The total number of calories has a lot less to do with weight gain than the kinds of calories consumed. It's kind of sad to think that people still believe they can lose weight eating 70-calorie snack bars that contain 30g of simple carbohydrates. It's as good as telling your body to store fat. How many people do you know who've tried low-calorie diets and exercise have actually lost weight and kept it off? Thermodynamics should stay in the field it belongs, because it certainly does nothing to explain the human metabolism.

There are plenty of high-cal Japanese foods, and staples like rice and noodles tend to have a fairly high glycemic index as well, meaning they spike blood sugar, which leads to extra insulin secretion, and is bad news for dieters and diabetics alike (the snack bar and low-fat yoghurt crowd still aren't aware of this though). So why don't they get fat? Probably the same reason the French aren't fat: because of their unique diet. Diet isn't something that's reduced to number of calories, amount of carbohydrates, consumption of omega-3s or any other reductionist spin on nutrition. It's a series of complex interactions between food and the human body, and is closely interlinked with culture; how you eat your food can be just as important as what you eat.

If we knew anything near what we need to know about nutrition, the French diet wouldn't be termed a paradox, and diabetes and heart disease wouldn't be practically endemic throughout most of the Western world. What we can say for sure is that the Western diet clearly isn't as healthy as the Japanese diet, and that includes Westerners eating low-fat, low-cal "healthy" foods (or food-like substitutes, if you look a little closer).

one special thing i think japan has going on is the number of women in music. music in the west seems male-dominated as far as indie and rock bands and just music artists in general. but i feel like the music scene in japan is much more split gender-wise, with the exception, i suppose, of hip-hop. any thoughts?

Institutionalized pedophilia
No Salt and Vinegar chips
Ads that say "So easy to install, even a woman can do it!"
But the number one thing has to be...

middle aged women running.

I see this everywhere. I don't help them if I see them trip, either, which has happened a few times. Serves them right.

Mennon Wrote:No Salt and Vinegar chips

My local grocery store sells Kettle brand S&V chips. I saw the same thing in Tochigi 8 years ago.

Damn, now I have a craving for salt & vinegar chips (though not Kettle brand - those are horrid).

What!? Those are my favorite kind.

Although I actually like the odd flavors they have outside of the US; the seafood type and consomme and the like.

さつま芋チップス (紅芋もある） and ゴーヤチップス are the best.

yudantaiteki Wrote:What!? Those are my favorite kind.

Although I actually like the odd flavors they have outside of the US; the seafood type and consomme and the like.

わさビーフ is a genius flavour and linguistic combination. I wanted to try the ones called something like これはマンモス！？ Mainly because of the retro meat on a bone cartoon on the pack.

nadiatims Wrote:さつま芋チップス (紅芋もある） and ゴーヤチップス are the best.

The supermarket near me (in the UK) does vegetable crisps made of さつま芋, beetroot, turnip and parsnip. It makes a change from potatoes once in a while, and they don't really need additional flavouring.

Mennon Wrote:Institutionalized pedophilia

Defiantly looking from the outside in, a person from the west might say its institutionalized. However many people in Japan would be shocked (offended?) by such a claim. The "cute" culture which is prevalent throughout Japanese culture, I don't believe has registered with many people that its basically pointing to a focus on nubile-ness. Same holds true for things like AKB.

I just don't understand the constant pedo panic in the west... I can't even bring a box of メイドクッキー　home without being asked "are they all paedophiles over there?" Irritating

dizmox Wrote:I just don't understand the constant pedo panic in the west... I can't even bring a box of メイドクッキー　home without being asked "are they all paedophiles over there?" Irritating

You see, this right here is born of the "cute" culture. It doesn't really have to be linked to "children," but people look at this character which has an abnormally large head and small body (ie: a kid) and they think the aim is at the kid. Part of this all though is the fact that people in the West have heard stories about all the pedo things in Japan. Then they see this and simply link the two. Japanese just see the characteristics and don't really pay too much attention to what its symbolizing. Least that's my take.

The pedo hysteria hasn't hit Japan yet for whatever reason. But slowly its seeping in, mostly from pressure from the West.

qwertyytrewq Wrote:

tashippy Wrote:one special thing i think japan has going on is the number of women in music. music in the west seems male-dominated as far as indie and rock bands and just music artists in general. but i feel like the music scene in japan is much more split gender-wise, with the exception, i suppose, of hip-hop. any thoughts?

Assuming this is true and everything else is equal, when Westerners criticize Japan, they usually mention the role of women in Japanese society as second class citizens.

Why then, are Western women second class citizens in a male-dominated music industry?

In considering this question, I would repeat that I am making the assumption that tashippy's claim is true and that everything else is equal (ceteris paribus).

