[ SECRET POST #3503 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3503 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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[Avatar: The Last Airbender]


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[Overwatch]


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 56 secrets from Secret Submission Post #500.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

You know the weird thing is, the first time I visited Japan, I was actually surprised by how many things there actually matched stuff I'd read about in manga when I had actively tried to make myself not expect it.

[(Anonymous)]

Ooooh, could you eloborate?

[(Anonymous)]

It was mostly little things, like how certain meals were prepared and served in restaurants and what items I could buy at convenience stores and the mindboggling number of vending machines, but then considering I read a lot of slice-of-life, that made sense. The biggest thing I can recall is hearing my (local) friend talk about having to go around apologizing to his colleagues after returning from a sick leave. At the time I was really shocked: it sounded like something an overly neurotic anime character would do.

[(Anonymous)]

nayrt but Japanese business culture is largely nuts. Salarymen (and women) are practically owned by their companies. Spending almost every waking hour at your job (or out drinking with your colleagues) is true, and most people don't take their full vacation days, if any. I heard a story about a salaryman being severely bullied until he quit for not cancelling his honeymoon vacation when a work project came up last minute.

It may not be always true, but when I taught English to business people, I found it true way more often than not. The idea of someone apologizing for being sick sounds way believable. But then again, in all fairness, I'll casually apologize, too, more as a way of acknowledging that I'm behind in my work or to thank colleagues for pulling the weight while I was gone.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, as I said, this was the first visit, years ago. I've been back every year since and have learned to take most things in stride :)

Though your comment does remind me of something else that took me by surprise that first visit: the drinking culture for businesspeople is not at all exaggerated by Japanese media. My friend, who could never hold his drink when we both lived in our home country, now drank beer like it was his main source of sustenance. Whereas I had gone to school in the States, made it through my frat party years and come out a near teetotaler.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh yeah, totally. I would literally step over people passed out on the sidewalks, if I were about as early as 10pm. Drinking culture is enormous there, and it's very easy to get alcohol if you're underage, too, being as almost no one will card you.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, seeing perfectly well-dressed people crashing overnight in metro stations was a bit strange. They're lucky Japan is so safe. Being on the last train out of the central area on a Saturday night is an interesting experience too. I might've been the only sober person in that compartment.

[(Anonymous)]

Now that's one thing that's inaccurate about anime: Characters under 20 NEVER drink, except by accident. They always say they're underage, and refuse. Always. Like, bull fucking shit an 18-year-old is going to turn down a free beer.

[(Anonymous)]

idk, I didn't drink as a teenager (and rarely do now as an adult) and I knew a fair amount of people who were similar. I think american tv shows exaggerate how many people drink underage (and by that, I mean that it seems like every teenager on tv sucks down booze whenever they have the opportunity).

You do have a point that it would be weird for every character under 20 to immediately refuse alcohol though because a lot of teens almost surely wouldn't do so irl (maybe it's a cultural thing? but idk anything about the drinking habits of japanese teenagers so that's quite likely a poor guess). But I don't think there's anything inherently surprising about an 18 year old turning down beer either

[(Anonymous)]

... some of us don't like beer, though? I had plenty of chances to drink before I was 21, and I absolutely would've turned down a free beer because I hate the way beer tastes.

[(Anonymous)]

nayrt but you are being pedantic. Of course some people don't like beer. I myself didn't develop a taste for alcohol at all - even the sweetest drinks - until after my teenage years.

But teens drink. Teens in Japan drink. Anime rarely portrays this and tends to go for the embarrassed giggle "I'm underage!" response when teen characters are offered alcohol.

[(Anonymous)]

See, I'm not exactly sure what expectations of Japan manga and the like encourage. I mean, you're not going to find mecha or people with blue hair. You are going to find lots of people in school uniforms, riding trains, eating onigiri, visiting shrines, whatever.

The best I can come up with is anime voice acting tends to be "character voice" and girls don't actually talk that high pitched. Or that yaoi happens irl at every street corner. Or, that it's culturally acceptable to go around in cosplay (which I don't think any manga actually says).

Every-day life manga hardly make shit up, though.

[(Anonymous)]

I mean, I know stereotypes of otaku are pretty terrible but I have a hard time believing too many people actually believe that they will see such things in a real country where humans live. You might end up simplifying people in the same way they are accused of simplifying Japanese culture.

One thing I can say that is true for me is that anime/manga encouraged a younger me to believe that 'kawaii' was a big deal in Japan. Then I got older and started thinking that couldn't possibly be the case, that a major Japanese city would be more like other Asian metropolises (of which I'm more intimately familiar). The actual experience brought my perception somewhere up to the middle. There was definitely a lot more 'kawaii' in Tokyo than in, say, Hong Kong or Singapore or Shanghai. Not as much as anime.

Also? What Black Jack taught me about tattoos in bathhouse remains absolutely true to this day except in very special cases, but then again, how could Tezuka lead me astray?

[(Anonymous)]

Oh it's definitely true that kawaii culture is legitimately a huge thing in Tokyo. Everything has cute mascots. I saw freaking traffic cones shaped like cute animals. Cuteness is very much revered. That's not a 100% statement, of course, but it is true. Doesn't mean every Japanese person is a geeky otaku, but there you have it.

Generally in manga the character who warns the other characters about something being taboo or socially unacceptable, is usually telling the truth.

[lb_lee]

Oh man, I think I remember that Black Jack story! No lie, I do feel a bit bad that even if I did ever get back to Japan (unlikely), I would probably not be able to visit an onsen again. Those things are amazing.

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT

Tattoo-friendly onsen exist, I was able to uncover a few for my subsequent trips! You can also splurge and get a room with a private bath. But yes, I was sad the first time and still am a little because the one I was set on (at the foot of Mt. Kurama, which I was climbing that day) is famously beautiful and I still won't be able to go :(

The bathhouse closest to my friend's guest house in Kyoto (You En Me, highly recommended) is very traditional yet gives no shit about tattoos. One lady I shared the bath with actually complimented mine.

[lb_lee]

Er, sadly, it's not just the tattoos, I'm visibly trans as well. I think unless I had a local with me, or could afford a private bath, I would not be able to make it work.

[(Anonymous)]

Private baths are pricy, but I'm considering it for my next trip myself, if only so our small mixed group won't end up separated and we will actually be able enjoy ourselves together. Something to dream about, certainly.

[lb_lee]

Why not? Dreaming is free!

(It is one of my dreams to take my husband to one of those. He would LOVE IT SO MUCH.)

[caerbannog]

Yeah my mum wanted to go to an onsen and it took a bit to explain we probably shouldn't, on account of her tattoo. I wasn't savvy enough to find us a tattoo friendly place though.

[(Anonymous)]

Same here!