Life in Japan?

Just a non-political post to plug a cool channel, which may be of interest to the weebs out there, or to those who are simply interested in Japan like me. It's by an Australian man who lives there and is married to a Japanese woman, and who vlogs (?) about his experiences. 

 

This is the video that lured me in, originally.  

For future readers, in case it gets taken down or whatever: he's driving around at night, talking about how much easier it is to have fun in Japan than in Australia. In the former, people are encouraged to channel their energy in a way that leads to fun, collective effervescence, etc. While in the latter, the miserable angry power-trippers clamp down on every bit of individual expressiveness, until eventually everyone is lonely and atomized (for no reason!). 

It's interesting because our image of Japan is of an ultra-conformist hellhole where everyone is overworked, and yet every interaction I've had with them (or witnessed online) has made them seem way more FREE than we Americans / Westerners are these days. And I don't just mean in the narrow sense of being able to spontaneously shoot fireworks, but in the broader sense of being more unburdened, unrestrained, allowed to be who they really are... and without having to constantly monitor their communications, put on emotional armor, apologize for every micro-micro-expression, like we have to here.  

It goes back to what I was trying to say in my (poorly written) post about fighting for your authenticity, etc-- there's a real sense that if you try to be sincere, open, and unrestrained you'll be targeted by the seething ironic hater crowd, for not being enough of a faggot (an offense against the climate of maximum conformity, in their eyes). 

You also realize that phrasing everything in a non-offensive / watered down way, and being an ultra-offensive all the time, are in fact two sides of the same coin (inauthenticity, and specifically, not wanting to genuinely bond with other people). One is trying to avoid social connections by just not saying anything at all, by being as meek and inconspicuous as possible, etc, while the other is so dialed up and to the max that it is also impossible to relate to, which makes them seem different, but they both actually stem from a similar instinct.  

Anyways... check the channel out!