Of course they don’t realize that. Tumblrinas think the whole world is fuckin’ America.
A brief lesson for people who think Japan is glamorous and wonderful and perfect and better than America:
-There are almost no ATMs. And Cash is the only thing accepted at many businesses, up to and including hospitals.
-And on the topic of hospitals, they close at night and on weekends. Yes. REALLY. The hospitals close. Doctors also don’t often take new patients easily. As you can imagine, emergency care is kinda messed up.
-The Japanese business world is hell. Work hours are ridiculous, taking breaks for your health is considered selfish and wrong, it’s far more low-tech than America, surprisingly (they still use faxes and do their paperwork like… on paper. In the digital age.) And they have a specialized term for “dying from overworking oneself” for a reason.
-I wouldn’t say they’re the most xenophobic place in the world. They won’t kill you for being another race (although if you’re Korean… you’re gonna have a bad time.) but you will always be seen as “the foreign one”, even if you were born there. Having a different skin color definitely causes people to see you very differently, and it’s noticeable.
-The educational system is also notably stifling, demanding, and encourages you to give up on personal dreams for the good of society.
-Oh yeah, and mental healthcare is strongly frowned upon. You will be ostracized for getting therapy or medication. It’s seen as an absolute last resort if you seriously can’t get your life together.
-Also if you’re religious you’re a minority and finding a church is gonna be difficult. Unless you’re Buddhist or Shinto. Everything else though, good luck. The populous is primarily irreligious, but keeps the traditions of the religions mentioned above.
-Also, the houses have no central heating. This is why they have Kotatsu.
-While you will probably be accepted as a gay or trans person, most Japanese people are still learning the proper social decorum around gay and trans people. Trans people can generally live as their gender without being outed… but relationships are pretty risky. Media also tends to portray gay and trans people as caricatures of themselves. Yeah….
This isn’t to say that Japan is terrible. It definitely has wonderful things about it! But a lot of people forget that it has its own problems, and that some of these problems aren’t going to mesh with yourself. I probably couldn’t live in Japan, because I’m mentally ill, get sick a lot, and have anxiety problems. So no way I could work there. But I still love the place and would definitely stay there for an extended vacation!
Just goes to show that the world’s problem don’t end at America and that every country country has it’s own set of issues and social problems.
Adding onto this the justice system in Japan is heavily skewed in the favor of the prosecutor. Meaning that of you’re ever accused of a crime they will force and or turn what you say into a confession and you will be punished. There’s a reason Ace Attorney is the underdog in his games and it’s because defense attorneys are not respected at all.
my host mom in Japan referred to her Roomba as “Roomba-san” and when it would get stuck she would just look over it and softly say “ganbatte, Roomba-san…ganbatte” as it made distressed beeping noises at her
Not completely, but they’re relatively easy to get, if you know what you do. Lots of illegal gun traffic.
Is it to the point where it’s easier to get one illegally than to get one legally?
Definitely, unless you’re a cop.
I think you can get a hunting rifle, but can only use it in designated areas? Also, our self-defense laws are virtually non-existent.
And yet Japan exists
Japan is a pretty bad example, due to not only the corruption of the DIET, but also their rampant racism, xenophobia, and borderline feudal office/work culture.
There’s a reason why suicides and work-stress-related deaths are so common in Japan.
The Katana is a Japanese sword that was used by the samurai in Japan. Curved, slender, single-edged blade with a circular or squared guard and a long grip to accommodate two hands are the characteristics of a katana.
This sword has been in my field of obsession for the past few days and primary reason for that is this truly remarkable fact:
It can slice a moving bullet in half
Source Video
Its not often that you find a bullet’s reputation of being rigid taking a
hit.
But I am not here to deceive, the above is in reality a Katana
slicing a bullet in half.
What makes it so strong?
