Touhaku quake as the life-changing experience it seems to be for these people?

[TinyRedLeaf]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

Interesting, but I wonder if the focus on couples with one Western partner makes this story unrepresentative of native Japanese families. I understand the choice given that Vice makes shows for Western audiences.

I'm under the impression that it's mainly foreigners who are spearheading the return to the countryside. I had the privilege of interviewing Alex Kerr on a similar subject in 2020, during the height of the first wave of coronavirus infections. My focus at the time was more on what it means to pursue sustainable tourism, in the light of the impact of pandemic on the industry.

In the course of researching his work prior to the interview, I found that once he managed to restore the first few homes in the countryside, more families started moving in.

In short, what you need are pioneers to start the ball rolling. My guess is that the average Japanese is risk-averse, and it would take a fair bit of persuasion before they would take the plunge.

[Cosmic Eagle]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

In short, what you need are pioneers to start the ball rolling. My guess is that the average Japanese is risk-averse, and it would take a fair bit of persuasion before they would take the plunge.

Non-Tokyo Japanese claim Tokyo is great to visit but hellish to live in though. So it's not like locals actually like Tokyo. If the jobs all dispersed to elsewhere, you can be sure everyone else would follow. Seriously, the stupid high rent for crap quality tiny housing alone is a major turn off

[BWTraveller]

Tried looking up the term and didn't find it, so sorry if this's been addressed, but I've always wondered about the concept of "Mono no Aware". I understand the general idea, of finding beauty in the ephemerality of things, but I don't entirely get it. Partly I guess because I see beauty more in the fight against said ephemerality rather than said ephemerality itself. In people fighting to preserve that which may easily fade, in people giving their all to make love work and last for their entire life and maybe beyond, and also in losses that are guaranteed to return once more, like the knowledge that everything that seemed to have died in fall and winter will be back and full of life in a few months.. At the very least, I wonder where it's applied and where it isn't. Are there things that the Japanese don't view as temporary and beautiful in that lack of permanence?

[c933103]

Originally Posted by Cosmic Eagle

Non-Tokyo Japanese claim Tokyo is great to visit but hellish to live in though. So it's not like locals actually like Tokyo. If the jobs all dispersed to elsewhere, you can be sure everyone else would follow. Seriously, the stupid high rent for crap quality tiny housing alone is a major turn off

Sometimes I think that's an excuse or envy.

[Guardian Enzo]

Originally Posted by Cosmic Eagle

Non-Tokyo Japanese claim Tokyo is great to visit but hellish to live in though. So it's not like locals actually like Tokyo. If the jobs all dispersed to elsewhere, you can be sure everyone else would follow. Seriously, the stupid high rent for crap quality tiny housing alone is a major turn off

Compared to every major city I've lived in outside Japan, rents in Tokyo are ludicrously cheap. And housing is mostly tiny in every Japanese city.

The truth is most Japanese who live in Tokyo love to bitch about it and would be horrified at the idea of living anywhere else.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Originally Posted by BWTraveller

Tried looking up the term and didn't find it, so sorry if this's been addressed, but I've always wondered about the concept of "Mono no Aware". I understand the general idea, of finding beauty in the ephemerality of things, but I don't entirely get it. Partly I guess because I see beauty more in the fight against said ephemerality rather than said ephemerality itself.

You've got it backwards.

It's precisely because of the ephemerality of life that one should strive to make the most of it.

Mono no aware doesn't mean you simply accept that all things must end. It means that, knowing that all things will end, you shouldn't waste what little time you do have. The concept, from how I understand it, doesn't stand on its own. It needs to be also understood, for example, with the concept of gaman, that is, "to endure".

Because when you understand and accept that all things are temporary, you'll also realise that no matter how bad things might get, even that will pass. You just have to hang on and not give up.

So, from that perspective, it's not fundamentally different from the point of view you prefer, which is to fight to prolong or preserve whatever it is you value.

The crucial point is of this life philosophy is to recognise that it's human vanity that compels us to make a moment last for as long as we can. All things must end, but it doesn't mean that we have to roll over and face death with a whimper. It means that, even when we recognise the futility in rebelling against our ultimate fate, we'd do it anyway, and we'd sure as hell celebrate the struggle every step of the way, because it's in our nature to do so.

[SeijiSensei]

Japan is the home of judo, and the 19th-century martial art is sure to get more attention at home than any other sport at next year’s Tokyo Olympics.

But it’s also drawing unwanted scrutiny over widespread allegations of violence, and accompanying injuries, abuse, and more than 100 deaths in Japan over the last several decades attributed to judo and its military-like training methods.

Michel Brousse, an expert on judo in France and elsewhere, believes the problems are so serious that there is “no future for judo” in Japan unless they get addressed soon.

“No other country in the world has so many injuries,” Brousse said in a telephone interview.

One problem is that judo teachers in Japan tend to be good at judo, but not at dealing with the physical and psychological needs of youngsters, said Brousse, a seventh-degree black belt who recently retired from teaching at Bordeaux University.

https://apnews.com/article/judo-toky...535857739e1791

By the way, the figures on deaths exclude private dojos which are not required to report.

Then today we have this:

https://twitter.com/Olympics/status/...493816839?s=19

Rather humiliating for the host country, I would think.

[SeijiSensei]

The ponytail is gone. I guess the wedding is still on.

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/202...311461000.html

BTW, the Washington Post has an interesting story about the decline of the yakuza, but I suspect it's paywalled. Here's the URL:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...b90_story.html

[AnimeFan188]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

The ponytail is gone. I guess the wedding is still on.

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/202...311461000.html

BTW, the Washington Post has an interesting story about the decline of the yakuza, but I suspect it's paywalled. Here's the URL:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...b90_story.html

Paywalled for me. Fortunately this link wasn't (at least for me):

https://www.postguam.com/entertainme...83f8fff91.html

[SeijiSensei]

I laughed to see that an article about the yakuza is in the Entertainment section at postguam.