General Japanese Culture Thread

Fascinating, that's the kind of info I'm looking for, thanks.

For those just looking in.

I've been fascinated by the trope for quite a while, and I wanted to see a good source for that trope in modern Japanese media.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Apr 12th 2024 at 7:18:10 PM

Speaking of culture, can anyone explain the Orochi? It was used in Dragon Quest III and I want to know more about it.

If you're talking about the Yamata no Orochi, it's one of the most well-known monsters in Japanese folklore, so no surprise that it's a huge influence on a lot of Japanese media.

The short of it is that the Yamata no Orochi is an eight-headed snake / dragon who has been devouring the daughters of two earthly deities. Susano'o, a storm god who had recently been kicked out of the divine realm due to some of his dumb shenanigans, decides to save the final daughter from being sacrificed by transforming her into a comb to hide her in his hair, then getting the monster super drunk and then cutting off all its heads while it was too intoxicated to fight back.

Susano'o would then discover a sword hidden within the snake's body: the Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi. This sword would later also become known as Kusanagi, and it would be one of Japan's Three Sacred Treasures.

If you see a multi-headed dragon or snake in Japanese media, there's a good chance that it drew influence from Orochi.

Edited by dragonfire5000 on Apr 12th 2024 at 10:03:40 AM

Or the Hydra, or rather, both as in the case of SMT V which had a few plot references to Susano'o's legend and cast the Hydra as an Orochi stand in.

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Apr 12th 2024 at 11:26:29 AM

One of the 3 Great Yokai, Shuten Doji, sometimes has an origin Story where he's the son of Orochi.

Going to Japan in June. What are some of the coolest museums to visit?

What would be a really cool Kabuki Theater show to watch?

What are some cool restaurants to visit?

For context, hitting Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka.

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20240417/p2a/00m/0na/017000c

Some single mothers are concerned about the introduction of the joint custody law. They claim that it can easily be abused.

There's one mother who suggested that the bill should include an option for "respecting the child's opinion".

Edited by Ominae on Apr 18th 2024 at 8:00:14 AM

If you're into museums and want to hit multiple in one go, then the complex around Ueno Park is stacked with them. There's the Tokyo National Museum for general history stuff, the National Museum of Nature and Science for natural history (featuring the taxidermied body of Hachiko), and the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, National Museum of Western Art and Ueno Royal Museum for all kinds of art stuff. Plus the park itself is a historic site, with a partial replica of the Kiyomizu-dera temple complex and several Boshin War monuments throughout.

@Patar 136 Let's see... Tokyo alone has a ton of things to do.

Odaiba in Tokyo's a must for any nerd. You've got:

• The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation
• Diver City Tokyo Plaza, which has the Unicorn Gundam statue in front, an arcade, a decent food court and some other neat stores
• Aqua City in Odaiba, which has the awesome Tokyo Joyopolis arcade
• The Small Worlds Miniature Museum
• TeamLab Planets (make sure to schedule this one in advance - they don't take walk-ins)

And if I may add in a suggestion, since you're planning on visiting both Kyoto and Osaka I'd advise using Osaka as a base and traveling to all your other destinations from there. Reason why is because you can get the JR Kansai-Hiroshima Area Pass for 5 days, which is SUPER handy since you'll be using the shinkansen bullet trains frequently, and most of the smaller cities and destinations can be finished in a single day.

Thanks for all the recommendations. Greatly appreciated.

Ooh, this sounds really interesting, I should add this to my "places to visit in Japan" list.

I know that animation is brutal in Japan but what has been done to address those problems?

Overall Work Culture in Japan has been changing slowly but surely and hopes are it will trickle down to the Anime and Manga industries.

Takeshi Yamazaki (Director of Godzills Minus One) alongside another director are petitioning directly with the Japanese Government for better conditions for Live Action film production, and depending on how it goes, could affect anime as well.

Edited by Demongodofchaos2 on May 1st 2024 at 6:13:26 AM

Random musing.

I used to think that cherry blossom was the national flower of Japan. Then I learned that while it really is the most prominent and important flower, Japan doesn't technically have an official national flower.

As someone who's done a fair bit of research on WWII and the Pacific War...I also naturally saw chrysanthemum getting mentioned a lot and how that's the official symbol for the Imperial Family.

Interesting how those two flowers bloom at and signify spring and fall respectively.

ABC Australia spoke on the incoming joint custody laws.

There's protest against this as there's a lack of an organization that can really support the spouse/children when they're in trouble if/when there's JC.

The protestors also fear that it'll allow the abusers to easily "take advantage" of seeing the kids.

The prof said that while it's about time the laws are there, there's still the issue of addressing shortcomings of investigating domestic laws (if/when it's confirmed in a divorce case).