Its strength is attributed to its extensive manufacturing procedure. And for very good reasons, the legit ones cost thousands of dollars.( and antique ones, will ensure a hole in your pocket )
Here’s how a katana is crafted:
Iron-sand is a type of sand that has high concentrations of Iron ( -_- ) and since its contains magnetite, it is also magnetic is nature.
This Iron sand is heated in a conventional furnace to 1400 C and maintained at that temperature for three whole days ! This is done in order to even out the carbon content in the steel.
Eventually a lump of iron known as tamahagane emerges on immersing it in water.
The best ones are chosen, pounded flat and arranged in stacks. Depending on the style of the Katana, different layers of soft, medium and hard steel are used.
The resultant material is heated again and flattened out.
This process : Bending, hammering, layering and repeat , is carried out several times.
A long block of steel emerges from this procedural, which is only slightly curved. To impart the curvature and also strengthen the sword even more, a wet clay coating is applied.
The edge of the blade is coated with a thinner layer than the
sides and spine of the sword. This causes only the
blade’s edge to be hardened and also causes the blade to curve due to
the difference in densities of the micro-structures in the steel.
The coated sword is heated and then quenched in water ( immersed immediately in water / rapid cooling ).
Now the sword has the endurance and the strength, it is time to polish the katana. Polishing is an art by itself and requires the most skilled smiths. The process of polishing takes between one and three weeks.
The polisher uses finer and
finer grains of polishing stones in a process called glazing, until the
blade has a mirror finish.
A Katana emerges out of the procedural, having faced the hammering and the heat – strong, sturdy and powerful.
And it is this remarkable man-made masterpiece that has the potency to slice through a bullet.
The Philosophy
Japan considering its cultural and philosophical background does not consider the sword merely to be a weapon but also as an art-craft. The Sword, per se is only to be drawn for protection and uphold justice.
In fact, the most experienced masters of the art are ones who defeat their opponent without drawing their swords. And this can be attained when one is in touch with the peace within their heart. That’s the ultimate goal !
A butter knife can slice a bullet in half
bullets are made of LEAD ya dink that’s one of the softest usable metals you could cut it with a pointy rock
not shown: swords and other cutlery vs. .30-06 API
GET FUCKING WRECKED, WEEABOO
I had to explain to a guy in my archery club how bad the katana was in comparison to… well, basically every European sword from Roman times onwards.
the japanese developed such a complex folding method for forging steel becuz japanese iron is crappy & full of carbon, which would make a sword too brittle to use. the folding gets out (most) of the carbon, making a blade that is actually stronger than a potato chip.
the japanese had to improvise becuz they were stuck on an island with much more limited mineral resources. its cool they found a workaround, but european steel is still far superior.
“Two other people took my picture before you, so I was already popular.”
I know that some people said in the comments that this outfit was culturally appropriative, but just remember that you don’t know that someone isn’t a POC or biracial just by looking at them. Don’t assume other people’s races.
^ My immediate reaction was to be upset by this photo because, I’m sorry, I’m just so fucking sick of people stealing Asian outfits and making them cool or trendy. But then I thought that maybe she’s a mixed kid. If not, there’s a problem here, though.
Hi. I’m actually Japanese. Most of us LIKE when people find beauty in our culture. As long as nobody is disrespecting us or making a mockery of us, then there isn’t a problem, and if you think there is, then it seems that you are in favor of cultural segregation and that is causing more harm than good.
When I was in Japan, there were a lot of places where you could get done up in a kimono or the male equivalent and have your picture taken. No one cares.
Most Korean people I know are pretty delighted when foreigners wear hanbok, in a “oh, you are appreciating our culture! you look good in that” way. I have never actually heard or heard of people reacting negatively to non-Korean people wearing traditional Korean clothes, unless they were racist to begin with and would have objected to foreigners regardless of what they were wearing.
‘Appropriation’ is, I think, only appropriation when either it is done in a blatantly disrespectful way, or if the group whose clothes (etc) are being adopted is culturally marginalized to the degree where they themselves face discrimination when they wear those things.
