Living the dream, what does that even mean

Oct 21, 2011 23:25

Before you worry, no, this is not another moaner post, but something that came to me yesterday and that I would like your opinion on.

Okay, so I am in Japan right now. This is a pretty big deal, and that mainly because Japan is a very nice country and I have wanted this for pretty fucking long.


I share this wish and this view with a lot of people, and not everyone can fulfill it in the way I was able to do.
I have been, without exaggeration, been interested in Japan since the age of 10, and considering that, my Japanese should probably be better xD I was into Japan back in the day when being into Japan was about as popular as collecting stamps, and books have ever since been written about the Japanese pop culture boom and what have you.
Now, without wanting to sound arrongant, I have always thought I had a pretty good overview of many things Japanese, society, culture, the works.

This is not only because Japan is an 'interesting country' (I will come back to this later), but because I consider it rude to useless only to know half. This is true for everything I have a genuine interest in, what use is not being properly informed? At best it's just embarrassing.

As already mentioned in the other blog, I think that Kyoto uni is a university that with its exchange program embraces the differences between people and their cultures. That's why we have to do a lot of group work in groups with members of different nationalities.
Japan does market its differences. Many people appreciate the country's diverse history and they go 'oh, you don't have this back at home, do you?'
That's right we don't, but I think of lot of people forget that EVERY country has its own history that is equally fascinating. Maybe it is just that most people can't find everything fascinating at once and Japan just has a terrible mass appeal, again, I should probably read up what the scholars have written about this.

The thing I just seriously wonder about why half of what I hear said about Japan by people who made it here as exchange students is utter crap.
I mean, in Germany, lots of magazines are sold that have Japan as a subject, and the 'research' is done on the internet.
Or in some cases, when I hear people speak, I know they are direct-quoting a very shitty book I have read as well.
On the other hand, there are so many people overglorifying Japan.

Don't get me wrong, I love Japan, but they do make it hard for foreigners. I don't mean the langugae, it's not like they invented kanji, they probably dislike them as much as I do sometimes, and I don't mean the fact that i still have a strong wish to work for the Japan tourist organisation because there are still so many things that could be done to make getting around in Japan more attractive for foreigners, no, I mean that I had massive trouble doing the simplest things at first, like paying my rent. It is a learning curve, yes, but there are so many things I am just not entitled to using or getting, and that can definitely be annoying.
Japan is just a country, and as such that too, does have its flaws. It is a great perfect, but by far not a perfect one.

I frequently hear the phrase "Oh, I have read about this, you are supposed to...--" and I am thinking goddamn, make your own experiences.
What ames me even madder is when I hear someone describe something as weird. It is not weird, you opinionated fool, it is different.

I know I am being arrogant here after all (XD;;;), I would just like to clarify I am in no way saying I know everything about Japan, just now I am constantly finding out how much i actually not know, but it annoys me that it is often especially those self-proclaimed 'Japan-experts' (yes, someone has said that, and he is one of the nicers dudes around here)
are the ones that apparently can't be bothered with simple rules of politeness that are not all that different from their own country.

Since I have arrived, people who haven't talked to me for almost a year suddenly take an interest in me again.
Just yesterday I had someone ask me if I had encountered all the 'typical Japanese clichees' already. Truly confused, I asked him what he meant, and he was like "Oh, you know, the stuff you always read about." Since I really didn't know, I asked him to elabortae, and he thought I was playing dumb.
What is a clichee? that Japanese people eat rice? Because... they do. D:

Just a quick note, me and a friend went to see ツレがうつになりまして。 (tsure ga utsu ni narimashite - my husband has a depression) today and oh my god. I just wanted to watch it because I love and adore Sakai Masato and everything he is and does, but this has been the most accurate depiction of anything I have actual experience with that I have encountered so far.
Me and several other people in the theatre just cried through the entire film.
Apparently it is based on a manga by a female mangaka whose husband suffered from depression, so of course she would know, but the film treats the whole subject with such care and without any ridicule that i strongly urge you to watch it once the DVD comes out.

I don't know, it was a strange mixture of being relieved that someone's experience was exactly the same as your own and feeling uncomfortable for the same reason.

movies: asian, rl: japan

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