I think music tends to be a unique community anywhere. When I was in South Africa in 2007, I felt like the music communities (on the college campus I was staying at and in Durban) were the most colorblind and diverse. i guess this excludes a trance festival i somehow ended up going to with a japanese guy that was attended mostly by white south africans, albeit techno-hippie white south africans. generally, south africa is full of diversity, but i felt the most color-blind social mixing went on where music was involved, be it a club with a DJ, hip hop shows/battles, jazz ensembles at school, parties with music. even when i was in rural areas where rarely an umlungu was seen, we bonded and danced to SA house music, or SA hip hop or traditional songs.

indeed my posts on this thread are based on my own observations. i have only gone to a few shows/concerts in japan and searched for music online (i only spent a couple weeks in japan, twice). i mentioned my observation of the prevalence of women in japanese music compared to the west to a japanese friend who agreed, but hadn't really noticed/thought about it before. still just one person's viewpoint. in regards to this thread's discussion of institutionalized gender relations in japan, one could hypothesize that institutionally oppressed/repressed groups and persons in any society have continuously found solace or empowerment through music. jazz, hip hop, punk. even in high society, i think Mozart and Haydn were subversive.

qwertyytrewq Wrote:Women are victims of this social hysteria too. Women who have small breasts, that is. Or as I prefer to call it, petite. Or as I prefer to also call it, non-silicone. Doubly so if this same woman looks younger than what she is "supposed" to look like (her "age").

i suppose women who look like an average woman aren't victims of the ever increasing trend to look like an eternal 13 year old though.

btw, i'd like to say that i've never once felt like a victim of pedo-hysteria. (this is coming from someone who meets your description... i got asked if wanted a child ticket when i went ice-skating the other week [child ticket = under 16. I'm 27.]). However, i did go out with a guy once who made weird comments about 10 year olds. That was creepy.

Please remember that pedophiles often irreparably damage children's confidence and future. I agree there's some level where it's going too far, but people are worried for a real reason.

Perhaps you're writing it off as hysteria because you think pedophiles are rare. They're not. It really is just another sexual preference... it's just that the resulting damage to children is too great to allow in society.

Whether things like lolicon shape that preference is debatable though, but most things are a combination of genes + environment, so i wouldn't be too surprised if it does to some extent.

since the shift of american music to hiphop, there are less female artists in that genre (understandable given their marginalization), but there are still a lot out there, mostly in the pop world.

as for the loli thing...
i don't think Japan is loli at all. the idols certainly start out young at around 12 and there are some... interesting DVDs out there, but i've never seen or heard about anything below that age and people getting into it (thankfully).
who knows though, mana ashida might be the next one...

anime/manga is different because it's just a drawing with a randomly assigned age anyway, and they're not real either.

Javizy Wrote:How many people do you know who've tried low-calorie diets and exercise have actually lost weight and kept it off?

the problem is that most people on low-cal diets are just really hungry and then end up binging and killing off their own diet.

vix86 Wrote:

dizmox Wrote:I just don't understand the constant pedo panic in the west... I can't even bring a box of メイドクッキー　home without being asked "are they all paedophiles over there?" Irritating

You see, this right here is born of the "cute" culture. It doesn't really have to be linked to "children," but people look at this character which has an abnormally large head and small body (ie: a kid) and they think the aim is at the kid. Part of this all though is the fact that people in the West have heard stories about all the pedo things in Japan.

Even if it is a kid, it seems more like Westerners can't see a picture of a cute character without thinking about sex. They're all perverted... is what 2ch would say.

I wonder what they'd think of...



（ ゜д゜ ）

If the kind of character designs on the メイドクッキー pack didn't appear in pornographic anime, and AK48 didn't have a strong following of perverted middle-aged men, such cute images might not be branded 'paedo'. Westerners don't need to exaggerate. That's not to disagree with what you say about innocent cute being popular with the wider, non-freak public.

Quote:the problem is that most people on low-cal diets are just really hungry and then end up binging and killing off their own diet.

That happens for a biological reason, though, not because they lack will power. All you really need to do is forget about calories and understand a bit about how carbs and fat are metabolised to lose weight and keep it off with relatively little effort. Decades of research and common experience show calories in/calories out is meaningless to the dieter, yet the powers that be still won't publicly admit they're wrong, so we carry on gooning around with pasta salads and workouts while our bellies flop up and down.

Anyone getting uppity calling AKB "paedo" has issues though... everyone likes AKB.

Quote:If the kind of character designs on the メイドクッキー pack didn't appear in pornographic anime

This is no surprise. Pornographic anime style is derived from regular anime.

Is this really a justification for people being so judgemental?

Javizy Wrote:If the kind of character designs on the メイドクッキー pack didn't appear in pornographic anime

They don't, at least not any more than Simpsons characters appear in pornographic images. Rule 34?

Javizy Wrote:and AK48 didn't have a strong following of perverted middle-aged men

It's not as strong as it seems, they only gather attention because they're out of place; they're pretty much popular with the young adult generation, with a core of high school students and younger.
Earlier this year, they came out with a commercial using a computer generated composite of several members faces. The worldwide reaction was so exaggerated compared to the Japanese one, and there was heavy stereotyping.

The problem is that when something like that or loli anime draws attention, people assume it applies to the entire nation instead of the small group of people it really applies to.

