I'm vegetarian myself and San Fransisco is easily the most vegetarian friendly city in the United States so he might be a little spoiled on that. Sure it might suck when vegetarian foods are so difficult to find in restaurants but its pretty much the same here. Most of the time when I go out here in Denver I end up having to order sides or salads. For some reason restaurants in San Fransisco have around 2 or 3 vegetarian main dishes when I visit. And not only that but I have to put up with a whole bunch of bull on why people have the moral high ground over eating meat and how unhealthy my style of living is, even though i never once said anything other then I can't eat that because it has meat in it.

He does have some good points but every country has its problems. I sometimes write about why I hate america because of its government or the way its people put blame of their own problems on everyone else or reality TV. But I still think america is one of the best countries in the world, and japan is no different.

He sounds like he'd be miserable in pretty much any country you dump him in. I don't think it's Japan, I think he's just a miserable person. Judging from the tone of his article, I'm pretty sure after 10-15 minutes of listening to him go on and on about whatever, I'd have to fight the urge to strangle him.

EDIT: To be fair, he does bring up a lot of valid points... just man... what the hell was he expecting out of Japan? Comparing it to San Francisco is just totally unrealistic, and expecting progressive business practices out of the corporate culture there is setting yourself up for a mountain of disappointment.

Drop him off in Rwanda I'm pretty sure having too much meat, office parties and smoking aren't problems there.

I have't read the whole article (TLDR), but he seems to have a very selective memory and is just an unhappy person trying to blame Japan for his unhappiness.

1) Harem anime is far from new.
2) DBZ was garbage mindless anime too.
3) Smokers are inconsiderate the world over. In fact, a lot of his complaints are the universal human condition. (clueless managers/coworkers are not unique to Japan. Has this guy never read dilbert?)
4) There is a complete public smoking ban being proposed by the govt that will probably pass.
5) Being a vegetarian was his choice and he needs to live with the difficulties involved. Every vegetarian I know in every country primarily relies on home cooking since you never know what goes on in a restaurant kitchen. He shouldn't be upset with a culture because they don't share his desire for an unnatural diet.
6) Nomikai culture is dying. You don't have to go to every one and there is no more mandatory drinking after some public awareness about alcohol-harassment. That said, if you're a businessman a lot of the "business" happens at these informal meetings. As a foreign employee he is not going to be expected to attend nomikai anyways. Personally I love nomikai, since coworkers can relax and develop a more friendly relationship.
7) His salaryman anecdotes scream of boom-era Japan. Japan has changed and is continuing to change (haken now outnumber seishain iirc)

Quote:"THIS FRIDAY AT SIX PM, EVERY EMPLOYEE IS REQUIRED TO REPORT TO THE CONFERENCE ROOM TO EAT PIZZA".

Yes, I'm sure that is exactly how it was worded..

Jarvik7 Wrote:

Quote:"THIS FRIDAY AT SIX PM, EVERY EMPLOYEE IS REQUIRED TO REPORT TO THE CONFERENCE ROOM TO EAT PIZZA".

Yes, I'm sure that is exactly how it was worded..

I don't care how it was originally worded, when i read his translation of it, I couldn't help but laugh way too hard.

Also good was:

Quote:Though since verbs end the sentences in Japan, it's more like "Yes, we can do that for you — NOTTTTTT."

Although I'm not 100% sure what grammar point he's talking about.
~するまい？

Actually, I laughed at the majority of the article, and I'm not quite sure why.
It's not that he's the kind of person who would be miserable wherever he goes --
It's that he's a guy who almost goes out of his way to be miserable.

The tape on things you don't want bags for? Hell, most places in the US will staple your receipt TO the bag in order to shut the bag itself! That just makes it annoying to open later on.

It seems like he just took a lot of --almost to the point of-- stereotypes from his everyday life, thinks way too hard about them, and writes in exaggerated language (probably how he actually thinks, though...)
Honestly, いらっしゃいませ pisses him off because they are telling him to go to the store when he's there already? Calm down, buddy.

I think this person and Khatzumoto should have a blog fight.

Life (in Japan) sucks and then you die..... (anyone know of a Japanese equivalent idiom- there must be one)

My impression is that he's indulging in his own filtered whiny culture shock colored negative ranting. Not offering much to many readers who may have some familiarity with aspects of Japanese culture, and by only going on and on about all the bad shit he paints a biased picture for those who do not (the reader comments were kind of interesting). It makes him sound like a bit of a douche. It would have been more interesting had he given it a little balance.

But there were some funny parts, like when he tries to narc out the smoker to the cop, and instead gets asked for his papers.

Anyone of us could probably write a comparably nasty piece about any number of places.

EDIT- I just read your post Asriel - Damn, I forgot all those little nit picky points he ranted on (I read it a few hours ago). Pretty damn funny! It's inspiring really. I think I'll write a massive rant about how HORRIBLE it is when the store clerk asks me "did you find everything you were looking for" at check out, and the how MAD I get when people on the bus talk on their cell phones about disgusting personal shit so loud that everyone can't escape from hearing it, or little kids with snotty noses.....

