Why Japan (or China, India, The United States or, heck, Denmark) is So Weird and Wacky!

“European and American Travelers chronicled India’s people and culture in exotic illustrations that revealed more about the viewer than the viewed.”

Even if you don’t read Buzzfeed (A Japanese Burger Chain Made Face Masks So Women Can Eat Burgers Elegantly ) or Cracked (6 WTF Trends in Japan You Can Blame on White Guys ), you’ve probably heard of the vast canyons of Tokyo, filled with roving hordes of drunken, perverted middle-aged men, looking for sex with high school girls and buying used women’s underwear from vending machines on every corner.

And yet, when someone asks you about why your country is so weird and wacky, you stare at them wondering why everyone always thinks that?

When we leave home, most people are looking for adventure, the different, the unusual. We scan advertisements for mis-used English, and giggle at t-shirts with rude words. Oh, look, the choices on the McDonald’s menu in Dubai includes the McArabia Chicken, how exotic!

Exotic/erotic. po-tay-to, po-tah-to. People want to see different, cool, What.The Fuck.

Why is Japan so Weird and Wacky? Because you make it that way. You’re reading articles call WTF Japan?. You’re shaking your head over their quaint refusal to be ashamed of nudity or sexuality. You’re mixing up hard-to-find, adult-only media with cartoons available on TV for anyone. You’re looking for things that make it look weird — and yay, you’ve found them! Yes, there is a penis festival and the “Naked Festival.” Have you ever hung out with your local nudist group, or joined the Polar Bear Swim in your neighborhood? No, of course not! you shriek, your mind balking from the idea. Your own quaint customs are not cute at all.

It makes more sense to imagine some Japanese salaryman all hot and bothered about porn, than it does to imagine your Dad that way. So, because you don’t want to imagine your Dad that way…or that you’re that way, even with the Japanese porn collection under your bed…Japan or Norway or wherever, is weird and wacky.