Japanese Culture

[Rajura]

Originally Posted by Orizuru

Hi. That's my first post here, so Yorosiku onegaisimasu



I think it is the best idea you go to the festivals you wanna see.But you might as well avoid going in the summer....because Japanese summer is very hot and humid.

Being from Mobile, Alabama originally, hot and humid is the norm, so not an issue for me. Hahaha!

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Rajura

Being from Mobile, Alabama originally, hot and humid is the norm, so not an issue for me. Hahaha!

Aye, if you're used to being outside on the Gulf Coast in summer - its not a problem. If you spend all your time moving from air-conditioned bubble to bubble like many do anymore.... it could be a problem

[SeijiSensei]

Slashdot is carrying this story about a new line of Japanese vending machines that display different beverage choices depending on the machine's guess about the customer's age and sex. I'm also impressed that these machines contain 47" touch screens! That's bigger than my TV. Unless prices for touch screens have collapsed, the screen alone must cost a few hundred dollars.

Story is here.

When they pan across the bottles around 0:45 into the video, there's a product called "Pocari Sweat"! Just want I'd want to drink on a hot day; how about you? How come all the products in that frame have English names?

[Vexx]

English is "cool" .... yes, the Japanese still think that. Pocari Sweat has been around a long time though... I've had it, it is "ok".

[Ansalem]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

When they pan across the bottles around 0:45 into the video, there's a product called "Pocari Sweat"! Just want I'd want to drink on a hot day; how about you?

It's a sports drink and tastes...I guess like one of the gatorades or powerades with words like "arctic" in the name. But I'd agree, not the most appetizing sounding beverage for English speakers.

Actually one of my favorite everyday differences in Japan were the drink vending machines. So many options instead of 5 sodas and water. Most have soda, water, juice, sports drinks, multiple teas and coffees, energy drinks, and chocolate beverage; different varieties and combinations depending on the machine.

This innovation is certainly interesting if not particularly necessary. :3

[Samari]

Originally Posted by Vexx

English is "cool" .... yes, the Japanese still think that. Pocari Sweat has been around a long time though... I've had it, it is "ok".

Same here.

[FDW]

Originally Posted by Samari

Same here.

I've been meaning to try it sometime.

[sergho]

Is there a problem in Japan of younger male teachers seducing their female students?

I mean more so than the US or Great Britain.

[JMvS]

Originally Posted by Ansalem

It's a sports drink and tastes...I guess like one of the gatorades or powerades with words like "arctic" in the name. But I'd agree, not the most appetizing sounding beverage for English speakers.

Actually one of my favorite everyday differences in Japan were the drink vending machines. So many options instead of 5 sodas and water. Most have soda, water, juice, sports drinks, multiple teas and coffees, energy drinks, and chocolate beverage; different varieties and combinations depending on the machine.

This innovation is certainly interesting if not particularly necessary. :3

Pocari sweat is ok, despite it's weird sounding name.

And I agree for the vending machines, I particularly enjoyed those last time I visited Japan, as in many places, especially those seeing a lot of traffic you can have up to half a dozen different machines, serving from hot cans to soft drinks cups of with ice.

[Tri-ring]

Concerning vending machines, you haven't seen half of the weird thing sold from those machine.

The most bizarre is hot Oden in a can sold from a vending machine, there are also hot oshiruko, hot corn portage and hot miso soup all sold in cans.
Beside food there are various things sold from those machines.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by sergho

Is there a problem in Japan of younger male teachers seducing their female students?

I mean more so than the US or Great Britain.

Short answer is "no". It may be that the japanese press pumps up such stories more than US/UK (thought that is hard to imagine). The US press seems to get really worked up over "shotacon" incidents (female teachers seducing young males)... but somehow the news people seem to be drooling at those stories (whereas they'd go pedo-pervert all over a guy teacher in that situation). There's a double standard and both standards actually suck.

But look at it this way, you're 23/24 and you're teaching young women who are 17/18. You're only 5 or 6 years apart in age and the women are basically adults. It is actually amazing it doesn't happen MORE often. Same goes for female teachers with male students with that age gap.

[sergho]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Short answer is "no". It may be that the japanese press pumps up such stories more than US/UK (thought that is hard to imagine). The US press seems to get really worked up over "shotacon" incidents (female teachers seducing young males)... but somehow the news people seem to be drooling at those stories (whereas they'd go pedo-pervert all over a guy teacher in that situation). There's a double standard and both standards actually suck.

