Everyone knows Japan these days for anime, insane game shows, bizarre fashion, and just general pop culture insanity. While it was anime that got me into Japan, just about everything about the culture fascinates me. From anime, to all that pop culture ****, to samurai and the Sengoku period, to ancient Japanese architecture (especially the Shinto temples and Torii gates), to... whatever.
Japan's culture is just so alien due to its historical isolation and distance from the West, while still being a fusion of both due to its occupation by America. Not that I'm pro-America-making-Japan-its-bitch, but it certainly led to an interesting and unique cultural dynamic that contrasts so sharply with their former, downright xenophobic isolationism.
Post favorite Japan ****. Crazy, cool, historical, whatever. This might be in the "Games, Lists, Jokes and Polls" section, but this doesn't have to be totally a joke thread. In that spirit...
As far as specific historical periods go, the
Sengoku (Warring States) Period of Japan is one of my all-time fav times. It's like the feudal era of Europe, but if there were no foreign powers around to stop the knight-on-knight carnage. It not only had a beginning and middle, but a climax worthy of the name.
There were some conflicts afterward, but the
Battle of Sekigahara would be like if, during the Hundred Years' War, Britain and France waged one final battle to decide who unite all of Europe, and the winner actually did rule over Europe unopposed for several hundred years.
Samurai history is just the ****.
