Cool Devices

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Dirty talk and Hentai

So the time has come for me to get a bit dirty and talk about something taboo here in the U.S. which is of course, pornography. Specifically porn of the anime type or more commercially known as Hentai. Talking with my wife about this, yes we talk about everything, she said the term hentai is used for describing more, hardcore porn. I thought all porn was hardcore? Interestingly enough tracing back to the origins of hentai I found that one of the first movies was produced in Japan in 1969 called A Thousand and One Nights. It was poorly accepted at the time but set the scene for later films to come. Though there are many hentai films, one that comes to mind in particular is a series called Cool Devices. Not that I’ve watched a lot of porn or anything. Cool Devices is an anime series of 11 episodes of unrelated topics mostly centered around fetish and BDSM types of situations and imagery. Good explanation, right?

But back to my point of porn being taboo here in the U.S. compared to Japan, and elsewhere for that matter. I can’t say I fully understand why that is other than the powers that be have instilled the values of sexuality on the people, rather than the other way around. From my perspective anyway, we here are a more conservative Christian based society that has learned that it’s bad to be sexual in nature or to have thoughts about it. Hence pornography is looked upon as something that is “dirty” and not “normal”. As we have seen in the recent Supreme Court ruling, gay marriage is now legal in the United States. There are still many who oppose the decision and idea the of it based on outdated values. Though everyone is welcome to have their own opinion on any topic, that’s what makes being alive wonderful. Another and more powerful reason why sexuality is looked down upon in the U.S. is that sex sells. The more “taboo” you make something the more people want it. The more you shun sex and sexuality the more money you can make from it. I mean just look at the recent buzz about Miley Cyrus and the “shock value” on her actions being sexual in nature. Don’t think for a moment that was something she thought of doing herself. Once people start to really, really see things for what they are, their mind begins to open to other possibilities. It’s pretty amazing, give it a try.

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Mr. Robot

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Ask Mr. Robot

Though I haven’t had a TV now for over 10 years, I discovered a new show from USA Network called Mr. Robot. It’s becoming increasingly easier to find content online. I mean lets face it, at some point cable is going to be completely gone as we know it. Not to mention all the pirating that is done. I would never do that of course 🙂 I found Mr. Robot from a reddit post about there being a free pilot to watch on YouTube. What an excellent way to get the pilot out and gauge the response other than to post it on YouTube for free? Kudos to USA Network on that one, though I am sure it’s been done before. The video has since been made private for some reason. I guess the response was good enough however to keep the series going.

I watched the pilot without reading the reddit post comments or looking up what the show was about. Being a robot myself, I was interested. I usually don’t like to watch trailers or know what I am watching until the movie or show is going and either I find myself being entertained or disgusted and turn it off. I have to say though I was pretty taken with Mr. Robot. Not for it’s fantastic acting or action scenes or CGI, but for the actual content of the show. It’s refreshing sometimes to watch something that captures your attention enough to want to think about what’s being presented rather than just being mindlessly entertained. Though that has it’s merits at times.

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Death Note

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A notebook about death

There are still many things I have yet to discover about Japan or Japanese or something Japanish or Japaneseish, you get the picture. Through my extensive research so far of everything Japan, I am becoming and expert of course, I have found something called Death Note. Death Note is an anime series about exactly what it says in the name, a note about death. More to the point however it’s a notebook that is used to write someones name in to have them die. Quite something if you ask me. Could you imagine a notebook written for the soul purpose of the systematic destruction of a people(s) of your choosing? Come to think of it, it’s happened already many time throughout our history. Probably the most recent and notable is Mein Kampf authored by Hitler outlining his political agenda and plans for the new world Germany. With that there was also a book at the time called Sonderfahndungsliste G.B or better known as The Black Book which was a list of 2,820 Britons to be arrested by Nazi Germany of her successful invasion of England by 1940. So I guess an anime series about something similar isn’t too far off.