But look at it this way, you're 23/24 and you're teaching young women who are 17/18. You're only 5 or 6 years apart in age and the women are basically adults. It is actually amazing it doesn't happen MORE often. Same goes for female teachers with male students with that age gap.

If some 30 year old school teacher had sex with me when I was 13 and I met her on the streets today...

I'd get down on my knees and thank her.

There is a double standard. You're unlikely to hear about female teachers seducing male students.

[Rajura]

Originally Posted by Tri-ring

Concerning vending machines, you haven't seen half of the weird thing sold from those machine.

The most bizarre is hot Oden in a can sold from a vending machine, there are also hot oshiruko, hot corn portage and hot miso soup all sold in cans.
Beside food there are various things sold from those machines.

Well, the weirdest thing I've ever heard of being sold out of a vending machine was told to me by a friend. While he was in Beijing, he saw a vending machine selling used underpants. SO GROSS!!!

[Autumn Demon]

Posters on Tokyo subways to promote good manners from 1976-82.

[mindovermatter]

Originally Posted by Rajura

Well, the weirdest thing I've ever heard of being sold out of a vending machine was told to me by a friend. While he was in Beijing, he saw a vending machine selling used underpants. SO GROSS!!!

I was told that these are also available in Akhiabra, in the shadier part of town

[ChainLegacy]

Originally Posted by Autumn Demon

Posters on Tokyo subways to promote good manners from 1976-82.

I'm loving these things, thanks for posting them. So weird but I feel like they might work just because they catch your eye.

[sergho]

I wonder if Japanese women have a reputation for being mysterious.

In western culture there is a thing called woman's intuition. It refers to a woman's ability to make the right guess.

Is there such a thing in Japanese culture?

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by sergho

I wonder if Japanese women have a reputation for being mysterious.

In western culture there is a thing called woman's intuition. It refers to a woman's ability to make the right guess.

Is there such a thing in Japanese culture?

All women are confusing and mysterious to men -- how they react varies from culture to culture. "Women's intuition" .... wow, I haven't heard that used in decades so I'd say that's a dead meme even in Western culture (except in some retrograde quarters perhaps). I've not come across any such specific idea in Japanese cultural studies... only that women and men have different focus in spiritual energies (somewhat like 'yin-yang' ideas).


On another topic, Japanese architecture -

A Zen Buddhist hall in Nara is the oldest wooden structure still in use and a century older than famed Horyuji temple previously thought to hold the crown, according to an expert in tree-ring dating.
Research by Takumi Mitsutani, a visiting professor of dendrochronology at the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature in Kyoto, reveals that Japanese cypress wood in the roof of the Zenshitsu (zen room) building of Gangoji temple was logged around 586.
Mitsutani argues that his findings indicate that the structure of the hall was made 100 years before Horyuji temple in Ikaruga, Nara Prefecture, hitherto thought the world's oldest, which was built between the late seventh and eighth centuries.
Gangoji, formerly Asukadera temple in Asuka, Nara Prefecture, is thought to have been relocated to Nara after the city became Japan's capital in 710. It had previously been thought that it was newly built in the new location from about 718, but Mitsutani says his research indicates the structure of the Zenshitsu was brought from the Asuka site.

The rest of the article is at http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201008150113.html

[Tri-ring]

Originally Posted by sergho

I wonder if Japanese women have a reputation for being mysterious.

In western culture there is a thing called woman's intuition. It refers to a woman's ability to make the right guess.

Is there such a thing in Japanese culture?

Yup it's called "onna no kan" meaning woman's intuition but I think it is used in a more narrow sense used when female thinks a male is cheating.

Ex.
Female A; I think your boy friend is cheating on you.
Female B; Impossible, why do you make such assertions?
Female A; Onna no kan.

[sergho]

Originally Posted by Tri-ring

Yup it's called "onna no kan" meaning woman's intuition but I think it is used in a more narrow sense used when female thinks a male is cheating.

Ex.
Female A; I think your boy friend is cheating on you.
Female B; Impossible, why do you make such assertions?
Female A; Onna no kan.

Women's intuition is used for the same thing in the west. But not just for cheating mates.

If women's intuition is in many cultures across the globe, maybe there is something to it?