Comments by "Harry \x22Nic\x22 Nicholas" (@HarryNicNicholas) on "Shinto in Everyday Japanese Life" video.

  1. 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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  2.  @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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  3. god is not involved, it's an entirely different concept. i thought the video made that clear.
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  4.  @sirBrouwer  i think shinto is as close to atheism as a religion could get, it's more about appreciating life and the environment than worshipping a dictator god, it's more like humanism.
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  5. 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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  6. where my ex wife's family live they have in their front garden - an american airforce base with fighter jets and helicopters circling overhead 24/7, a golf driving range, a car park and a small cemetary / shrine. japan is an amazing place when it comes to building codes.
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