What is Japan?

 (I started making this post a few weeks ago, but it came to my attention that everything I wrote did not save, and it was just a blank post, so I am writing this again. FUCK!)

To continue with my initial plan of what this blog is about, I realize that we need a setting. A setting is essential as it will give you background information necessary for you to understand why things are the way they are. Without a set, everything I write about will just make no sense to you, to which I will always, in a fast tone, I will say, "This is Japan."

I imagine that the answer to the question, "What is Japan" will have an easy answer, but depending on who is reading this, will have their own version of what Japan is all about.

If we go back to the days of the young internet, to the days where information was limited, and everything on the internet was taken as truth, since we didn't have Wikipedia, Instagram, and god knows what other forms of social cancer exists now. We did not have a fact-checker. We just assume that what was written may have been a form of truth twisted to some perversion. The only difference is we now have pictures to call out the bullshit people say. The people that post a painting of a cat with a taco up its ass claiming it to be their own creation. We all take it to be valid until someone with a username "momspurpledidldo" tells the world that the image was stolen from some obscure magazine.

To get back on track, finding a fact-checker when the internet was young was difficult, but it happened. Many people claimed that Japan was a land filled with obedient women who were gentle, slim, caring, and submissive. It was a land of oriental wonders and samurais, and karate, and ninjas. Then, of course, the porn industry exploited this image, and many old white men fell for this illusion, which is what they told us about Japan.

Others said that Japan was a land of technological wonder. The future is in Japan! Check it out! They have a Gundman! They have robots that service people. They have technology advanced beyond human understanding. The days of jerking off to a lonely, abandoned warehouse are no more! Now you can have a cat-eared maid robot do all the work for you.

There are many answers to what is Japan, and they all stem from something someone said, without checking it first. Japan seems to be the only country I am aware of, where the future is inevitable, and tradition never fades. A place where robots finger blasts your asshole, but practices of submissive women, men are the head of the house, and people bow to their senpais is real and existent.

One answer, though, seems constant no matter what age group you ask, and that is anime. By all that is holy in the sacred in all the world, Japanese cartoons are the critical thing people talk about when it comes to Japan. I loath anime. It is the only thing in this world were we accept cartoons as an identity for a country. I have never seen a group of Indian men talking about how they wanna go to America because Spongebob Squarepants makes the best burgers in the seven seas.

However, Japan is to blame for this. They have mastered the art of marketing huge anime tiddies. They milk these tiddies to the point that nothing but sand will come out, and people would buy it. They would brag about which character they wanna stick their dicks in. Anime will be the pride and disgust of what Japan has marketed to foreigners.

This is what Japan is and was to some people, but for me, living in this country for more than ten years is not the case.

I've lived a life of always moving between countries, that culture shock has become a mere blister in my life. I no longer feel culture shock; it is just something I expect to happen. I stopped questioning things about why Japan has specific rules and social norms, and only accept them as it is. They are difficult to change because Japan is a land of old people.

What is Japan? It's old people.

To be clear, I came across this answer when I was in a rehabilitation center.

A few years ago, I was doing a lot of heavy weight lifting. It got to the point where my right shoulder had a severe impingement. I decided to see a doctor about my shoulder, and it was recommended that I see a specialist. Japan does not seem to have many specialists when it comes to a sports injury. There are, of course, many places where one can go and have a doctor look at where in the body the patient feels pain, and they make a plan for several months, and a few assistants help out the patient moving from one part of the clinic to the next. If you think this is like a sports rehabilitation center, you are wrong.

Japan has a ton of places where old people can go, and the doctor will tell them, "You don't move too much, and the muscles have become stiff, so go through these sections of the clinic, and these young people will help you."

Old people in Japan spend most of their days at home, sitting all day, watching TV, drinking, and eating snacks. They do not move and are mostly inside all day. As a result, their bodies get stiffed, and have to go to special clinics to get their muscles back in shape. If the case is severe, there are many places where old people get in groups and have young fitness instructors do a few simple body movements to give these old people their mobility back. There are tons of these places.

I went to one of these clinics to see if they can fix my shoulder. To my surprise, I was the only young man in that clinic. Every patient was an old person. The staff was happy to see a young man in his 30s, walking around getting electrode machines plugged in and zapping their pain away. Or sitting in some machine that stretched out the neck. It was probably heaven for them since the rest were old people. And let me tell you, old people, smell.

And then something unique happened. I saw something that made me realize how bad it was in Japan. I saw something that answered my question, "What is Japan?"

As I was sitting in the front area of this clinic, I noticed an old man coming inside. This man was old. He was OLD years old. This poor man was in a wheelchair. He looked confused and did not understand what was happening. I still believe this man was senile. I knew this man was a patient at this clinic. Pushing the wheelchair was another old man, but old enough to still work. I assumed it was his son. The son looked old, tired, and worn out. He had fantastic hair, but it was all grayed out. He looked exhausted and had to calm down the man in the wheelchair, his father.

The son talked to the front desk about his father, and he was told to take a seat. The father was talking, looked confused, and scared. The son was calming his father down, but he looked tired and did not give a fuck.

This is Japan.

Japan is a land full of old people who cannot care for themselves. Their bodies cannot push anymore. They cannot move, cannot talk for themselves, and cannot shit for themselves too. The amount of variety of diapers that are needed for old people is impressive. The commercials do not make it better.

Who is taking care of these old people? Their families, especially their male children. They are responsible for their wellbeing. They have to take care of their doctor's appointment, their diapers, their needs, and wants. All of that falls into these people who are still in their 50s. There are not enough centers for old people to be taken care of. There are not enough nurses to help out these old people who can not take care of themselves. Japan has to get nurses from other countries to just keep up with the demand.

And who is taking the burden for all these things? Their sons? No! It's the youth. The people in their 20s are responsible for this burden. They have to deal with a world where they need to provide services for people who are too fucking old and their stressed-out family. The youth in this country have a lot of shit on their plates.

What is Japan? It is a land where the elderly are being taken care of by their old children, and the burden of this falls on their grandchildren. It is the old people who makes the rules of the game, and the young people have no choice but to accept these terms.

I will probably go into more details about Japan in later posts but I think this is the main setting for you, the reader.