Path: ccsf.homeunix.org!ccsf.homeunix.org!news1.wakwak.com!nf1.xephion.ne.jp!onion.ish.org!onodera-news!newsfeed.media.kyoto-u.ac.jp!np0.iij.ad.jp!news.iij.ad.jp!sophia.ac.jp!not-for-mail From: "John R. Yamamoto- Wilson" Newsgroups: fj.life.in-japan Subject: Re: Japan makes it big in world news Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2003 21:57:13 +0900 Organization: Computer Center, Sophia University Lines: 31 Message-ID: References: <73fde4f0.0307040506.76ea8fcf@posting.google.com> <3F06C8B8.D351E33F@yahoo.co.jp> <3F06DAA2.78233E59@yahoo.co.jp> <3F070CC0.A7AF5D73@yahoo.co.jp> <3F07A9D7.2D968AF9@yahoo.co.jp> <3F0849C4.41142DFA@yahoo.co.jp> NNTP-Posting-Host: 133.12.17.31 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-2022-jp" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: kanna.cc.sophia.ac.jp 1057582354 366 133.12.17.31 (7 Jul 2003 12:52:34 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@hoffman.cc.sophia.ac.jp NNTP-Posting-Date: 7 Jul 2003 12:52:34 GMT X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1106 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1106 Xref: ccsf.homeunix.org fj.life.in-japan:2151 Ryan Ginstrom wrote: [snip, snip, snip] Dammit, Ryan, I thought I had my bases pretty well covered there, but you sneaked up pretty well there - sorry, you *snuck* up pretty *good*! > Probably as with you, I learned to speak Spanish fluently before I ever > learned a word of Japanese. At the time I felt the cultural differences > between the US and Latin America to be rather great, but after getting the > perspective of Japan, I think they're pretty similar. Having never been to > Spain I can't comment on that country, but judging from the Spaniards I > know, I imagine it is similar. That hasn't been my experience, but I wonder if there isn't a different explanation for it. Perhaps what the world is really edging towards is an environment in which urban societies everywhere resemble each other more closely than they resemble the rural areas of the countries they are located in. In the south of Spain I was living largely in small towns and villages, and it certainly was very different from anything I'd experienced in the UK. Here in Japan I live mainly in the city, and have experienced far less "culture shock" than I ever did in Andalusia. Perhaps it's just inevitable - Paris, London, New York and Tokyo are all growing ever more similar, while at the same time the gulf between city and country grows ever wider. -- John http://rarebooksinjapan.com