Summing it up after reading this article which I and apparantly more people enjoyed JohnyTesta, I'm gonna assume you're an Otaku or Weeabo and in some serious need of a humour-bone. Or did that part of the Japanese culture already get to you :D?!

I dunno. Well written, but whiny and not exactly new. Anyone with more than a cursory interest in Japan knows that articles usually go:

a: Everything is so awesome.

b: Everything is so awful.

c: Everything is so weird.

Personally, I'm looking forward to the appearance of:

d: Everything is ok and pretty much normal.

Now there, that would be lying no?

http://boards.4chan.org/h/

This thread motivated me to read it to the finish, damn it's long, but funny!

twesterm said: nordlead said: twesterm writes for Kotaku and moved to Japan?? When did this happen? About three days ago, I've been too busy bitching about everything PS3 to talk about it yet though.  I have about four more days of bitching and then maybe I'll get to it.

Sounds like me, except my bitching is about 360. Lol.

Damn that took forever, but it was a good read. This is what tends to happen when a closed culture develops in on itself for millennia, and then is suddenly exposed to the outside world. The strange, strange nation of Japan.

Hardly an example of something typically Japanese. I mean, most japanese people would consider you weird if you watched lots of normal anime. If you watch hentai, they just think you're a pervert.

I don't, it was merely a play on: this stuff is coming out of Japan. And mind you, I didn't even post the link to the "Hentai/alternative" board...

In any case, Japan to our Western standards are not normal. Who screams in the middle of the street to show that you have "energy". Go work out at your bosses work. Why would clerks stand in the back of the room screaming "Come into this stall" when there is no one around aside from the customers ALREADY IN THE STORE. In my eyes, that doesn't make a lick of sense.

And then there is the tentacle rape of course ;).

On a more serious note, this article proves once again that Japan has at least some issues to work out concerning their work-life balances. It is undeniable that suïcide rates are the highest in the world, that the population diminishes (probably because there is too little time for childeren) and that relatively speaking their GNI is well below even the Netherlands' and their GDP is less then a quarter of the Eurozone (against a mere 1/3d of the population.) Mind you, the Netherlands and the eurozone have 40-hour workweeks with at least in this country many (around 40%) working part-time. This means that per head of the population we earn more in less time while both nations are considered first world and have fertile economic grounds.

I can overcome the screaming and the obsession with gymnastics, the extreme love for "the company", tentaclerape and smoking. That's all cultural. What makes Japan weird is their self-destructive way of living and apparant ineptitude of changing it.

I've never been anywhere (and I've been a lot of places) you couldn't write a similar article about. I've lived in US, UK and around Europe and have spend time on most major countries for business trips.

My conclusion - everywhere is odd if you look closely.

Now I do love to hear, what did you find weird in Europe?

Just asking because I overheard a few American girls talking on the tram how weird it was that literally everyone was cycling - which to me is incredibly normal. Everything is close by, there are bike lanes and it's more healthy/Green.