Korean people, afaik, don’t give a fuck. When foreigners visit and wear our clothes, it’s in good fun by people who are usually appreciative of the aesthetic qualities of what they’re donning, and also because we ourselves have never faced discrimination for our nationality or traditional dress.
uhhh, basically, intent matters, context matters, people within the same community often have radically different ideas of what’s okay. But you know, I think the only Koreans I know who’d potentially care are the American-raised ones on liberal, activisty college campuses who are extremely well versed in the liberal, activisty language and rulebook.
Thank you!!
I also think it makes a difference in that the clothing is, you know, the actual thing and not some vaguely exotic knock-off like most people do with native american clothing. Like this is a legit, actual Kimono. There’s nothing really in the culture OF kimono that has rules about who wears this sort of thing when. Like…kimono literally means “thing you wear”. -shrug-
Bolded some of the things that stood out the most to me.
Japan is an island by the sea filled with volcanoes and it’s ♫beautiful♫.
In the year -1,000,000,000, Japan might not have been here. In the year -40,000, it was here and you could walk to it; and some people walked to it. Then, it got warmer, some ice bergs melted, it became an island, and now there’s lots of trees because it’s warmer.
So now, there’s people on the island. They’re basically sort of hanging out (in between the mountains), eating nuts off trees, and using the latest technology like stones and bowls.
Ding dong.
It’s the outside world and they have technology from the future like really good metal and crazy rice farms. Now you can make a lot of rice really really quickly. That means if you own a farm, you own a lot of food. Which is something everybody needs to survive. So that makes you king.
Rice farming and rice kingdoms spread across the land all the way to here. The most important kingdoms were here, here, here, here, here, here,and here. But this one was the most most important. Ruled by a “heavenly superperson” or (emperor) for short.
Knock knock. Get the door, it’s Religion.
The new prince wants everyone to try this hot new religion from baekje.
“Please try this religion.” he said.
“No.” said everybody.
“Try it” he said.
“No.” said everybody again, quieter this time.
And so, the religion was put into place and all of the rules that came with it.
Then, the government was taken over by another clique, and they made some reforms like making the government govern more, and making the government more like China’s government, which is a government that governs more.
“Hi, China.” They said.
“Hi, dipshit” said China.
“Can you call us something else, other than ‘dipshit’?” said Japan.
“Like what?” said China.
“♫How about sunrise land?♫” said Japan.
And they stole China’s alphabet and wrote a book. About themselves. And then they made lots of poetry and art and another book about themselves. Then, they stopped moving the capital every time the emperor died and kept it in one place for a while. Right here. And they conquered the north, finally. Get that squared away.
A rich hipster named Kukai is bored with modern buddhism, visits China, and learns a better version which is more ♫spiritual♫, comes back, re-invents the alphabet, and causes art and literature to be ♫great♫for a long time. And the royal palace turned into such a dream world of art that they really didn’t give a shit about running the country.
So if you live outside the palace, how are you supposed to protect your shit from criminals?
♫Hire a samurai♫
Everyone started hiring samurai.
*Rich important people hired samurai.
*Poor people who could not afford to hire samurai did not hire samurai.
The samurai became organized and powerful; more powerful than the government. So they made their own military government here. They let the emperor still be “emperor”, but the shogun is actually in control.
Breaking news. The Mongols have invaded China.
“W̖͖̣̬̰̮͐ͯͩ̔͊e̥̜͕̱̝̓ͅ’̇ͪͫͮ́̈́v̞̼͍̿̋͌ê͓̜͎̪̼̻̦̆ i͈̣̬̘n͖̹͈̫͚͎͇͊ͬv̮͈͕͚͔͆́̌͊̀a̦̓d͆̄̄͊̃ͦ͒ḛ̖̮̭̦̗̾̈́̃ͪ̈́d̐ͧ C̘͒͑̃͒ͥ̚h̻̖̯̝̠̩͎̎̉̓̿̂̈́i̫͎̬͈̎̿̈́̆̄ͭn͙̮͉̖̑͛̿͗̚a͙̼͆.͈͇̠͖̭͎͍ͧ̆̍̆̂̆”said the Mongols.
