The Attractions of Japanese Culture and Why I Love it so much

Japanese culture has influenced my life so much, especially when I was a kid. So I want to share the enchantment of this unique culture with you. From the special characteristics of Japanese culture, to how it has impacted my mind since elementary school, and what I want to explore more about it in the future. Now, let’s check out what made Japanese culture so unique.

Inclusiveness

One thing that made Japanese culture so unique is its inclusiveness. Japan is an island country, which means it has a well-developed foreign trading system and decent cultural exchange basics after the “Meiji reform”. And it turned out to be so inclusive that it absorbed some parts of other cultures into its own, and combined historical traditions with modern technology and fashions, all of them into a whole. Many of the characters in Japanese called “Kanji” are very similar to Chinese characters (some short phrases cross-language readings can happen, but usually it’s quite not precise), and on the other hand, many words spoken in Japanese are very similar to its English pronunciation, because it was directly translated into this language, and became a new word in Japanese. This is just a quick example for how inclusive Japanese culture is, for foreign cultures, but also, Japanese people combine things from different time period. Andrew Marston describes today’s Tokyo as “[…] one of Japan’s premier hubs for culture, cuisine, entertainment, shopping, and also countless historic temples, gardens, parks, landmark and museums.” in his Tokyo travel guide video. While being so complex, Japanese culture is still well-spread.

A Famous Culture

Japanese is a famous culture around the world, you can see its footprint everywhere. For example, there are many Sushi restaurant in the B.C. lower mainland, the magic of Japanese food has encouraged people to show its taste in foreign countries. Many of my friends are interested in learning Japanese, because many of them have watched a lot of Japanese contents, same as me. Japanese literature and animation industry are unique and mature. These two things has influenced me so deep, that many of my personalities and my values are similar to the characters I known in Japanese literature and anime.

Literature of Japan

The reason that they influenced me so deep is because I started to read them when I was young. Since I was grade five, I started to read light novels. Light novel is a genre in Japanese literature. It is usually a fantasy or daily life based story that is focusing on teenagers as protagonists. Many of them are mixtures of comedy, magic or science fiction, and romantic story. The first time that I met a light novel was in the Central Book Store of GuangZhou, which is my favorite place to go on weekends. Once I picked up a book to read, I could not put it down. The amazing story of light novels and other kind of Japanese books had got my heart ever since. My favorite light novel series is “A Certain Magic Index” . In fact, light novels are often connected with manga and anime.

Anime

In Japan, anime are usually scripted from a original manga or light novel. Anime culture is so unique globally, but so powerful at the same time.

“Japanese anime has blown up around the world.

If you’re into it, great!

Even if you’re not, learning a bit about this Japanese cultural staple might be a great way to understand youth culture a little better..”. According to the article “Japanese Culture For Foreigners: 19 Insider Secrets You Need To Know”, Japanese anime is so powerful that today’s youth culture often includes more or less anime element. I personally have watched quite a lot of anime, but many of my friends have watched more than me, and many of us are going to travel to Japan or learning the language. This is a phenomenon showing how youth society is secretly learning new things through this story telling genre. I am amazed by this culture as well, after years of reading and watching, and I am planning on traveling to this special country.

One Day in Tokyo

Talking about traveling to this country, Michael Richey has a suggestion for others in his blog, Tokyo. “Tokyo is one of [his] favorite places for one reason: possibility. Whatever you’re into, Tokyo has something that caters to that interest. And you’ll probably (definitely) discover new things that are right up your alley.” I want to visit Akihabara, a region of downtown Tokyo famous for electronics stores, but now is also a well known place for anime cultures. I want to taste Japanese foods, like ramen, tempura, dafuku, yaki, and sukiyaki in classic Japanese restaurants that specially serve these food. I want to visit Japanese ancient castles in Osaka. It is just like how my friend Bruce said, “[he] wants to go to Tibet because [he] has heard a lot about it, but talking about traveling to Japan, there are just too many reasons to be said.”

After all, which country is your dream country to travel to?

If one day you have a chance to experience the charming Japanese culture, it is a good idea to do so, because whether you like it or not, it will be a culture that you will not experience again in other places.