Stansfield123 Wrote:

poblequadrat Wrote:to a crazy, ***** everyone, brand of urban development;

I'm pretty sure it means he's a troll. Japan has quite the regulatory bureaucracy, when it comes to urban development. You probably can't even paint a window sill without a permit.

I assume the post refers to things like Narita Airport and, more recently, Tsukiji. Perhaps the hideous, uninsulated apartment buildings and the lack of greenery in major cities are being implicated too. Not to mention, Japanese buildings are typically torn down and rebuilt after just 20-30 years (interesting podcast about that here).

vileru Wrote:

Stansfield123 Wrote:

poblequadrat Wrote:to a crazy, ***** everyone, brand of urban development;

I'm pretty sure it means he's a troll. Japan has quite the regulatory bureaucracy, when it comes to urban development. You probably can't even paint a window sill without a permit.

I assume the post refers to things like Narita Airport and, more recently, Tsukiji. Perhaps the hideous, uninsulated apartment buildings and the lack of greenery in major cities are being implicated too. Not to mention, Japanese buildings are typically torn down and rebuilt after just 20-30 years (interesting podcast about that here).

Yes, exactly! I spent a few years studying architecture at school and I was appalled at how consistently bad Japanese urban design is, and their low standards (their labour force is very highly skilled and precise, but they really don't make much of it other than making perfect concrete casts - they're ok with building houses without any insulation and paper-thin walls.) I don't know about the politics behind it, but planning most definitely works in a less public way than in Europe (where bad planning and corruption abounds too, mind).

At least public transportation is good I guess...

Oh and Stansfield: yes, it has lots of regulations, actually there are books on the effects of this (check Atelier Bow Wow's books out for example), but Europe has even stricter regulations that include things such as thermal insulation and respecting very strict requirements so that disabled people can get by (Japanese laws are much laxer here - in fact many of these peaceful, windowless designer houses you see on magazines wouldn't fly in Europe even though they do get light and air.) But it's not just the buildings themselves, it's the planning.
Also note that where I am (not Japan) you technically DO need a permit to paint a window sill, so I don't know what you are getting at.

qeyueiyriwi: I'm rather repelled by some core concepts of what America officially stands for (probably much more than you, since you know, we Europeans are snobbish), but you have to admit that America is staunchly republican (as in Thomas Jefferson, not as in the party of that name) in its convictions. While all this has been perverted, the universalistic spirit of the original republican revolutions is still there and you can denounce exactly where it has gone wrong. You can even stage a confrontation between conservative Christianity and republicanism, or between an imperialistic interpretation of republicanism and the original ideas (which will make you realise that you have to push the French Revolution into socialism or it becomes nothing, and that's difficult to accept for some, but I digress). Both the American and especially the French revolution stood for humanity as a whole. The story of first, the Meiji restoration, and later on, the post WW2 establishment of the Japanese state as it stands now is a different one.

vileru Wrote:Not to mention, Japanese buildings are typically torn down and rebuilt after just 20-30 years (interesting podcast about that here).

this could be a positive thing too - demolishing outdated buildings in order to experiment with new and innovative designs.

This thread seemed to be prompting a sort of collection of positive stories about people's dreams; it's turned into a dramatic mess.

Politics is not good dinner party conversation.

Helena4 Wrote:This thread seemed to be prompting a sort of collection of positive stories about people's dreams; it's turned into a dramatic mess.

Politics is not good dinner party conversation.

Is it a dramatic mess?

poblequadrat Wrote:

Helena4 Wrote:This thread seemed to be prompting a sort of collection of positive stories about people's dreams; it's turned into a dramatic mess.

Politics is not good dinner party conversation.

Is it a dramatic mess?

Perhaps not but there lots of asterisks and a lot of almost arguments.

I dunno, the opening poster's words are "I'm here but planning on getting out ASAP. I've fallen out of love and lost all motivation for learning the language and even interacting with most people here." I don't think it prompts positive stories or anything else other than criticising what essentially are political problems of Japan (including the very Japanese tendency to dismiss them not as political problems but as essential elements of the "Japanese mind").

I've wanted to move to Japan because it's different. I've been there 6 times on vacation but in the end I'm always thinking that without living there or remaining there for a long time there is a lifestyle that is completely inaccessible to me. Like, I can make friends online from here, and then visit them there, but there's this thing in my mind where it's just a fleeting moment and that I have to come back next year to continue the friendship. And whenever I do take vacation and go there, towards the end there's also this feeling where I've abandoned all my stuff back home that I really want to work on, and it's impossible to work on that stuff unless I am at home, so it would be nice to move home to Japan.

However, I have enough problems considering moving within LA where I live so I doubt I would ever be able to uproot and move across an ocean. But it's a nice dream.

[Zgarbas]

vileru Wrote:I was actually sorely disappointed by Japanese libraries. In terms of public libraries, they don't have anything that compares to the Boston Public Library or the New York Public Library. I haven't been to any university libraries in Japan, but they're not especially impressive from the info I've found online. Many state universities in the U.S. have libraries comparable to top Japanese universities.

Haha, yeah, it is quite likely that our library is worse than what you'd find in most places. I just have really low standards. I've been listening to what most people complain about here, and often times the difference in standards between me and, say, people from the US are appaling. I've not yet decided whether that's a good thing or not (I am constantly pleased, if not in awe of with what most of my colleagues consider underwhelming).

