Comments by "Harry \x22Nic\x22 Nicholas" (@HarryNicNicholas) on "Life Where I'm From"
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i am atheist and when i was in japan it felt very much like the japanese are atheist too, but acknowledge that we are all connected and "spirituality" is more about being human and connecting as humans with nature, than worshipping or being subserviant to a god, in the west and particularly in america god has become a despotic dictator with rules that are always aimed "at other people", as an atheist i find buddhism and shinto, and the way they are practiced in japan much, much more palatable. i keep saying religion should be a good thing, peace, love, tolerance, but in the states it;s become worse than the evil it's spposed to be fighting. i love japan and the japanese, my in-laws made me feel literally more at home than when i am with my own family.
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@nova00boss the west has christianity and islam, both founded on obedience and despite the threat of eternal damnation, if you say you love god he'll let you off any atrocity you care to think of, whereas shinto has no god to obey or disobey, it's ancestor driven, so you are disrespecting your own family, your ancestors and nature if you do wrong, and japan is based on MUTUAL respect, people bow to each other not a deity. which regime would you prefer, a god who threatens you, or your family who (should) care for you? i also think this is why crime is so low, in the west god will let you off, in japan if you commit a crime it's a shame on you and your family. (plus the legal system means it's easier to confess and pay a fine than to fight in court).
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it is. i recall when i went at new year ( around 1995) my exwife (then wife) and her girlfriend and i went for a meal and then the friend wanted to go somewhere else for coffee, this was late at night, eventually she decidd on a dunkin donuts, which was full, but my friend went up to a bunch of sinister looking bikers, all in leather with dark glasses and their boots on the seats, and asked if we could sit down, much to my surprise they made room, moved their coats and were extremely polite - just like everyone else. they just wanted to look the part. the japanese are brilliant, i wish they weren't so oppressed by tradition though, my ex left because she felt it was all too claustraphobic.
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@JamesJordanson my favourite song is hanabi by aiko, it makes me cry every time i hear it, even before i got it translated it seemed really sad despite being a jolly tempo, and the lyrics meant pretty much what i'd thought they had, about losing someone and how awful it feels. hana has become a favourite gilrs name among my japanese friends families, meaning "flower" and hanabi, as in the song title, is fireworks "flowers that explode", brings a lump to my throat just thinking about it, great song, best version is by clearvoice music 大阪ボイトレ クリアボイス
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when i went with my (now ex) wife, her family has next to no english (although there are so many japan-acised words eveywhere) and my japanese is "enough to be polite, not enough to hold conversation" so the boys would sit in the kitchen and smoke and drink beer while the girls sat in the living room eating cakee and cohee discussing how terrible their men were. but i did ask about the war and my father in law didn't have much to say, but i got the feeling there was little resentment, even though there is an airforce base down the road and fighter jets and helicopters circle their house 24 / 7. one thing that is missed but ought to be obvious is that the japanese are rebuilding constantly, not to down play the horrors of the atom bombing, but the trams were running in tokyo three days after, the japanese look at disasters, the earthquakes, the tsunamis, the hurricanes, shrug and rebuild.
i went to hiroshima and it's a lovely city, you would never know how awful it must have been.
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my brother in law is mr narita, so he owns the airport.
:)
i went when we first got married so i could meet her parents (we are now, 20 years later, divorced but on good terms) and i loved japan. it wasn't as crowded as it appears in the west, we didn't go into the countryside as much as in the videos you do, and we spent less time in the green parts of the cities than the city parts, but my ex wife prefers shopping to trees. if i was ever to become religious i would pick shinto, it's as close to being atheist as any religion can be, and i think having no god, haveing repsect for family and nature, are humanist anyway. i recommend japan to eevryone i have the opportunity. i say it's the closest thing to being in space, when i look up at the sky i expect to see rings like saturn.
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lol, yebisu beer. this is what i love about the japanese, they adapt everything to suit their desired lifestyle. the christian mythology demands you obey god's laws, the japanese god;s reflect the japanese desires. it's great, it's the way religion really is, man made rules.
another lol is last time my ex-wife and son came back from japan they brought me kit-kats, and i'm like, what? i can get these down the road. i didn't know at the time about kittu katsu, lol.
another kind of surprise is when i stayed at my in-laws house, they have no english at all, and i have very little japanese (me, dad and brother-in-law would sit in the kitchen with beer smoking and trying to hold daft conversations using sign language and grunts :) but every where you look ar eenglish phrases and slogans and words, and a lot of japanese is adaptations of english, i joke with my friends "what's the japanese for table? - table!" "what's the japanese for spoon? - spoon!"
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it's a shame because japan should be an example to the world, creative, artistic, technological, polite, friendly, helpful, honest - low crime, but ask japanese why the place is so great and they will tell you it's oppressive, crowded, intrusive, overwhelming and not individualistic. if only the planet could find balance.
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i'm atheist and shinto is the nearest thing i can think of to humanism where there is no god but you acknowledge respect for all other humans and nature, it was so pleasant to visit the shrines and for a change feel comfortable in making a prayer. christianity and islam are really horrid religions all centered around obedience to tyrants calling thenselves god, and punishments for crimes the gods invent, followed up by threats of eternal burning.
shinto on the other hand, and japan itself, is about MUTUAL respect, you bow to EACH OTHER not a god, and you learn respect for nature, but as a mutual benefit - much easier to get into and go along with that god threatening you all the time if you slip up.
i love japan and i love the people, i wish there was less oppression though, it's a very claustrophobic place, not designed for the individual but society.
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bring gifts! when i was there my (now ex) wife spent almost every day out shopping for things to give to people, if someone does you a favour, invites you to their house, anything really, have some small gift to give them, lots of people have wondered why the japanese are really, really friendly and helpful, but then stop talking to you, it's because you didn't show you noticed they helped! they love british things, my ex worked for burberry, so we were very popular! british tea and biscuits went down a treat so we took lots with us.
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i put it down to religion and sanitation. children in japan spend there first years learning to clean, they clean the classrooms at school every day and although it becomes fanatical (walk into ajapnese house with shoes in you might as well throw poo everywhere) it results in cities where people don't litter, slum areas that are actually pleasant to look at and live in. but as far as theft is concerned you might not be aware but the christian god threatens (threarens mind you) you with ell if you disobey the rules, but if you say you love him you get off scott free, whereas in japan, shinto has no gods and is about respect for your family and ancestors, each other and respect for nature, if you steal in japan that is a sign you have failed and an insult to everyone around you, much more effective than unfulfilled threats. on top of that if you get arrested the japanese police make life very difficult (they are not violent) for you, they will keep you in custody until you confess, even if you are innocent, and in fact if you confess you get a small fine or a short stay in jail, it's actually easier to confess even if you are innocent. fines and jail are more convenient that detention without visitors.
so the japanese have a mind that leans towards cleanliness, and there is no forgiveness for being a criminal. and they bow to EACH OTHER, not to some authority.
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