the other reason foreigners consistently get goggle-eyed over East Asia is because they go to the nicest and most modern bits, whereas at home they've probably been to, like, your average city. i was very blessed by getting to spend my first year in China in Shijiazhuang.
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Replying to @BeijingPalmer
I will push back on this a little and say that one of the things that makes Japan feel like the future is a high standard of living even in remote places—some space vending machine standing in a field, above all the sense of things working by default, and people doing their jobs
3 replies 1 retweet 54 likes -
Replying to @Pinboard @BeijingPalmer
I don't consider myself infatuated with the country, but this specific sense of everything "working by default", and the fact that thought and care is put into almost all things, from consumer items to public spaces, matters far more than fast trains or general wackiness
2 replies 1 retweet 28 likes -
Replying to @Pinboard @BeijingPalmer
I think this aspect of Japanese life can be praised and emulated in a crowded world without having to turn a blind eye to the country's many faults, especially as you point out the horrific sexism, work culture, and inability not to wrap everything in 42 layers of plastic
2 replies 1 retweet 24 likes -
Replying to @Pinboard
ironically I think in Japan this is in part a product of the future *failing*. Japanese construction in the 1980s and 1990s had tons of horror stories of a kind you'd expect in a bubble; since 1996 there's been a certain 'let's just get this thing we have working well' spirit
2 replies 2 retweets 10 likes -
Replying to @BeijingPalmer
Your comment about it feeling like 2000 there even after the fact may be more praise than you intended! Japan got diverted into an alternative retro future that can feel kind of antiquated but, oh my god is it better than what we got elsewhere.
1 reply 0 retweets 6 likes -
Replying to @Pinboard
I intended some praise! Japan to me today feels like a country that decided to make things ... nice. like, not great, not exciting, just nice.
1 reply 0 retweets 12 likes
Yeah, sign me up for the devil's bargain where I have to do occasional light faxing in exchange for clean public toilets.
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