When will they make a reality tv show about this country?

[Hoax]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/06/AR2005060601767.html

[schild]

You have to love how the Washington Post can't even get the slang from Japan right. Newspapers can't compare with the obsessiveness of the internet dwellers. Maybe in the 70s and 80s print media knew more about a subject than your average geek, but today they really should just stick to politics. Culture and Tech has no place off the internet/outside of retail stores.

Yes, I have a general dislike of print media. Particularly games media. But I don't think that'll live through the next generation. Mostly because I'm fanatical realistic.

[schild]

I'd like to expand on this:

A subculture of social misfits obsessed with electronic role-playing games, manga comics and Japanese animation, they began gathering in Akihabara in the late 1990s, lured by the district's proliferation of electronics retailers and stores selling everything you would need to build your own computer.

Maligned and shunned by mainstream society, here they stayed, their tastes and habits transforming the area also known as Electric Town into what sociologists are calling an urban first -- a ghetto of geeks.

After America blew Japan back to the stone age in the WWII, we've watched it become a technological powerhouse. Yet techy geeks are, according to the WP, shunned by society.

Do we need to hit someone with a clue bat here?

Sure, there are extremes like the cosplay cafes, tentacle porn, and mobile bukkake - but on a whole, it's that Japan has allowed geekiness to permeate the entire culture. From those stupid high heel shoes to the blackface some girls used to wear. It's just a geeky fucking country and these so called "nerds" (I refuse to use the word Otaku for them. Otaku simply aren't as well-rounded in terms of what the WP is describing) have just allowed themselves to bathe in it instead of being shy about it. This is a country that has titties for mouse pads, honeycomb tubing for hotels, and a countryside that is predominately made up of fishermen and family businesses (one of these things is not like the other...). The youth generation is embracing and looking forward to the future while the generations their baby boomer generation (and further back) is hanging on to tradition as tightly as possible. The rift is simply that the media is not comprised of the younger generation. So when an article comes out about how much more evolved their thumbs are getting due to the amount of SMS sent each day, it's a surprise to the old people who read the news instead of Hikori2110's blog each morning.

Furthermore, it's a country that's allowed gaming, cartoons, and for a lack of a better term, modern media to be part of their culture. Something videogaming will probably never be in America (at least at the magnitude it is in Japan. They had over 15 different Dreamcast special editions come out, to give you an idea of what I'm saying. We had 2, grey and sports edition). We are simply living in too big of a country for it to be possible. We have five-ten huge tech megalopolises while Japan has...uhm...one. We have hundreds and hundreds of anime/comic/gaming conventions each year while Japan has....4 big ones that I can think of at this very moment.

Surprise WP, a country the size of Vermont baja California a stretch Hummer has a noticeable subculture. Who the fuck could have thought that up?

Edit: Didn't notice there was a second page. That article gets really fucking mean. For the most part, it is your basic adult misunderstanding of what all these guys need. Which is pussy. Seriously. Get with the program. And stop coming up with horrible ways to dress your women and the problem will resolve itself.

[Hoax]

Did I do ok with my first, and possibly only useless news thread?  I crave approval as I am just a yes-man of teh hate.

[Merusk]

The whole article is written with an implied nudge and wink in the "journalist's" text preceeding or following-up a quote.  The example that caught my eye was:

Ishihara maintains a growing collection of 130 life-size pillows of female anime characters -- both purchased and self-designed. His favorite is Mio-chan, a female character from a love-simulation computer game in which a high school boy builds up the courage to ask a girl for a first date.

"There are some people who do lose their grip on reality, but that is not me -- or most of us," said Ishihara, a chubby man with glasses who this year started dating a woman steadily for the first time She's an anime artist. "For me, the pillows have been my source of unconditional love, a reminder of when I used to be hugged by my parents. There is nothing strange about it

The subtext is, "look at this fat loser. He couldn't even score a date until he was 34 and he thinks the OTHER guys are weird. What's that say about how weird they are if Mr. Pillow Man is 'normal.'"

