General Japanese Culture Thread

Keihanshin region is best region.

Schild und Schwert der Partei

I'm probably the "modern" tourist. I prefer walking the streets of Central for example, than hiking to the buddhas in Hong Kong. I prefer moving along Orchard Road than going to the safari in Singapore. I prefer the Cotai Strip, rather than the area surrounding the ruins of St. Paul's.

If I were to go to Japan, I'd definitely prefer walking the streets of Akihabara than going to the temples/shrines. I've had a lot of experience already of being in an urban area where either most people don't speak English well, or I won't understand their English, so there. LOL

edited 25th Jul '14 1:56:35 AM by entropy13

I'm reading this because it's interesting. I think. Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot, over.

From what I gathered from my friend who went to Japan last year (and is going again this year), those two goals are not necessarily mutually exclusive. The big shrines and temples are a bit out of the way just because they occupy fairly large chunks of land, but a lot of the smaller ones are smack-bang in the middle of the urban areas. Even some of the big ones like Fushimi Inari Taisha have had the urban areas grow up around them.

More so in Kyoto than Tokyo though, but even Tokyo is not immune.

There's actually a fairly major shine located right next to Akihabara — the Kanda Shrine.

As well as Akihabara, I'd also like to visit the Mikasa at Yokosuka^note  And the famous aircraft hotspot Ibraki for the Phantoms and perhaps somewhere quite ordinary, just to see what "everyday" Japan is like.

Keep Rolling On

Akihabara is not all it's cracked up to be, but it's worth going at least once. Most of the big anime shops are pretty boring, all carrying basically the same stuff and mostly from very recent anime. As for electronics, for the general person there is not anything all that exciting. If you are into retro gaming though, I think I remember places where you could buy a lot of old games. Also, as for anime shops, it is generally more fun to go to the ones carrying used goods, but these also exist outside of Akihabara. The Mandarake chain for example is big and has shops in different parts of Japan.

I generally prefer visiting historical sites, old cities, temples, castles etc. when going anywhere, but that's more of a personal preference. If you are going to Japan I would suggest figuring out where some local festivals are taking place (and there is almost always one taking place somewhere), because they are a lot of fun and a great modern-day cultural experience (most of the time people don't know or care too much about why they are having a festival, but the the festival celebration as an act in itself is part of the culture). Just buy you beer at nearby stores, because they are way more expensive if you buy them from the street-vendors. Other than that, do try all the interesting snacks and foods they are selling at the vendors.

While there are plenty of other places one can go for nature experiences (that are likely closer by, depending on your home country) and it's probably not the first priority when going to Japan it should be noted that parts of Japan are also breathtakingly beautiful.

edited 25th Jul '14 3:18:24 AM by mathias

Have you ever visited Ikebukuro or Shibuya? If so, how is it there?

"Please crush me with your heels Esdeath-sama!

When I went to Tokyo, I actually stayed in Ikebukoro at the apartment of some acquaintances, but ironically I don't think I spend much time exploring the area. I remember that we went to see the grave of some Tokugawa near their apartment (again I like historical stuff), but I was completely exhausted since I had just arrived with the night bus from Fukuoka (night bus is the cheapest way to travel in Japan by the way). We did also go to a very good sushi place near their apartment at some point, which was the only time I got really expensive sushi since I didn't pay, but I guess that's about what I remember. As for Shibuya I've been there, but I didn't really do much. So not very informative, sorry.

As an aside, if in Tokyo do try to go to the Tsukiji fish market in the morning (requires the sacrifice that you get up at 5'oclock'ish) where you can get incredibly fresh sashimi from nearby restaurants that have just bought the fish. It's delicious.

Another food related place to visit is the "ramen museum" in Yokohama, not so much because of the food (though it's OK, basically a collection of different specialties from around the country), but because they made a replica of late 50'ies Tokyo in which the various "restaurants" are located. It's very atmospheric.

And just to do a little bit of advocacy for the area in which I lived, Dazaifu which is an old imperial administrative town and which has multiple famous temples is a nice place to visit. It also hosts the Kyuushuu national museum.

edited 26th Jul '14 12:01:13 AM by mathias

Always wanted to go to the local Chinatown in Yokohama, but never got the chance to do so.

Hmmm, I'm not really that kind of tourist. If I were to go to Japan, besides Akiba, I would:

• see the most number of Tokyo subway lines I could ride in a day (and still able to go back at a not-too-late time to the hotel/inn)
• go to Shibuya and Shinjuku
• Shinkansen to the other cities
• bus to the other cities so I can at least experience the highways too (and at least affords me the opportunity to compare to what we have here in terms of transport; there's barely any "subways" here, the trains are still not exactly numerous, nor fast, so it's really just the bus).
• military museum: the Type 10 is arguably the most modern MBT today, although IIRC only one Type 10 is in display because it is new, and most of the displays are still the Type 90.

I wonder if there are still trams in Japan though. Me and my mother rode the tram from mid-HK island to almost to its western end, just because we can. lol Then of course the cable cars, which are certainly plentiful in Japan. That's probably the closest I'd go to the "nature" side of Japan: if there's a cable car system, then I would go. LOL

edited 25th Jul '14 5:02:11 AM by entropy13

I'm reading this because it's interesting. I think. Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot, over.

There are not that many Tram lines left in Japan — most were closed in the 1960s.

Keep Rolling On

You gotta try the MONORAIL, man.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Ah... people-watching outside Ueno is the best of both kinds of touristing: lovely walks to look at with loads of charm, and the "wow: is she really wearing that?" option. (Oh, and for those who are action-orientated: fending off those sodding crows. Dammit, but they're evil buggers).