The Death Note series is composed of 37 roughly 20 minute blurbs taking you through a dramatic process of conflict and resolution around the notebook. The series starts with a shinigami or death god that drops the notebook from the “underworld”. Death gods are supernatural gods in Japanese culture who invite humans to their death. In the case of the Death Note series, a shinigami writes down a humans name they choose to die. The notebook is dropped by the god because he’s basically bored with the underworld and wants to give the power of the notebook to a human for his own personal “entertainment”. The notebook is picked up by Light Yagami who is a highly intelligent young high school student who believes the god picked him for the purpose to use the book. He immediately is enamored with the power of the notebook and wants to become his own god of a “new world” to rid the planet of anyone he’s see’s fit to die. Yeah, you can see where this is going already. Light is challenged by L, who is rivaled by Light’s intelligence and youth, to find who the user of the book is and bring him to justice. The notebook also has a set of particular rules to follow when using it. It’s quite an extensive list to describe but basically if you don’t follow the rules properly, bad things can happen to the user or otherwise.

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Communication breakdown

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Japanese communication breakdown

Knowing my wife now for a number of years, I think we dated for two years first before being married for five, we still have yet to get past the communication breakdown problem. I say this as my wife is first generation Japanese in the U.S. She had lived here for a number of years before we met. She was actually married once before and lived in NYC for quite some time while working for Kirin Ichiban as an assistant to executives. During her time here in the U.S. she hadn’t, and still really hasn’t, taken the time to work on her pronunciation of English. She is completely fluent in reading and writing English but her speech leaves much to be desired at times. Further more she tends to mix words up along with their meanings leaving me to scratch my head in misunderstanding.

I’ll do my best here to give you a few examples of what some of our communications are like. The other week we were getting in the car to go somewhere. As I was getting in the car she said to me, well what I thought, was “deer”. We live on a wooded hillside and have deer prancing around all the time. So naturally thinking she said “deer” I half close the door and look for it. I turn to her and say “I don’t see it.”. She says back to me “Stop playing games, DEER!”. I of course again look back over my shoulder and then look back at her and say “Um yeah there is nothing there.”. By this time she is fuming and I can tell. She again says “Deer!” while pointing at the mirror of the car door. “Oh” I say, “MIRROR and not DEER.”. Oh that was a crazy one that day. Pretty much the rest of the day we were talking about how I have a hard time understanding her pronouncing of certain words and that I wasn’t screwing with her, I thought she was really saying deer.

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What is Marimokkori anyway?

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Japanese mascot characters

Ok so you might be thinking to yourself right now. What is this green character and why is there some type of huge ball thing where his package should be? Better yet, why is he reaching out to a child and trying to touch his hand? I can tell you right now, something like this in America would never fly. There would be protesting and riots in the streets if this were going on. Again however, this is the kind of thing the American mentality would never fully embrace or understand. Which, I understand. My first reaction was one of shock for the reason alone that Americans have been taught certain things about sexuality that traverses through our adults years as being “bad” or not “normal”. I am not saying there isn’t problems in Japan with sexuality or behaviors but from what have experienced, it’s just not the same. There is a lot of sexual connotations in Japanese culture which I have yet to fully understand though it seems a lot of it comes from the Edo period as well as other cultural values and ideas. Though don’t quote me on that.

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Soapland

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What is Soapland?

While in Japan last year we hit up two large cities, Tokyo and Sapporo. While in these cities I brought back many fond memories of the land in which my wife was born. However I saw some other things that were quite a shock to me being an American. One of which was Soapland. I noticed a building in a section of Sapporo called Susukino which is where most of if not all the hostess bars are located in the city. I asked my wife what the particular place was and she told me about the deal with Soapland. Of course I had to look it up for myself later to find more about what it was. Basically Soapland is a generalized term for a type of establishment in Japan where a man would go to get soaped up by a lovely lady in the nude. From what I understand in reading some forums with mens descriptions and experiences, yes they are out there just do a Google search, is that you have a private room and bath with a woman and anything goes. Sounds like one hell of an experience however I get to have Soapland with my Japanese wife whenever I want for free, well almost free. Oh and the costs at these places seems to vary on the quality of girls and duration and I am guessing what ever else is agreed upon.

In Japan prostitution is illegal. However from what I understand that law is very vague in it’s wording. Basically if you go into an establishment be it a strip club, hostess bar, Soapland (I keep capitalizing the S for some reason) or whatever else and you have an agreement with the hostess for sexual intercourse in some manner, it’s completely acceptable and left go as that. As long as it’s behind closed doors, don’t ask and don’t tell. I can see the benefit in that on one side of it but it also has it’s drawbacks. In America of course prostitution is completely illegal and almost all of the states. Nevada is the only place where it is legal. However not all of the counties in Nevada have legal prostitution, however that works. I know I’ve seen some news in the past about ranches in certain parts of Nevada where this is the norm.

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