“Please respect us, or else we might invade you as well.”
“Okay.” said Japan.
So the Mongols came over, ready for war, and died in a tornado. But they tried again, and had a nice time fighting with the Japanese, but then died in a tornado. Then, the emperor overthrows the shogun. Then, the shogun overthrows them back, and moves to Kyoto and makes a new shogun. And the emperor can still dress like an emperor if he wants, that’s fine.
♫Now there’s more art♫
Painting with less colors. Collaborative poetry. Plays. Monkey fun. Tea parties. Gardening. Architecture. Flowers.
It’s time for who’s going to be the next shogun?
Usually, it’s the shoguns kid, but the shogun doesn’t have a kid. So he tries to get his brother to quit being a monk and be the next shogun. He says, “Okay.” But then the shogun has a kid. So now, who’s is going to be? Vote now on your phones. And everyone voted so hard that the palace caught on fire and burned down. The shogun actually didn’t care. He was off somewhere doing poetry. And the whole country broke into pieces.
Everyone is fighting with each other for local power, and it’s anybody’s game.
Knock knock. It’s Europe.
No, they’re not here to take over. They just want to sell some shit like clocks and guns and ♫Jesus♫. So that’s cool, but everyone’s still fighting each other for control. Now with guns. And wouldn’t it be nice to control the capital? Which right now is puppets, with no one controlling them.
This clan is ready to make a run for it. But first, they have to trample this smaller clan which is in the way. Surprise. The smaller clan wins, and the leader of that clan steals the idea of invading the capital, and invades the capital. And it goes very well. He’s about halfway through conquering Japan when someone who works for him kills him. And then someone else who works for him kills them. And that guy finishes conquering Japan. And then he confiscated everybody’s swords, and made some rules.
“And now I’m going to invade Korea and then hopefully China.” he said.
And failed.
And also died.
Before he died he told these five guys to take care of his five year old son until he’s old enough to be the next ruler of Japan. And the five guys said, “Yeah, right. It’s not gonna be this kid. It’s gonna be one of us because we’re grownups.” And it’s probably gonna be this guy, who happens to be way morerich and powerful than the others. A lot of people support him, but a lot of people support not supporting him. They have a fight and he wins and starts a new government right here.
♫~Edo~♫
And he still lets the emperor dress like an emperor and have very nice things. But don’t get confused; this is the new government and they are (very strict). So strict, that they closed the country. No one can leave, and no one can come in, except for the Dutch, if they want to buy an sell shit. But they have to do it right here.
Now that the entire country was not at war with itself, population increased a lot. Business increased. Schools were built. Roads were built. Everyone learned to read. Books were published. There was poetry, plays, sexy times, puppet shows, and Dutch studies.
People started studying European science from books they bought from the Dutch. We’re talking geography, skeletons, physics, chemistry, astronomy, and maybe even electricity.
Over time, the economic and cultural prosperity began to gradually slow down.
Knock knock. It’s the United States.
With huge boats (with guns). Gunboats.
“Open. The country. Stop having it be closed.” said the United States.
There’s really nothing they could do, so they signed a contract that lets the United States, Britain, and Russia visit Japan anytime they want. Choshu and Satsuma hated this.
“That sucks.” they said.
“This sucks!”
And with almost very little outside help, they overthrew the shogun, and somehow, made the emperor, the emperor again, and moved him to Edo, which they renamed, “Eastern Capital.” They made a new government, which was a lot more western. They made a new constitution, that was pretty western. And a military that was… Pretty western.