Of course, that's ignoring the most important part about Mr. Ishihara.. which is..

Tetsu Ishihara, 34, a computer programmer whose three-room apartment in west Tokyo...

.

That's not a cheap pad, to my understanding.  Doesn't sound like a loser to me, just a guy who's probably worked so hard the last 34 years he's not paid attention to the social life.  We used to respect that kind of shit in the US. Nowadays, not so much.


If you remember that "normal" in the US is going out and drinking, cheating on your spouse and then coming home to pass-out in front of the next episode of Fear Factor, American Idol,  or whatever that abomination of a show Pauly Shore is getting, you don't feel so bad about being "abnormal." 

Know those marketing/ sales pricks in your office?  Yeah those guys, the ones you can't fucking stand because you can feel your intellect being wicked off into some WASP-y vaccum when you get near them.  That's "normal."  That's the guy who wrote this article.

[Ironwood]

You do a nice run on hate, but it's wasted because I just end up staring at your avatar.

Soz.

[WayAbvPar]

He giggled with glee when his servers addressed him in the squeaky little character voices they use to delight their fantasy-loving clientele.

Both parties should be gassed for the good of humanity.

[Paelos]

Japan still sucks for culture, we shouldn't have stopped bombing.

[Pococurante]

But then I have a unagi caterpillar roll with a quart of hot sake and all is forgiven.

[SuperPopTart]

Japan still sucks for culture, we shouldn't have stopped bombing.

I don't think that's a very Christian thing to say.

After All...what would Jesus say?

[Shockeye]

Japan still sucks for culture, we shouldn't have stopped bombing.

I don't think that's a very Christian thing to say.

After All...what would Jesus say?

Kill 'em all and let my dad sort them out?

[Hoax]

I think Jesus would be down for some cosplay maid cafe action.

The thing that really stuck me was when they were talking about reading what is basically porn on the subway, wtf is that.  I dont care if they are overly obsessed with comics/anime/maids/whatever like others have pointed out thats no worse then being American.  I'll take Anime over Paris Hilton reality tv any day, comic books over tabloids, foxnews and msnbc.  But porn in public?  What the fuck is that about?

[Furiously]

Know those marketing/ sales pricks in your office?  Yeah those guys, the ones you can't fucking stand because you can feel your intellect being wicked off into some WASP-y vaccum when you get near them.  That's "normal."  That's the guy who wrote this article.

You mean this guy?

[HaemishM]

"We have been discriminated against for being different, but now we have come together and turned this neighborhood into a place of our own," said Yamagata, nursing his tea as he sat with a portly computer technician friend at Akihabara's Cos-Cha, one of a dozen "maid cafes" in the neighborhood. Here, the waitresses' uniforms are inspired by the French maid-meets-Pokemon outfits of adult manga. At other cafes, waitresses greet patrons at the door with a curtsy and the words "Welcome home, master."

Akihabara's landmark Radio Hall, a building where Japanese nerds rent transparent, locker-size cubicles in part to sell, but mostly to show off, collections reflecting their distinctive tastes. Prized items range from air guns and model battleships to anime characters in sexual poses and miniature Godzillas

Welp, if I ever become a suicide bomber, I know what my first target will be.

WITH NAPALM AND A SMILE, BITCHES.

EDIT: More smelly catass fun.

Tetsu Ishihara, 34, a computer programmer whose three-room apartment in west Tokyo is filled from floor to ceiling with comic books, does not want to be associated with such charges. Ishihara maintains a growing collection of 130 life-size pillows of female anime characters -- both purchased and self-designed. His favorite is Mio-chan, a female character from a love-simulation computer game in which a high school boy builds up the courage to ask a girl for a first date.

