Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Japanese Me

Sometimes I wonder how things would have turned out if I was born in Japan.
I tend to hang out with anime and manga fans during Lunch and art. I'm not into that kind of stuff, but I sometimes wonder what it would be like to be born into an alien culture. How much would it affect me? If I was born into a Japanese family, but with the basic structure of my family in take (My parent's would have the same job, I'd have the same siblings, I'd still believe that I was a cat for awhile during my early childhood). Would I still have discovered the same books? Would I have discovered somethings earlier or later? Would I be into things that I care nothing about at the moment? Would I have a bunch of records by Tomoyasu Hotei and the 5,6,7 and 8's? Would I be a fanatic Haruki Murakami fan, or would I be nuts about Yoshio Mishima?
How about the rest of my family? Would we be Christian, or would we be Buddhist? How would being a native Japanese affect my family? Would Spirte be one of those Harajuku people that Gwen Stafani has a thing for? Who am I kidding, of course she would be. According to Wikipedia, cuteness or Kawaii, is highly prized in Japanese pop culture. I don't see myself as being that into the whole Kawaii factor, though.
What about Delila? Would she be really into Yukio Mishima, or would he be to much for her, what with being a somewhat depresive homosexual with radical right-wing beliefs who commited ritual samurai in rejection of the Americans. No, I don't think she'd be like that. She might be a bit into Kawaii, but not completely. I'd probubly be into more into Mishima then anyone else, but I don't think I would be that into him.
To be honest I don't even know that much about Japanese culture. Here's a list of what I know about it.
  • It is a very ancient culture with time honored traditions, which has adjusted well to the modern world.
  • They've got really weird TV shows (live Tetris and Pacman), and toilets.
  • They have writers such as Yukio Mishima and Haruki Murakami
  • Cuteness is good
  • There technology kicks ass
  • They're one of the G7
  • There is a whole section that leads to everything one would need to know about Japanese culture on Wikipedia. I don't know anything about it, but it could be an interesting read.
I'm looking over Japanese subcultures now. Apparently during the 1960's, the youth revolution affected Nippon as well. This started a bunch of things called Zokus, which is Japanese for Tribe. I'd probubly have Zoku sympathies, especially the futen-zoku who are basically Japanese hippies.
Looking at all this stuff on Wikipedia, there dosn't seem to be many places where I could fit in Japanese culture. I'd probubly be reading alot of stuff I don't know about, but I still think I'd be reading the kind of stuff I'm reading now, i.e. The Beat Generation, The Master and Margarita.
On the subject of Aspergers Syndrome in Japan, they are aware of it. There's a place called "Asperger Society Friendly-Club." They'res also an Asperger Syndrome support group, but the information is in, surprise, Japanese. So I would have all the resources that I have now, just in Japanese. Since I would be Japanese, that wouldn't be a problem.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpCcelpvkps

Sorry buddy i don't know tags. You'll have to copy it.

Dylan said...

Nice.

Anonymous said...

It seemed appropo