I want to live in Japan

[rhonnin]

It seems like some strange and silly alien place where every day has a WTF moment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_0EyHjmFSY

[redwarrior666]

Goofy ....

[Anger]

they say "pai no pai no pai", "chin chirori".

pai - opai= breasts. (o is kinda formal so can be dropped)
chinchin= penis.

Makes sense if you watch the dance. But is totally random...

Regardless, that is normal TV here. And the following day, it's normal in an Elementary School playground..

[Henray]

very strange, I guess that is what happens when a culture evolves so homogenously, no one really gives a f*ck.

Anger, I understand the japanese are not hinder by the morality of christianity. Are they that open with their sexuality?

[Anger]

Nudity is not taboo in any way, shape or form here. Daytime soap-operas show naked women, and the kids cartoons will have people nude stepping from the bath. It's part of the culture here- families take a bath together, and sleep in the same bed until kids are 13, 14 or older. While I took some time to adjust to it, it is now completely normal for me to take a bath every night with my wife and our 5 year old.

One occasion which brought home the difference was when I stayed at a friends house about 3 years ago. He has a son who was about 4 at the time. It was getting late and he told his son - time for your bath. Boys are boys all over the world, and his son said he didnt want to take a bath. His father tried to persuade him. "You can have a bath with your mother. It's fun" "No!" "I will take a bath with you" "No" finally he said "Who do you want to take a bath with?" His son replied "With James" (me). I chuckled thinking - hah. Kids. But his father said "Is it OK? Please take a bath with him."

I couldn't. My upbringing taught me that it was wrong. I couldn't even wrap my mind around the concept of taking a bath, naked, with my friends son.

So nudity is not an issue.

Take sex also. Like I said - houses are small, people share rooms until a much older age, and in traditional Japanes houses, rooms are seperated by thin screens, or 'shoji' - paper screens. You can hear everything that goes on in the house, especially at night. Trust me - I know. I shared a house (it was a traditional japanese style house.) with 2 other guys.
The solution to this is 'Love Hotels'... These are hotels with bright neon lights, weird names and themed rooms. Their sole purpose is for people to have sex. They are all over the place. When I first learned of them, I thought they were seedy, but Japanese peoples views are different. They are an everyday part of life. There is nothing wrong with them, and no-one is ashamed of using them. Housewives sometimes discuss which are good and which are not.

Japanese are far more open about sex. At least from my point of view.

Some photo's I dug up to accompany the story:-


This was my bedroom at the Japanese-style house. One wall was all paper screens. It is great to wake up with the sun coming in through them.


This is me and I don't know what I am doing - We used the closet I am facing to hide away the TV when not in use. So It's entirely possible I was watching TV. It was the best picture I could find to show the screens which made up the other 3 walls in each room. This is in the extra room, with my bedroom through the screens at my back.


And lastly - this is why they are screens. We had many parties at that house, and at those times, you just open the screens and make larger rooms. This is a view from my room.

I miss that house...
You can see though that there is no way to stop sound travelling room to room. There was a room on the opposite side of my room too.


This is the Hotel next door to my first apartment in Japan. It is awesome. The Hotel Chapel Christmas.
It's not very discreet. (You should see it at night)

[Henray]

Very interesting...

[rhonnin]

I remember reading that they had a much lower rate of crimes like rape and sexual assault than other countries like the US and UK.
Though having to have women only subway cars to avoid being groped makes me wonder about that.

[Anger]

I remember reading that they had a much lower rate of crimes like rape and sexual assault than other countries like the US and UK.
Though having to have women only subway cars to avoid being groped makes me wonder about that.

I think it's true. The women-only cars are because in rush-hour, you are jammed like sardines and anyone could touch you and you cant really know who it was. The anonymity makes it easier? or takes away the risk of being caught and the consequences involved.

I have been on the busy trains in tokyo where there are men on the platform who basically push everyone back so that the doors will close. Kind of what you'd do if you couldn't close your suitcase.

[luvpeebo]

Thanks for the pictures, Anger, it's really neat to see how different living styles are over there.