You know if you go to Japan, beneath the mystique is a fairly normal country with fairly normal people going about fairly normal day to day lives.
Already got a small team of contractors here. Currently working through the paperwork to get my visa and company incorporation sorted here.
P.S. Situation is still notable in its normalcy.
Let me know if you make it to Fukuoka and I'll buy you a coffee.
This is the huge advantage the Mongols had. They could field 'huge' (relative to population size) and devastatingly effective army's on the cheap. Often Mongols still ended up outnumbered by as much as 10-1, but mobility allowed them to avoid highly defended areas.
PS: I wonder how much the cost of medieval armor contributed to long term economic growth. Sort of the medieval equivalent of modern military innovations (computers, internet, radar, etc.) being useful in peace time.
And while Japanese metallurgy exists today... the secret of Damascus steel has been lost in time. No one knows how to make it anymore.
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With regards to Katanas vs Longswords...
Katanas are almost equivalent to Long Swords. The martial arts between the two styles are relatively similar. Sometimes Katanas were dual-wielded with wakizashi, while Long Swords would sometimes be dual-wielded with a dagger.
Sometimes Katanas are wielded with two hands, but sometimes you switch to one-hand for extra reach. Ditto with Long Swords (being used with "Bastard Sword" style)
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In all cases, the fetish with swords is universal across cultures. Polearms were the king of the battlefield in both the West and in the East... and the favored weapons of soldiers, and yet the stories all glorify sword-wielders. Swords were expensive in all cultures, and are therefore associated with the respective nobility class.
European and Japanese fighting styles are also very different, as the katana is made with much more brittle steels [1]. In Japan, the block is not hard and the other blade has to slide along your's to not break the sword.
You use Damascus steel if your steel is of poor quality or you don't have the chemical know how to make good steel. You do what you can with what you have.
Still, swords cost a lot to make and end up as a status symbol. Look at the Japanese officers in WW2 [2].
[0]http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1044580305...
[1]https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/5729/how-do-tama...
[2]https://41.media.tumblr.com/ab40ee35c57c64a56570035045f61c4e...
Seems like a common thread from the author, see yesterday's submission re: Ikiru.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10839344
But his pseudo-nihonjinron* is nothing compared to the Traditional European Martial Arts (Which are Much Better Than Japan's Didntchaknow) circlejerk we have going on in sibling comments. If I'm ever at a ren faire I plan to walk around and every few minutes loudly say "dude you should have brought your katana, you'd own everyone so hard" just to watch peoples' heads explode.
[1]: http://www.debito.org/ [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debito_Arudou
His experience (of apparently constantly experiencing outrageous racism) does not really align with many others' here, which suggests that part of it is over-reaction, intentionally or not.
Anyway, here's some arguments: https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/2u8k66/why_is_debito...
He's also amped up the bile level considerably after his (very bitter) divorce and leaving the country -- at last check he was in Hawaii.
If we're using words like 'ad hominem', 'name-calling' and 'unfounded' please note that you labelled my roots "xenophobic, racist, and bigoted" with nothing more than an appeal to authority.
Clearly, you were not arguing seriously and neither was I, but now that you've called me out let's add some substance.
The reddit link others have posted provides some context, though is obviously not a primary source. Here's link that might be somewhat more detailed: http://www.gregoryclark.net/page14/page14.html
The link speaks for itself.
First, sure, Japanese people, as we all still shit from their behinds, work everyday for money and snore when they sleep -- that's not the real point of comparison. But for the average US person for example, the culture, historical legacy and customs of Japan can seem totally foreign [1].
Second, yes, if Japanese people aren't having kids, Japan can be doomed, in the sense of population decline, economic and job issues, etc. They're not that much if favor of integrating immigrants either. It's not like it's unprecedented. Populations have dwindled to the point of it being a major issue for lots of ethnicities/communities worldwide in the past.
[1] and vise versa, although US culture is already familiar to minute detail everywhere to ordinary citizens -- from exposure to tons of US movies, tv series, songs, news programs, websites and books -- Japanese culture outside of Japan not so much, except to Nippofiles and Anime fans, which are far from the majority.
