The Batlord

Everyone knows Japan these days for anime, insane game shows, bizarre fashion, and just general pop culture insanity. While it was anime that got me into Japan, just about everything about the culture fascinates me. From anime, to all that pop culture ****, to samurai and the Sengoku period, to ancient Japanese architecture (especially the Shinto temples and Torii gates), to... whatever.

Japan's culture is just so alien due to its historical isolation and distance from the West, while still being a fusion of both due to its occupation by America. Not that I'm pro-America-making-Japan-its-bitch, but it certainly led to an interesting and unique cultural dynamic that contrasts so sharply with their former, downright xenophobic isolationism.

Post favorite Japan ****. Crazy, cool, historical, whatever. This might be in the "Games, Lists, Jokes and Polls" section, but this doesn't have to be totally a joke thread. In that spirit...


As far as specific historical periods go, the Sengoku (Warring States) Period of Japan is one of my all-time fav times. It's like the feudal era of Europe, but if there were no foreign powers around to stop the knight-on-knight carnage. It not only had a beginning and middle, but a climax worthy of the name.

There were some conflicts afterward, but the Battle of Sekigahara would be like if, during the Hundred Years' War, Britain and France waged one final battle to decide who unite all of Europe, and the winner actually did rule over Europe unopposed for several hundred years.

Samurai history is just the ****.

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Oriphiel

Alright, i'm game. Let's do it!



Also, Tomoe Gozen was such an awesome lady samurai:

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Chula Vista

There's a movie on Netflix about that guy and his restaurant that's really fascinating called "Jiro Dreams of Sushi".

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“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

Frownland

That's a pretty good one.

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

The Batlord

I would not leave the house for days.

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Frownland

Japan kicks ass!

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

Chula Vista

Their baseball fans are insane, in a good way.

__________________

“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

Oriphiel

Japanese Hair Metal!

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|---Mic's Albums---|
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|---Deafbox Industries---|
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Psy-Fi

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She's a Brick House

Chula Vista

I had a guy working for me in the late 80s-early 90s? who was Japanese and worshiped those guys. He had the huge hair and would dress pretty close to them but a bit tamed down. I gave him guitar lessons for a while but he was a lost cause.

__________________

“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”