And do you know what else was western? That’s right, it’s conquering stuff. So, what can we conquer? Korea. They conquer Korea, taking it from its previous owner, China, and then go a little bit further, and Russia rushes in out of no where and says, “Stop. No, you can’t take that. We were gonna build a railroad through here to try to get some warm water.”
And Russia builds their railroad, supervised by a shit ton of soldiers. And then, when the railroad was done, they downgraded to a fuck ton. Did I say “downgrade”? I meant “upgrade.”
And Japan says:
“Can you maybe chill?”
And Russia says:
“How about maybe you chill?”
Japan is kind of scared of Russia. You’ll never guess who’s also kind of scared of Russia. Great Britain. So Japan and Great Britain make an alliance together so they can be a little less scared of Russia. Feeling confident, Japan goes to war against Russia, just for a moment, and then they both get tired and stop.
♫~It’s time for World War 1~♫
The world is about to have a war. Because it’s the 1900s and weapons are getting crazy. And all these empires are excited to try them out on each other. Meanwhile, Japan has been enjoying conquering stuff and wants m̞͇̲̗̖̥͚̬o̬̹͖̜ͅr̞̫͚e̲̹͉̩ and the next thing on their list is this part of China and lots of tiny islands.
All that stuff belongs to Germany, which just had war declared on by Britain, because Britain was friends with Belgium, which was being trespassed by Germany in order to get to France to kick France’s ass because France was friends with Russia, who was getting ready to kick Austria’s ass because Austria was getting ready to kick Seriba’s ass because someone from Serbia shot the leader of Austria’s ass. Or, actually, shot him in the head. And Britain was currently friends with Japan, so you know what that means. Duh.
♫Japan should take the islands♫
Which, they wanted to do anyways. So they called Britain on the tele to sort of let them know. And then they did it. And they also helped Britain a little here and there with some errands and stuff.
Now the war is over and, congratulations, Japan. You technically fought in the war, which means you get to sit at the negotiating table with the big dudes, where they decided who owns what. And, yes, Japan gets to keep all that shit they stole from Germany. You also get to join the post-war mega alliance.
♫The League of Nations♫
Whose mission statement is to try not to take over the world.
The Great Depression is bad, and Japan’s economy is now crappy. But the military is doing just fine, and it invades Manchuria, and the League of Nations is like:
“No, don’t do that, if you’re in the League of Nations you’re not supposed to take over the world!”
And Japan is like:
“♫~ How about I do, anyway?~♫”
And Japan invaded more and more and more of China and was planning to invade the entire east.
You’ve got mail.
It’s from Germany. The new leader of Germany. He has a cool mustache, and he’s trying to take over the world and needs friends. This also got forwarded to Italy. They all decided to be friends because they had so much in common.
♫~It’s time for World War 2~♫
Germany is invading the neighbors, then they invade the neighbors neighbors, then the neighbors neighbors neighbors who happen to be Britain said, “♫Holy shit♫" And the United States started helping Britain because they are ♫Good friends♫. And started not helping Japan because ♫their friends and our friends are not friends. Plus they’re planning on invading the entire ocean♫. The United States is also working on a large, very huge bomb, bigger than any other bomb, ever. Just in case. But they still haven’t joined the war. War looks bad on T.V., and the United States is really starting to care about their image. But then Japan spits on them in Hawaii, and challenges them to war. And they say, “Yes.” And then Germany, as a symbol of friendship, declares war on the Unites States also.
So the United States goes to war in Europe and they help the gang chase Germany back into Germany and they also start chasing Japan back into Japan, and they haven’t used the bomb yet and are curious to see if it works.
So they drop it on Japan.
They actually drop two.
United States installed a new government inspired by the United States government, with just the right ingredients for a ♫post-war economic miracle♫.And Japan starts making T.Vs, V.C.R.s, automobiles, and camcorders, as fast as they can, and also better than everybody else.
They get rich and the economy goes wild. And then the miracle wears off. But everything’s still pretty cool, I guess.
ifesbob 