It's no more true for Japan than it is for anywhere. People who get all their information from the western press and then actually go to Japan come away shocked at how normal everything is. It would be like people in other countries forming their opinions on the US based on the Castro district in San Francisco during the '70s.
>Second, yes, if Japanese people aren't having kids, Japan can be doomed, in the sense of population decline, economic and job issues, etc.
There are 127 million people in Japan. If the population shrinks by 35 million or so they'll have about the same number of people they had at the start of WW II. And they'll be a lot better for it, too. Certainly any time you have a pay-go pension scheme there are difficulties with a shrinking population, but it's nothing they can't manage.
As far as taking in immigrants, what Japan is doing makes a lot more sense that what the US or the Europeans are doing. I don't blame people who don't want to have to choose, at age 60, between immersion in a foreign culture and moving from the place they've lived for decades.
That's obviously false. There are places that share far more culturally and in the way of life with one another. Canada or Australia, for an obvious example, will be much more relatable to the average white American that most of Africa or Asia. Belgium will mostly familiar to a French or Dutch. Austria will be far closer to a German than China, etc.
>People who get all their information from the western press and then actually go to Japan come away shocked at how normal everything is.
If by "how normal" this means that people in Japan are also eat, work, sleep, etc, well, this is obvious. People are people. That doesn't mean that other aspects of Japanese society will be equally easy to relate to or accept.
From the mere fact that you can go back and find your laptop you left for a couple of hours in a public square, to attitudes towards work, marriage, parents, individualism, size of the average house, etc., there are lots of things that go beyond the surface commonalities.
>There are 127 million people in Japan. If the population shrinks by 35 million or so they'll have about the same number of people they had at the start of WW II.
That's not how it works. It's not a simple act of deducting people. The demographic changes that would have be in work for decades to make the population shrink by 35 million would also mean that the remaining 90 million million will be much older (in average) than back in the past when they were 90 million again, and this also has effects in society, economy, pension systems, etc.
No it isn't. The culture shock for a westerner is no more than you'd find going to any other country in the far east. Sure, you'll find it less in countries with which you share a cultural heritage. That's sort of obvious and irrelevant. Is Japan any weirder than China, or Vietnam, or Thailand? No.
>From the mere fact that you can go back and find your laptop you left for a couple of hours in a public square...
Not actually true. At least, not true enough that you'd want to chance it in real life.
>...attitudes towards work
Less foreign to me than attitudes in most of Europe.
>...marriage
Not strange at all.
>parents
Only strange if you'd never been anywhere else in Asia.
>individualism
Again, no more foreign to me as much of Europe.
>size of the average house
That's just Tokyo. And London, too, for that matter.
>That's not how it works. It's not a simple act of deducting people. The demographic changes that would have be in work for decades to make the population shrink by 35 million would also mean that the remaining 90 million million will be much older (in average) than back in the past when they were 90 million again, and this also has effects in society, economy, pension systems, etc.
Which I didn't think I had to spell out. Yes, it will cause some difficulties. No, that doesn't mean they can't take it in stride. Again, Japan is a wealthy country, and these are problems that can be papered over with wealth.
Will Japan's GDP be smaller as a result? Sure. Does it matter? No. What matters is GDP per capita.
Thus they retain some traditional forms that tend to get destroyed when a country is colonized or goes under a Western ideology.
Beyond that, I don't disagree with you but worth keeping in mind.
The problem is I never said it wasn't and that Japan is somehow more shocking that other far east places. You were the one that attempted to trivialize it, saying that the shock would be the same for Japan "as for anywhere". In fact I specifically mentioned several places that would be more foreign to a westerner and some that wouldn't, not just Japan. At least now you seem to concur that Japan would be as foreign as those "far east" places.
>Which I didn't think I had to spell out. Yes, it will cause some difficulties. No, that doesn't mean they can't take it in stride. Again, Japan is a wealthy country, and these are problems that can be papered over with wealth.
You said: "they'll be a lot better for it, too", when in fact there will be ONLY difficulties. What would be better about an aging and shrinking population, plus economic difficulties? More parking space?
