Letters From the Left
Conservative right leaning piece: Message from a lefty.
A Right Wing Piece
Letters from the Left
[QUOTE=Yokohammer] Arrogant, presumptuous ... let me guess: was your little heart broken because you were discriminated against as a child? You're overcompensating big time, soul of Japan, and it's not going to win you any friends, Japanese or non..[/QUOTE])
[ No, I have never been discriminated against. At least not that I was aware of].
Pray tell, exactly how long have you been here? Do you speak, read, and write the language well enough to have absorbed the culture's representative literary works in original form, for example? How about Nihon shoki? The Kojiki? In what capacity have you worked with the Japanese, within their own system and for a substantial length of time, that has brought you such enlightenment? Through what social activities, other than drinking and trying to score jukujo, have you cooperated closely with the Japanese on a daily basis over a period of years such that you might truly understand how things work here?
I have been here for a number of years. I have a mediocre command of the Japanese language. I cannot read a Japanese novel in Japanese, but I can read children's books, hence Jukujo boy. I seriously doubt many Japanese even interested in the myths of the great Kojiki and Nihon Shoki. One reason is for this is because of the degree of difficulty with abstract kanji characters. Same could be said about Roman myths in that the language used in such classical texts are outdated and abstract and difficult for many English speakers to follow, even in translation. But like Roman myths, the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki should be cherished as great literary works and preserved for future generations.
I have worked with the Japanese in some capacity, but I do not wish to be a part of their business culture. Why would anyone need to come to Japan for the sole purpose of working ten hours a day in order to understand what many of them suffer from? How things work in Japan is more of a consequence of modern excesses and decadence. If you attach any cultural relevance to the moral and social decline of the country then I will have to disagree with you. If you think that throwing your life away for the company is a Japanese virtue then I would also have to disagree with you. Bushido alludes to this in ancient text in which a man / samurai should offer his life to his master. And that if he should bring shame upon himself, or lose face he should commit ritual suicide. In modern Japan, it is more convenient to jump in front of a train and inconvenience the lives of others if you feel compelled to commit suicide. You simply cannot compare men of virtue / samurai with the modern Japanese salaryman. One was virtuous and duty bound by honor whereas the other one is duty bound to sit at a desk and drink himself to death until he either dies of a disease or jumps in front of a train. It is purely a sickness of society, and has nothing to do with Japanese culture. Work - until - you die, is a distortion brought on by modernization. You cannot compare pre-industrial Japan to the present.
I am a passive observer of the Japanese, an outsider. I think this role suits me just fine, like the rest of the expat community. You are no exception either.
You'd better have some damn good credentials if you're going to run off at the mouth the way you do, otherwise it would be wiser to shut the fuck up and actually take some time to study the culture while you're here.
I think I understand the culture to a point, an am still learning.
(Why am I being so hard on you? Because you're precisely the kind of overbearing, imperious fuckup who engenders racial hatred. Straight off the boat you're running around and telling the natives how to behave, and since they usually won't tell you to your face, I will: they will only hate you for it. You insult their intelligence, their integrity, and their culture, and you will be resented.[/QUOTE])
The truth hurts. Why hate the messenger? You simply cannot walk around totally oblivious to the cancer that is eating away at the core of the nation here. I am just as critical about my own country. I cannot allow a grown Japanese man to walk around with a U.S. Navy hat without saying something. I cannot praise the actions of Japanese fathers who allow their children to participate in Halloween and Christmas without speaking up. You are a Japanese, not a goddam gimp in a gimp suit.
As I have already stated, I cannot sit at a table with a group of grown salarymen types who all they want to do is talk about my penis and my waist size. This to me is disrespectful, stupid and childish. Grown men can't sit at a table and have a rational discussion is close to impossible here and you tell me I don't understand them? Why in the fuck would I want to understand such a person!? I hope they do hate me for telling the truth.
That's just like this old Japanese man I approached last year. I ordered him to remove his American military hat because I thought it was sacrilegious to the people who died during the war, and that these were the people who murdered and raped his own people. How dare he pay homage to such atrocious men who murdered his own people indiscriminately. Better he wear his own country's military regalia than to honor the people who murdered his own people! Nobody ever came at him like that. How dumb can a 60 year old man be to promote such a symbol of murder against his own people!? And you call me a loser for calling it like I see it!?