Seriously: jungle crows make the British ravens I've met look cutesy (even though they're big) and a bit dim. <_<

There are a few trams, but on the very edges of the Tokyo area (i recall a trip a friend of mine took to a neighborhood just called "Kita", or "North", that had such a line where the major rails ended).

I agree about Akiba. What drove me and my friends back there several times were the efforts to find good used figurines relatively cheap. It became an odd obsession amongst the core three of us, to find the characters we wanted at a price that was less than the absolute exorbitant rates wanted for the best figurines new. Slightly damaged nets you a fair bit off as well, like a Witch Yuki Nagato with a slight stain on her skirt, or Panty and Stocking with minor discolorations on Stocking's dress. Also got post-2Y Nami and old-west-themed Robin, plus Santa-Claus Mikuru Asahina and Reina Vance.

Old video games were also a thing. Managed to pick up obscure (but fun) Japan-only Wii game Zangeki No Reginleiv (try it if you like the Earth Defense Force series. Same company, same gameplay, just with a Norse myth theme).

The best thing to venture off the main line for is little restaurants. Cheap little eateries often offering very neat (but not weird) dishes at acceptable prices.

Mmm, were I to ever visit the country I definitely wouldn't mind visiting the Uryu Swamp National Park. I'm a sucker for wetlands and unique geological features. Hell, Hokkaido in general seems like an interesting place to visit to me.

edited 25th Jul '14 9:12:46 AM by carbon-mantis

Always found the time to do both. :)
Wandering through Shibuya and visiting Himeji Castle are both things I enjoy.

Not sure if I can find the place again, but we stayed for a night at a beautiful caldera lake in Hokkaido (I think it's been lake touya) . Including daily fireworks.

Pour y voir clair, il suffit souvent de changer la direction de son regard www.xkcd.com/386/

As to the issues with Women, as noted with the millennials taking over, even the Politicians are beginning to change their tune on women (a push for more child daycare/kindergarten), hell, there was an apology to heckling a female Politician who was speaking on the need to adjust for fairer treatment for women. (Hell, it's basically a core pillar of Abe's third economic arrow to drag the country out of the post Bubble Crash.). That kind of apology was unthinkable even a few years ago.

Now if this is pragmatism or not, who knows, but there is a shifting tide on the treatment of women in Japan.

So it's likely just "old views stick hard, and there was no reason until recently for society writ large to change their tune".

edited 26th Jul '14 12:01:46 PM by PotatoesRock

Which is rather like most Governments really, and the Japanese are especially Conservative when it comes to social change.

Keep Rolling On

So are most, if not all, Asian cultures; I've personally noticed that "liberal" social changes in the Far East typically seem to historically stem from the West; it's known as wàiguó yǐngxiǎng in Chinese.

So it's been constantly mentioned in the Frozen thread in Western Animation that, ironically for a film depicting Western peoples, tropes, stereotypes, and cultures, its most fervent fans consist of the [Asian and Oriental] Japanese nation as a whole to the point where 11 prefectural governors made a video of themselves singing the film's signature-song-that-must-not-be-named and Amazon.jpn was driven to create an entire online store specifically catering to Frozen products. Yet, there's little mention of the Disney film and its impacts here, funnily enough, on the chief Japanese culture thread here on TV Tropes.

I just wanted to read what you people had to say on the subject.

edited 26th Jul '14 5:34:21 PM by FluffyMcChicken

You do know that Disney IS an anime studio in Japan? So talking about Disney's impact on Japanese culture is also talking about anime's impact on it. Adventure Time is also considered an anime there, so it was inevitable that one of the episodes for season 6 of the show was directed by the director of Kaiba and Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei.

edited 26th Jul '14 8:58:38 PM by entropy13

I'm reading this because it's interesting. I think. Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot, over.

It's a story about Tatemae And Honne ("be the good girl you were always meant to be, conceal, don't feel, don't let them know") and the Five Pillars of Moral Character between the sisters, and between them and their country (their Undying Loyalty is Full Metal Alchemist-grade). And one of the sisters is a classic Idiot Hero. What's there not to like? In fact, it's genius.

(I am shocked, shocked, I say, to find that we don't have a Honne And Ta Temae page, only this YKTTW.

edited 26th Jul '14 8:59:31 PM by TheHandle

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Yeah, when I first saw Frozen, I knew Japan was going to love it. All the stuff Handle said is true, and I also noticed stuff like Elsa talking about "breaking her limits" ("genkai" is something the Japanese are big on for promoting hard work and personal growth), Anna being fiercely loyal to her older sibling, and Olaf gladly accepting what seems like sure death for someone else.

Japan eats stuff like that up.

Princess-protagonists and Dark Magical Girl types also float well over there.

I guess it was the perfect film for Japan. In any case, I find it awesome that they have grown so attached to that film. Just goes to show that a Western production can indeed be enormously popular in the East.

Onto another random topic. I know I have brought this up before, but since I was born in South Korea (was adopted by an American family when I was just a baby), how would the people of Japan react to me should I travel there one day? Do their best to avoid me and ridicule my heritage (No Koreans In Japan after all)?

edited 1st Aug '14 2:19:20 AM by LDragon2

It's inauspicious, really.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

The way I understand it, people who look Asian in Japan are quickly assessed and judged based on subtle body language and non-verbal cues which are learned from growing up in Japan: the proper way to speak, stand, look, act, and all that stuff. If you look East Asian and are quickly judged to be "improper", then people treat you with less respect (mostly subtly, but sometimes blatantly). If they determine that you're Korean, people may turn down right racist and xenophobic on you.

This is all in aggregate, of course. Depending on the person and locale, you may not be treated any differently at all. Or, you may go months or even years without seeing any difference in treatment before a person or two treats you as I described above. But, the way I've understood it, Japan has a superiority complex when it comes to other East Asians; they believe that their society is the model of Asian civilization and that other peoples should aspire to be like them.