Diet is still complicated and no one has figured out so I prefer not to talk about that one... =)

Does anyone else think that the guideline amount of calories per day, considering the idleness of the average person, is way too much though?

It's 2000 for women, and I don't even get near that as a guy...

kainzero Wrote:They don't, at least not any more than Simpsons characters appear in pornographic images. Rule 34?

That's downplaying it just a little. I can't say I've watched much エロ漫画, but I've seen a ton of covers and images of ridiculously underage looking anime girls whether I've been trying or not. I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to find you the titles of 20 published series based on such characters. Try to find one based on Lisa Simpson.

kainzero Wrote:The problem is that when something like that or loli anime draws attention, people assume it applies to the entire nation instead of the small group of people it really applies to.

Again, this is downplaying. Sure, kids and 30-year-old women aren't into loli anime, but it's hardly an obscurity. Whether you like it or not, it has its place in Japanese culture, so it's only natural that foreigners exposed to this sort of thing can't contextualise the harmless cutesieness of メイドさん and the wider, normal Japanese public that like her.

dizmox Wrote:Does anyone else think that the guideline amount of calories per day, considering the idleness of the average person, is way too much though?

It's 2000 for women, and I don't even get near that as a guy...

Seriously, you need to forget about thermodynamics. I just found this article, which seems to explain something about it, since I'm not doing a very good job. If you want to stay slim, "calories in = calories out" is about as useful to you as any other random piece of physics that's been wrongly applied to the human body. In other words, if you're eating foods that contribute to your health, 2000 calories is fine.

I meant 2000 calories worth of anything feels like a lot to put into my stomach every day regardless of type. I could never eat 3 whole meals a day either...

I give up trying to understand western people's overreactions to everything lol

its an average based on average body size and metabolism. I'm 6'4, not overweight at all, and I think I average 2,500 easy... some days I swear I've eaten at least 4,000 calories.

Javizy Wrote:That's downplaying it just a little. I can't say I've watched much エロ漫画, but I've seen a ton of covers and images of ridiculously underage looking anime girls whether I've been trying or not.　I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to find you the titles of 20 published series based on such characters. Try to find one based on Lisa Simpson.

I've only seen loli stuff when I actually dive into anime or manga world, which is already pretty niche. A subset of that makes it even more niche.
The difference of Rule 34 between us and them is that doujin is accepted. It's not over here and you'd probably get your ass sued to hell and back if you published an ero-doujin with Lisa Simpson.

Javizy Wrote:Again, this is downplaying. Sure, kids and 30-year-old women aren't into loli anime, but it's hardly an obscurity. Whether you like it or not, it has its place in Japanese culture, so it's only natural that foreigners exposed to this sort of thing can't contextualise the harmless cutesieness of メイドさん and the wider, normal Japanese public that like her.

When I read through Japan-Guide's classifieds, so many people write about how they don't want to talk about anime or Naruto or whatever, and there's complaints on 2ch that that's all they wanna talk about. That's a pretty normal anime and they're still disturbed it about it. I don't think loli anime would fare any better.
I think it's really just a fetish amongst a small group of people and exaggerated by the rest of the world to go "lol loli's are okay in Japan!" If it were really institutionalized and accepted, I would be able to go on the train and read it openly, without getting strange looks, right?


For calories I'd say I eat like 2400/2800 easily. I don't snack on junk food either. You'd be surprised how much calories there are in things when you add it up. If I actually do weight training I get really hungry naturally and it boosts up to like 3200, probably.

Javizy Wrote:

dizmox Wrote:Does anyone else think that the guideline amount of calories per day, considering the idleness of the average person, is way too much though?

It's 2000 for women, and I don't even get near that as a guy...

Seriously, you need to forget about thermodynamics. I just found this article, which seems to explain something about it, since I'm not doing a very good job. If you want to stay slim, "calories in = calories out" is about as useful to you as any other random piece of physics that's been wrongly applied to the human body. In other words, if you're eating foods that contribute to your health, 2000 calories is fine.

Wow, that article blew my mind. Where could I do more reading on the subject?

kainzero Wrote:

Javizy Wrote:and AK48 didn't have a strong following of perverted middle-aged men

It's not as strong as it seems, they only gather attention because they're out of place; they're pretty much popular with the young adult generation, with a core of high school students and younger.

Proof this is wrong; Go to any videos in the official AKB48 youtube channel and click the "view video statistics" graph underneath. The videos are *always* most viewed by males aged 45-54 and males aged 35-44. Anonymous stats don't lie; their hardcore fanbase is aged 45 and over..

qwertyytrewq Wrote:Could you give me your definition of "perverted" or how you personally define it?

In my opinion, men will be men and most straight men would like AKB48 (or at least the physical appearance of AKB48) unless they're not into Asian girls.

I wouldn't call them perverted, I would actually call them normal.

The difference is, these middle aged men in Japan buy their records, and go to their concerts and fan-meet-and-greets.

It's ok to find younger girls attractive but this is going far beyond that; It's the obsessive idol-otaku thing that most people find creepy.