Quote:In general, yes. However, your mind will be blown if you go to a proper cocktail lounge. High Five in Tokyo has won plenty of awards. Go there.

This is where the fact that I'm cheap comes in. I wouldn't spend money in proper places back home, I most definitely won't do that here either . (And I've fallen in love with 梅酒 anyway so all's well)

dtcamero Wrote:as for all this historical talk, I feel like a lot of americans really believe what is written in their history books. you know that you won the war right?
do you understand that winners write history books?

Actually, the people who write the history books are, well, the people who write history books. I think it's hilarious that you quote history written by the losers in the same post that you say history is written by the winners.

bertoni Wrote:the people who write the history books are the people who write history books.

Initially, I meant to post here something different, but I realised that dtcamero is also an American and he might get offended by what I was to say.

dtcamero Wrote:as for all this historical talk, I feel like a lot of americans really believe what is written in their history books. you know that you won the war right?
do you understand that winners write history books?

try reading about the colonization of asia. the west ruled every pacific nation other than japan and korea, and did truly awful things wherever they went. japan complained loudly about their asian brethren's treatment and was embargoed oil and steel. their only choice was to attack the western colonial armies that caused the embargo... europe and america. (yes hawaii was a colony... attacking pearl harbor was attacking a colonial army) they weren't attacking their friendly asian neighbors. they were attacking the white people enslaving their friendly asian neighbors.
you won't read about that in your history books tho. just how japan committed war crimes. but how about dropping nukes on civilian centers? shouldn't that be an equivalent war crime? everyone did awful things back then so to say that this now-pacifist country hasn't finished coming to terms with it is some real pot-kettle mess considering that americans won't even begin a discussion about their own war crimes.

but I get that it's a real feel-good story if you start paying attention at pearl harbor...

Do you really believe that co-prosperity sphere Japan was liberating Asia nonsense?

Seriously, honest question.

Please explain to us how Japan was trying to "liberate" China when they went to war in 1937.

well, to be honest, japan DID play a major role in indonesia and burma's fight for independence from their dutch and british masters.

umetani666 Wrote:well, to be honest, japan DID play a major role in indonesia and burma's fight for independence from their dutch and british masters.

Yes, but as a side effect only. And India too.

The Japanese government did not talk about “liberating” the colonial regions in South and Southeast Asia until the outbreak of war in Europe. Long after they were deep in war with China. It is abundantly clear that the army and navy’s primary goal in the region was to acquire control over natural resources (oil, tin, rubber, etc.) and to stage a new offensive against China from the south. The concept of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity was simply an afterthought.

To be sure, the Japanese found anti-colonial nationalist collaborators in all the occupied territories. Occupiers, like colonizers, always find collaborators. And we shouldn’t forget that the collaborators pursue goals not necessarily identical to those of the occupier.

I moved to Japan because I knew nothing about it and I love experiencing and learning new things. I stay because I can dedicate my energy for getting to know people instead of using it to avoid the many people who publicly let everyone know about their First World problems when I visit the States.

Edit: knew, not new.

Womacks23 Wrote:It is abundantly clear that the army and navy’s primary goal in the region was to acquire control over natural resources (oil, tin, rubber, etc.) and to stage a new offensive against China from the south. The concept of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity was simply an afterthought.

of course, but it still led to some positive things, like those countries gaining independence after the war.

just like atomic bombs were a disaster for japan on one hand, but on the other it gave them an excuse to play the victim after the war(although japan commited the worst war crimes in ww2).

umetani666 Wrote:just like atomic bombs were a disaster for japan on one hand, but on the other it gave them an excuse to play the victim after the war(although japan commited the worst war crimes in ww2).

Other positives of the atomic bombs I'd also add include war-themed movies (Grave of the Fireflies, Barefoot Gen etc) and porn (according to some people, Japan having "weird"/"****ed up porn is a direct consequence/influence of being bombed.)

Womacks23 Wrote:Do you really believe that co-prosperity sphere Japan was liberating Asia nonsense?

Seriously, honest question.

Please explain to us how Japan was trying to "liberate" China when they went to war in 1937.

The same way the communists then liberated it, I suppose. By not caring what liberty actually is.

.

Womacks23 Wrote:Do you really believe that co-prosperity sphere Japan was liberating Asia nonsense?

Seriously, honest question.

Please explain to us how Japan was trying to "liberate" China when they went to war in 1937.

China was under brutal British colonial rule. The english tried their best to turn the country into drug addicts in order to further their subjugation of a country many hundreds of times its own size. That's pretty dark even within the history of colonialism.

Japan was protesting western colonialism and suffered an oil and steel embargo from those countries who were controlling Japan's neigbors. Japan fought those countries' colonial armies and took them prisoner... which the english today still mention today like they were the victims.
This was all about getting access to those natural resources, yes, because they had been suffering a crippling embargo and Japan was dependent on oil and steel.
The japanese army gave those countries that did not have communist uprisings a good deal of democratic independence. They built schools and roads in those countries. Many people living under japanese rule later took the last name of japanese friends as their own.

I can't tell if you are trolling or not.

First, in no point of history was China (beyond Hong Kong) under British colonial rule.

How was Japan's invasions of China and subsequent war crimes a "protest" of British colonialism?

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_Wars

Yea, definitely trolling.