[eric4smith]

Visited Japan and loved it.

BUT.

The rest of the world treats Japan as something "special". All the media/manga/anime/pr0n/temples/culture and people.

What I've learned traveling to various countries in the region?

There's nothing really special about Japan, it's people, or it's media.

The country and its denizens have been blown out of proportion with a kind of reputation that's out of this world... for the past 50 years. Yeah I look forward to going back and meeting more people next time -- but it's just a super-ordinary place.

Remember "Big in Japan"?

Nothing special. Go home.

[karaokeyoga]

I've lived here for over ten years and generally agree with you. I love it here, but I also feel that some westerners treat Japan with a "specialness" or "exoticness" that it doesn't quite deserve.

[totetsu]

Yes. I've been here almost that long. Mostly in the rural areas. It's just a nice normal place.. I think there are a few problems with perceptions of Japan. not being part of the anglo-sphere, most of the everyday stuff doesn't make it in front of western eyes. What does is filtered through journalists, like the BBC guy, who have to fit their stories into certain safe tropes. Another big place of interflow of culture is with manga/anime subcultures, which are produced and consumed by a very specific part of Japanese society in the first place, then exoticised a great deal by the types of internet communities where it is popular.

[tarsinge]

> Another big place of interflow of culture is with manga/anime subcultures, which are produced and consumed by a very specific part of Japanese society in the first place, then exoticised a great deal by the types of internet communities where it is popular.

More niche but in a similar vein I was a bit disappointed to find not everyone was an extreme metalhead in Norway and that most people were normal too.

[astrange]

Japan is a normal place. Americans are arriving are surprised because it's America that isn't a normal place.