I am no fan of American pop culture myself, but Japanese pop culture is so saccharine and shallow it makes American pop feel like a nourishing four-course meal.

Blaming America for bastardizing local culture always strikes a chord with me. If you don’t like it and you don’t think its good- don’t buy it! You know how Korea defeated Walmart? Real simple. They didn’t shop there and it went out of business. Pop culture fulfills some kind of need that the youth seem to have- the important thing is to understand that need and offer them something more genuine that arises organically from the culture.

About the train being majestic at night, maybe it is, but the lights on the train are as bright as a hospital’s so you can’t see a damn thing outside. I never understood why they never thought to dim the fucking lights at night. But the view is majestic during the day and especially at dusk.

the real problems here are not american made, and what you are saying is not the product of american pop culture like it is back home.

It is the product of the historical and psychological development of japan, they have the same problems they had in the meiji period [late 1800s] Japan is a train that doesnt know where to stop, they started producing cement, now they cant stop, and they have to raise what they produce every year, and USE it, u have no idea what criminal environmental acts the japanese government have done to the japanese people and nature, and then u ask why a train cant stop or fix its rout, or slow down, because of the mentality thats for sure, but also because of the astounding levels of corruption and bureaucracy in japan, that have its roots in pre-war japan, the same rulers are still there…

Japan’s problems are suicidal, I have not even started talking about their xenophobia and all that.
The japanese pop culture is not compareable to that of the americans, the japanese are by far the most ignorant population on this planet [that i had a chance to meet, and I've met many different people], I had to tell many of them where Syria is in relation to as far away places as France and England.

No my friend, they should not have fought, the atrocities the japanese have committed in manchuria and Philippines because of this mentality, far outnumbers that of the americans…

The country has an amazing culture and heritage, I am in love with so many parts of it that it pains me to see what is happening.

Golaniya, You need to know better about the chinese one, although I am all for having another pole standing up to the over-exaggerated might of the US and pushing it back to its size, i would not want china in there, china is one of the dirtiest economies in the world, and I mean that in the worst sense of the environmental aspect. You should read more into it, its scary to have people like these ruling the world, much as it is scary to have the cowboys at it.

I just got back from one of those 300km rides on the shinkansen, i cant tell u the feeling… u have to experience it for urself.
And btw, Nobu is norwegian, not japanese, u might be surprised to know that 90% of japanese dont speak nor write english.

If you wanna feel what it is to be here, at least the first 4 months, watch Lost in Translation. Only the few people who have been through that insomnia, and whirlpools of voices and traffic and cruel preciseness of Tokyo can really tell you how accurate and delicate the feelings in that movie. Sophia Coppolla outdid herself in there.

Maybe I’m being harsh and generalising about them?