A Right Wing Piece
Letters from the Left
[QUOTE=Yokohammer] Arrogant, presumptuous ... let me guess: was your little heart broken because you were discriminated against as a child? You're overcompensating big time, soul of Japan, and it's not going to win you any friends, Japanese or non..[/QUOTE])
[ No, I have never been discriminated against. At least not that I was aware of].
Pray tell, exactly how long have you been here? Do you speak, read, and write the language well enough to have absorbed the culture's representative literary works in original form, for example? How about Nihon shoki? The Kojiki? In what capacity have you worked with the Japanese, within their own system and for a substantial length of time, that has brought you such enlightenment? Through what social activities, other than drinking and trying to score jukujo, have you cooperated closely with the Japanese on a daily basis over a period of years such that you might truly understand how things work here?
I have been here for a number of years. I have a mediocre command of the Japanese language. I cannot read a Japanese novel in Japanese, but I can read children's books, hence Jukujo boy. I seriously doubt many Japanese even interested in the myths of the great Kojiki and Nihon Shoki. One reason is for this is because of the degree of difficulty with abstract kanji characters. Same could be said about Roman myths in that the language used in such classical texts are outdated and abstract and difficult for many English speakers to follow, even in translation. But like Roman myths, the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki should be cherished as great literary works and preserved for future generations.
I have worked with the Japanese in some capacity, but I do not wish to be a part of their business culture. Why would anyone need to come to Japan for the sole purpose of working ten hours a day in order to understand what many of them suffer from? How things work in Japan is more of a consequence of modern excesses and decadence. If you attach any cultural relevance to the moral and social decline of the country then I will have to disagree with you. If you think that throwing your life away for the company is a Japanese virtue then I would also have to disagree with you. Bushido alludes to this in ancient text in which a man / samurai should offer his life to his master. And that if he should bring shame upon himself, or lose face he should commit ritual suicide. In modern Japan, it is more convenient to jump in front of a train and inconvenience the lives of others if you feel compelled to commit suicide. You simply cannot compare men of virtue / samurai with the modern Japanese salaryman. One was virtuous and duty bound by honor whereas the other one is duty bound to sit at a desk and drink himself to death until he either dies of a disease or jumps in front of a train. It is purely a sickness of society, and has nothing to do with Japanese culture. Work - until - you die, is a distortion brought on by modernization. You cannot compare pre-industrial Japan to the present.
I am a passive observer of the Japanese, an outsider. I think this role suits me just fine, like the rest of the expat community. You are no exception either.
You'd better have some damn good credentials if you're going to run off at the mouth the way you do, otherwise it would be wiser to shut the fuck up and actually take some time to study the culture while you're here.
I think I understand the culture to a point, an am still learning.
(Why am I being so hard on you? Because you're precisely the kind of overbearing, imperious fuckup who engenders racial hatred. Straight off the boat you're running around and telling the natives how to behave, and since they usually won't tell you to your face, I will: they will only hate you for it. You insult their intelligence, their integrity, and their culture, and you will be resented.[/QUOTE])
The truth hurts. Why hate the messenger? You simply cannot walk around totally oblivious to the cancer that is eating away at the core of the nation here. I am just as critical about my own country. I cannot allow a grown Japanese man to walk around with a U.S. Navy hat without saying something. I cannot praise the actions of Japanese fathers who allow their children to participate in Halloween and Christmas without speaking up. You are a Japanese, not a goddam gimp in a gimp suit.
As I have already stated, I cannot sit at a table with a group of grown salarymen types who all they want to do is talk about my penis and my waist size. This to me is disrespectful, stupid and childish. Grown men can't sit at a table and have a rational discussion is close to impossible here and you tell me I don't understand them? Why in the fuck would I want to understand such a person!? I hope they do hate me for telling the truth.
That's just like this old Japanese man I approached last year. I ordered him to remove his American military hat because I thought it was sacrilegious to the people who died during the war, and that these were the people who murdered and raped his own people. How dare he pay homage to such atrocious men who murdered his own people indiscriminately. Better he wear his own country's military regalia than to honor the people who murdered his own people! Nobody ever came at him like that. How dumb can a 60 year old man be to promote such a symbol of murder against his own people!? And you call me a loser for calling it like I see it!?
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