"There are some people who do lose their grip on reality, but that is not me -- or most of us," said Ishihara, a chubby man with glasses who this year started dating a woman steadily for the first time She's an anime artist. "For me, the pillows have been my source of unconditional love, a reminder of when I used to be hugged by my parents. There is nothing strange about it."

I want to stab him in the face. 3042 times.

[Merusk]

Know those marketing/ sales pricks in your office?  Yeah those guys, the ones you can't fucking stand because you can feel your intellect being wicked off into some WASP-y vaccum when you get near them.  That's "normal."  That's the guy who wrote this article.

You mean this guy?

Yes, that's him.

I want to stab him in the face. 3042 times.

Remember, kids,  Haemish works (or did) in Marketing.

And he's from the South.

Don't be a Haemish.  ;)

[HaemishM]

Still do, still am, and still want to stab pillow-hugging Otaku who dine at cafes with maid outfits and anime giggles directly in the face.

[SuperPopTart]

Still do, still am, and still want to stab pillow-hugging Otaku who dine at cafes with maid outfits and anime giggles directly in the face.

Would you settle for Bruce in a tu-tu? That was your anniversary present.

[Hoax]

I'm chalking this thread up as a moral victory at minimum anything that gets Haemish stabby is a good thing right?

Now unleash your pillow-hugger induced fury on the MMOG industry and force them to all die slow painful deaths if they dont produce something that doesn't suck, pronto.

[Mortriden]

Still do, still am, and still want to stab pillow-hugging Otaku who dine at cafes with maid outfits and anime giggles directly in the face.

Would you settle for Bruce in a tu-tu? That was your anniversary present.

Holy Shit Fuck!  My BRAIN!

[SuperPopTart]

I'm chalking this thread up as a moral victory at minimum anything that gets Haemish stabby is a good thing right?

When Haem gets stabby, he gets unbelievably funny. I mean the normal, every day, somewhat upright walking Haemish was born funny but stabby makes him just.. well..

Giddy.

[Shockeye]

I'm chalking this thread up as a moral victory at minimum anything that gets Haemish stabby is a good thing right?

When Haem gets stabby, he gets unbelievably funny. I mean the normal, every day, somewhat upright walking Haemish was born funny but stabby makes him just.. well..

Giddy.

You threatening to re-subscribe to EQ probably isn't helping him remain non-stabby.

[schild]

Resubbing to EQ is what we in the "black tar heroin" industry like to call "stupid."

[SuperPopTart]

I rely on you to define stupid for me.

Thank you.

[schild]

Your welcome. I have to get back to Miami to finish a run. Peace out, yo.

[Pococurante]

Before voodoo beats me to it... YOU'RE

If only my HS english teacher could see me now.
/smirk

[Shockeye]

If only my HS english teacher could see me now.
/smirk

I hope YOU'RE not posting in YOUR underwear.

[Hoax]

Nice work, saving a thread from voodoo, particularly one that already involves slightly sick deviant sexual stuff deserves a f13 medal... 

[SuperPopTart]

An F13 medal.. now there is a wonderful idea. I think we should make one.

[Teleku]

Heh, I just got back from visiting Japan, and we actually went to Akihabara several times (leave me alone, I was looking for Macross models).  This explains why we saw so many women running around the area dressed like THIS. (taken in Akihabara).

Didn't see any place like the article mentioned, but we did find several 8 story tall porn stores, so they couldn't be far off.

[Daydreamer]

... but we did find several 8 story tall porn stores, so they couldn't be far off.

*drool*

[HaemishM]

but we did find several 8 story tall porn stores, so they couldn't be far off.

Maybe I've been too harsh on the place.

[Hoax]

I think you need to ask the important question first:  How many stories were dedicated to tenticle rape?

[Polysorbate80]

I think you need to ask the important question first:  How many stories were dedicated to tenticle rape?

Twenty-seven.  But they're all located in demon-infested alternate dimensions.  Accessible only by facing north and masturbating while saying "Shikima".