I really enjoyed this post.
I have always been fascinated with Japanese culture. Been watching anime for 20 years and became Ireland's number 1 igo player(still only 4d so not exactly strong)
It is just the whole system based on respect and accountability but also forgiveness and hope. It costs nothing to be nice. Most people don't get that in western society.
Wow! Igo is a fun game. Being the best player in your country is a great accomplishment.
I've lived here for eight years now and don't know anything about anime. I'm afraid my wife would stop talking to me if I started watching it or reading it:)
hahaha lucky for me I met anime before my missus. She has put up with 11 years of me watching anime so I think i'm safe :)
Where in japan are you living? It is my dream to retire in Osaka (hopefully by the time I am 35 hehe)
I actually believe anime had a strong impact on my morals and values. I am a very up front and honest person. I have a strong perception of what friendship should be and I guess live in a delusional world where I think people should be accountable for their actions on a personal level.
I live in Niigata, which is quite a ways from Osaka on a Japan-scale. I wish I had more time to read. These days all I do is work, raise my kids, and write when I have the time. If I do read, its picture books with the kids, and the news for myself:)
I spend an inordinate amount of time reading. I am making a small but acceptable living day trading which gives me plenty of time to spend with my kid, Nathan. I feel very lucky for that.
I never understood the point in making money for someone else. I do shelter myself from some of the more depressing news. I know it's cowardly but I get tired of only hearing about all the bad in the world.
I used to read so much. That was before I came to Japan. Then I came here and ran out of books to read. After a while, I found that I stopped relating to a lot of books that I think would have appealed to me before I came to Japan. Now, I'm interested in reading Japanese books, but my reading level isn't very high, so it often takes me a really long time to get through a few pages of adult reading.
The newspapers I read are written in Japanese for elementary school children here. It's good practice for me and gives me material for work. It's not very heavy like the regular news so I don't get burnt out on it.
I take it you are a teacher then? I made an attempt to learn how to write in hiragana and kanji. Kept at it for a while but it is super difficult. In the end I decided having a basic level of Japanese speech will do. Not like i'm ever actually going to write in it and the majority of signs have them written in English characters anyway.
May I ask how you ended up in Japan in the first place? If you are an English teacher then the answer is obvious of course.
Yeah. I work as an ALT now, but when I first came here I worked at an eikaiwa for a little over four years.
Writing kanji is difficult. Like anything, if you don't use it, you lose it. Even a lot of Japanese people these days rely on their phones to remind them of kanji strokes. It's one of those things you have to do over and over again until it sticks with you.
I can here just to try living abroad and found that life here suited me. Now, I'm most likely here for good.
I have a friend who was an ALT for a couple years. He also really enjoyed it. The guy is 6ft 6ish so you can imagine how he stood out. He did tell me that being a teacher over there can be tough.
He was teaching in a very small village, I cant recall the name, but how and what he could teach was kinda set in stone.
The Japanese feel very strongly about there own style of teaching so to speak. Has that been your experience?
It's funny before steemit I have never actually talked to people I don't physically know. It leads to alot of debates but it is really nice to speak to people with similar interests.