掲示板 Forums - What you like most about Japan?

There are many aspects i like about this country. One of them is the security of the streets. I´ve seen in some television documentaries the cleanliness of the roads and I was impressed. Another aspect I like so much is the tecnology. I would love to be in one of those tecnological conventions. The food is another thing I´m interested into. Here in my country I haven´t found so much chances to try japanese food, but the few dishes I´ve tasted were delicious. For you, What you like most about Japan?

I haven't been to Japan, so I have a question. 3nzo just said the cleanliness of the roads--this strikes me as the opposite of what Datxomin just said--that there's some amount of trash. A lot of trash?

I think that Japanese cities tend to be pretty clean compared to cities in other countries... also, if the documentary 3nzo saw was Japanese-made, I'm sure they played it up a lot. But I think it's equally if not dirtier once you get out into the suburbs for all the reasons Datxomin mentioned, at least as compared to my hometown in the northeastern US. I think it's so expensive/time-consuming to dispose of your trash correctly as per the official sorting laws, and between that and the general lack of trash and recycling bins in public places, a lot of people just give up. I do think Japan is the safest place I've ever been, though; I've never felt unsafe walking alone, even late at night. And I like that it's easy for me to get around without a car (in urban/suburban/semi-rural Kansai): the public transit varies from decent to excellent, but there are also a lot more sidewalks than in my hometown, so it's much safer and easier to be a cyclist or pedestrian.

Japan is the only country I've ever visited where I can safely say I've never felt like I was in a dangerous neighborhood, at any time of day or night. Not that people shouldn't be duly careful as usual, but it was a nice quality.

I think one of the things I like most about Japan is the religious atmosphere, or more specifically the lack of Christianity and Islam and all the conflict those religions bring. Maybe people from some European countries can't relate to it as much nowadays, but as an American it's so nice being able to read or watch the news and other media in Japan and not constantly having to hear about the Christian Taliban trying to rewrite books, or chase atheist neighbors out of town by threatening to burn their houses down, or drag people in the military to Christian rock concerts or other Christian events, or get rid of as many abortion clinics in a state as they can legally get away with eliminating, or put the 10 commandments up all over, or set up camps and other places to try to pray the gay out of gay people, or add the word 'God' to anything and everything it can be added to, or set up programs to deal with addictions where one of the key steps to getting away from your alcohol or drug addiction just happens to be the acceptance of whatever brand of God-drug the program might be trying to promote, or help create an anti-intellectual culture where scientists and academics (and by extension any research they produce that may conflict with Christian's beliefs) can't be trusted because so many of them have already been tricked by the devil into being atheists and who knows what else, etc., etc. On a lighter note, the anime and video games are also nice ^^. Cartoons in the US are usually crappily drawn, to the point that they are just painful to even look at sometimes. With anime on the other hand though, screw going to a museum, anime is like living art, especially some of the really well drawn ones like Mushishi. Also, a lot of anime are even pretty philosophical (Kino no Tabi, Galaxy Express 999, Ghost in the Shell, Code Geass, even Naruto and One piece sometimes), while most American cartoons, with the exception of those aimed more explicitly towards adults like South Park, tend to be filled with stories that don't really try to say anything or impart any kind of knowledge or wisdom. The typical American cartoon might involve something more like one character just chasing another character around, or someone messing around with some new toy or something they got, or someone constantly failing a driving exam, etc.

I wouldn't say there is no zealotry in Japan, just that religion isn't usually the form it takes these days. East Asian cultures also don't tend to view religions as mutually exclusive in the way that Western ones often do. Alester, while it's true that American animation tends to be targeted to children, it's not all clumsy schlock. For one, check out [i]Avatar: The Last Airbender[/i] if you haven't; it's a real treat. You may, like me, prefer 2D animation to 3D, but the best of American 3D animation is fantastic and very imaginative.

I'm going to reply off topic here, sorry. But it's about anime >:D. I am quite a big fan of animation. I think most anime aren't that well drawn at all with silly tricks like putting the mouth on the side of the face in a way that is physically impossible (which hurts my eyes) or the lack of moving backgrounds. Anime tends to have pretty images (or at least what some people call pretty) but animate them in a crappy way. The reason I don't watch a lot of anime is actually that I don't like the lack of movement a lot have. There are exceptions but so are there for American cartoons. I think that shows as Chowder, Flapjack and Adventure Time aren't badly drawn at all but focus more on a distinctive style, which many anime do less. Don't get me wrong, I love good anime but just like there are not very good American cartoons there are also not very good anime. I have never been to Japan but what I like about Japan now is the incredible culture (as far as I know it).

[quote author=RiaJu link=topic_id=5978&post_id=31641#rmsg_31641 date=1396979339]I wouldn't say there is no zealotry in Japan, just that religion isn't usually the form it takes these days. East Asian cultures also don't tend to view religions as mutually exclusive in the way that Western ones often do.[/quote] Pretty much this. Religious issues are not really common, but... there are racial issues. At least once a year at a festival or something, I will see one of those strong right-wing groups speaking about how foreigners are nothing but troublemakers - granted, they are usually skewed towards Koreans or Chinese, so I don't feel the need to hide, but it's... not nice. I would never feel like even they are going to outright attack someone, but you never know. I think if the government actually goes through with letting greater amounts of immigrants in from 2020 (they kind of have to, with Japanese not doing their part to keep the population thriving), there may be growing pains as Japan grows to accept more and more Asian foreigners. Erm, on the plus side, I agree with the safety. The trash issue depends where you are. In cities, a lot of it is based on people knowing others can see them, so they don't feel comfortable littering. Once you get to highways or outside of the big cities, people don't worry about that so much, so you see more litter. Convenience! Japan is beautiful for convenience. The amount of things you can do at a convenience store that aren't available anywhere else... makes me think it must really be a pain to work in a convenience store here. :P