To the two or so people who asked what the point was... I was just wondering if he had any valid points, if anyone here had experiences in the same way. I know one person's opinion of Japan doesn't really matter, sounds like he's bitching for no good reason on most things.

I think the funniest whine was how dumb and repetitive Japanese pop song lyrics are. Nobody's made him listen to an American top hits radio station lately, I take it.

I like that he's putting DBZ up as some amazing piece of media, as if it's not in the same class of bullshit with One Piece. Not that I'm saying that it's bad really, I like a good amount of bullshit (in fact, I'm listening to Motion City Soundtrack right now), but let's not pretend that one piece of bullshit is almost art, and the other one is worthless. At any rate, I love that anime is considered childish, even in Japan, but somehow watching that awful variety shit is something you'd actually talk to other people about.

Also, SNES discoloration being from smoking? Yeah right. I stopped reading after that.
http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/189

Edit: I noticed that I made an awesome unintentional pun. Win.

I liked that article - an interesting take on Japanese company life. Also made me lol several times.

Also gotta love the fact that most of the people slating the article and defending the country have never actually been, let alone worked there. Ho hum.

aphasiac Wrote:Also gotta love the fact that most of the people slating the article and defending the country have never actually been, let alone worked there. Ho hum.

And you know this how?

This guy has no credibility, he is vegetarian after all

After reading the whole thing I can say this guy has issues, serious problems that need to be taken care of. He is venting a lot of his own frustrations (girlfriend problems, career problems and probably other shit) that build over time when you're abroad for too long and directs it at Japan ("How can he be blamed, it must be this damn country"). Since he also seems to be a first class weirdo (veggies, DBZ, drinking, tape etc.) it creates a powerful combination.

Asriel Wrote:The tape on things you don't want bags for? Hell, most places in the US will staple your receipt TO the bag in order to shut the bag itself! That just makes it annoying to open later on.

What in the nine hells? I don't know where you shop. I've only ever seen that happen when we order cheap take-out, and that kinda makes sense. You don't want that bag opening until you get where you're going with it.

thurd Wrote:This guy has no credibility, he is vegetarian after all

Hey! I'm vegan! Don't talk such nonsense. Veg*ns are just normal people.

(It's the friends of veg*ns that are the weirdos. I ordered a spinach pizza (Tasty stuff, so long as the spinach isn't soggy. WTF, cheapo college restaurant. WTF). My boyfriend, who is neither vegan, vegetarian, nor remotely close to either, went to get it for me, while wearing a tinfoil cap. I am concerned.)

Personally, I found his article, on the whole, pretty funny. Parts of it are absurd, parts of it indicate he needs to shut up and stop caring so much. The whole office greeting thing was funny in an absurd sort of way.

Basically his post is a TLDR more angry/ignorant less funny version of http://www.enemieslist.net/japanese/

Asriel Wrote:

Quote:Though since verbs end the sentences in Japan, it's more like "Yes, we can do that for you — NOTTTTTT."

Although I'm not 100% sure what grammar point he's talking about.
~するまい？

I think he's talking about ~かねる. Specifically, about using 出来かねます instead of 出来ません.

iSoron Wrote:

Asriel Wrote:

Quote:Though since verbs end the sentences in Japan, it's more like "Yes, we can do that for you — NOTTTTTT."

Although I'm not 100% sure what grammar point he's talking about.
~するまい？

I think he's talking about ~かねる. Specifically, about using 出来かねます instead of 出来ません.

In any case it's a ridiculous thing to be angry about. There is no way to express a negative without using negative conjugation. If adding a suffix makes it negative, it is being conjugated negatively.

There are plenty of things to dislike about Japan, but he never really nailed any of them: difficulty of having a good long term career, never being treated as an equal, stereotyping - all of which stem from xenophobia, the abundance of idiot foreigners which reinforce that xenophobia, the lack of good mexican/texmex food, the difficulty of finding good western foods like cheese (why is everything processed?), pickles or rum, Japanese medicine being very weak, the low quality of men's cosmetics products like aftershave, shave cream, or deoderant, etc, the abundance of pseudo-science and fortune telling (my ex-gf was obsessed with fortune-telling), etc.

Infact, I actually like a lot of the things that he hates about Japan (nomikai, ohayou/otsukare courtesy at work, enjoy popular Japanese music MUCH more than popular American).

I'm about halfway through, but it just seems like he just doesn't like people.

rosenafglenn Wrote:

Asriel Wrote:The tape on things you don't want bags for? Hell, most places in the US will staple your receipt TO the bag in order to shut the bag itself! That just makes it annoying to open later on.

What in the nine hells? I don't know where you shop. I've only ever seen that happen when we order cheap take-out, and that kinda makes sense. You don't want that bag opening until you get where you're going with it.

They do this in clothing stores a lot. Especially, in urban crime laden areas... detriot (cough cough)... where people are more likely to put something else in the bag after purchase.