That they can "paper over these problems with wealth" (and for a country with a huge national debt and an problematic economy compared to the eighties early nineties), doesn't diminish the problem. It's just another way to say it would be costly. If you mean that they'll survive and still exist, yeah, duh.
Well, if you're agreeing with me we have nothing to argue about. My point was about media and peoples' reaction to it in the west.
Sorry but it really is. The continued attitude towards gaijin is pretty ridiculous and going to hurt them. You only have three options to combat an ageing population: (1) have more children, (2) bring in young immigrants or (3) build robots.
Japan seems to think (3) is the solution. They sure as hell aren't doing anything about the other two like every other country on earth.
And (4) cope with the situation. Japan is a first world country with first world resources - they can cope with an aging population without doing any of that.
If the economy shrinks because of less people, then how is that going to doom them? The economy goes up and down all the time.
I agree that Zen is not expressed in every cultural aspect, but by and large it is there.
Look, for example, at the collective reaction to the Fukushima disaster. If that Stoicism isn't an expression of Zen philosophy, I don't know what is.
What are you talking about? Many people in Japan, even in the media, were revolted by the inaction of the government. Stoicism is maybe what you see from outside, but internally it's definitely not the case.
And look at the recent demonstrations in Japan against the change of constitution regarding Japanese military scope. You call that Stoicism ?
Actual words that have been spoken to me by an adult woman with two kids.
Language, architecture, cultural ideas, religion, science, just about everything around you shares Roman origins or influence.
If you think Roman culture is gone, you might consider the Pope, head of the religion started in and promoted by the state whose seat is in Rome (ok, Vatican City is it's own thing, but the Pantheon is like a mile away), who conducts mass in Latin, the language of the empire ... might I go on? ~15% of the world population are Catholic.
I think there are many reasons but a large part is the religious aspect... pre approximately 500 AD Egyptian Culture was more or less wiped out during the spread of islam. I dont know how much pre common era egyptian culture was related to ancient egypt culture...
Meanwhile on the european side catholocisms spread only increased the influence of (certain parts of) roman culture. The renaissance which was significantly due to 'italian' culture further served to increase the influence of roman culture (especially in architecture and the arts)
Roman influence, sure. Also Arabic, Indic and Chinese influence. Every experience affects us. But would we really be so different without the Roman influence? E.g. Roman sewer systems were used to argue for the design of London's sewers... but only for about 20 years, after which modern sewer design surpassed anything the Romans had done.
> you might consider the Pope, head of the religion started in and promoted by the state whose seat is in Rome
But only adopted in the fading years of the Empire, well after 250AD, and not really a reflection of Roman culture.
> who conducts mass in Latin, the language of the empire
Rarely, and getting rarer.
> ~15% of the world population are Catholic.
Sure. But how many of them know Latin? How many of them have any real influence of the Roman empire?
By the way, I wouldn't recommend including Ancient China in Japan's history: at least don fire retardant suit, because frankly that sounds like an efficient way to offend Chinese and Japanese people at the same time.
From what I've seen Japanese and Chinese get on well. It's their governments that use the other as a convenient boogeyman 1984-style.
China was the superpower of ancient Asia, exerting significant influence on neighboring regions, and exporting its writing system, as well as science and technology to neighboring regions. As a result, approximately 60% of the words found in a Japanese dictionary are of Chinese origin (this becomes closer to 20% when you weight for usage).
Informatively, the Japanese word for China is 中国, or central country.
Additionally, the nature of the Japanese writing system means that any literate Japanese speaker would recognize the symbols in 中国 (China) mean "middle" and "country", and the symbols in 漢字 (kanji) mean "China" and "character".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Japan%E2%80%93Korea...
My main point is that there's a significant difference between a civilization adopting parts of other cultures, as opposed to other civilizations suddenly forcing it upon you through conquest.
The original thread I responded to seemed to argue that Japan had no history (read: civilization) before the adoption of kanji.
I'm not suggesting having short history makes Japan inferior or anything like that. It's just a predictable consequence of living on islands across the sea from the culture center. (My own country's history is not much longer, after all.)