Stop sending your BF on food runs and get out of the house a little.

blackmacros Wrote:I'm about halfway through, but it just seems like he just doesn't like people.

That's a fair assumption.

The impression I got was that this individual was just describing "life." Why being in Japan makes a difference is beyond me.

The title says it all.

lol. I agree with him on the anime stuff. It's like one scene people are talking and are always filled with a ratio of 1 male and 20 girls, then the next scene.......well you can guys can picture it. (Well not all animes are like this but alot of them are becoming like this). I do like anime and manga. I guess this person, is just a negative-minded person in all aspects.

Even though the writer seems to not like people ( which I don't blame him ) he does write good articles and reviews about video games. I like how his game reviews don't use a number scale to rate games. Unlike tons of other game sites. For example, Gamespot.com gave Zelda Twilight Princess an 8.9 / 10 and people made death threats to the reviewer.

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2008/06/gerstma...ore-291889

So the guy doesn't like living in Japan. The question is; Why would anybody here give a care?

Also, his opinions about anime are his opinions. Why there is a need to attack him about his opinions is beyond me.

Actually the ratio of those stereotypical subgenres is decreasing, and many times in that decreasing portion it's usually at least partly self-conscious and parodic. I noticed a definite trend of that kind of 'meta' playfulness with tropes. I used to have a difficult time picking out the few series I liked, now I have about 20 series that I can't imagine ever having time to follow. Never did finish Michiko to Hatchin or Natsume Yuujin-chou, come to think of it. Or Rideback. Or Gallery Fake, or Baccano. Or second season of Zetsubou Sensei... or Ghost Hound... or Kurozuka... or FLAG... or Moonlight Mile... or Eve no Jikan... or Tokyo Magnitude... Damn it... *clears schedule*. Maybe if I spent less time in Anki/here...

Tzadeck Wrote:I like that he's putting DBZ up as some amazing piece of media, as if it's not in the same class of bullshit with ....

Haha, yeah.

Funny thing.

Dragon Ball is actually the reason I didn´t learn Japanese sooner. That´s how bad it is. I would have started learning Japanese back when I was into 折り紙, but I saw one bizzare power-up animation and got put off it....(stupid, I know)

... and now he´s saying that Dragon Ball is the best Japanese media out there?

The gaming stuff was added just so it could go on Kotaku - it doesn't really belong there (except for the "games cost $$$" part which does actually suck).

I don't drink, but I'm not forced to go to company parties like he is, so I sympathize.

You say good morning to your co-worker at the US company where I work because we are English speakers and that is the polite thing to do. However: 1) It is not mandatory and 2) You do not yell it at the top of your lungs.

Okay, so he is vegetarian. There is a joke in Japanese that "gohan" is the word for rice and it's also the word for meal because you eat rice at every meal. Sir, enjoy your rice and don't complain.

I do not know why he is annoyed that people want to start a business but do not know what they want to do. How does that adversely affect him in any way? Why is he annoyed that there are too many coffee shops? How does that affect him?

I actually like anime where people fight with ridiculously big swords and hair and yell attack names at each other. This type of anime is made specifically for me and others like me. He does not have to like it.

jcdietz03 Wrote:I don't drink, but I'm not forced to go to company parties like he is, so I sympathize.

You say good morning to your co-worker at the US company where I work because we are English speakers and that is the polite thing to do. However: 1) It is not mandatory and 2) You do not yell it at the top of your lungs.

From what I gather the author does not work in a Japanese company (Kotaku isn't a Japanese style office I'm guessing). His anecdotes are from up to 10 years ago when he still did work at one. Japan has changed a lot in the past 10 years (hell, it has changed a lot in the ~3 years I've been here). One major thing that has been focused on a LOT is the mental health of employees. The means sexual harassment, alcohol harassment (forced nomikai), overtime, work environment, etc. Also, people do not shout the greetings at any Japanese office I've been to, they just say it loud enough for everybody in the (smallish) office can hear, unless someone is on the phone and then they'll say it a few times quieter as they make their way to the door/desk. It is not mandatory, but you'll be thought of as an ass if you snub people and don't show them common courtesy. The author needs to realize that he isn't being treated as a new Japanese employee when he went through the initiation training. Stuff that is being spelled out as mandatory to him (perhaps harshly) is just common sense to the Japanese staff. His rant about おつかれ is baffling. Despite the literal meaning of the words, it is an expression of thanks for one's hard work. How can one hate being regularly thanked for working hard? He is really grasping at straws...

None of if it mandatory anyways, but it is in your own self-interest. If you snub everyone when you show up for work and when you leave, if you never partake in any of the social gatherings, if you don't talk politely/show respect where it's due, then eventually people will dislike you and it will have a negative effect on your career. That is true in every country.

In any case his complaints all have more to do with him than with Japan. A major fallacy when people write about Japan (or any foreign country, good or bad) is that they assume that their personal experience is the universal experience. With Japan in particular I see a trend of people projecting their own failings onto the country as a whole (interpreting their cultural ignorance as Japanese racism for example).