And now I’m picturing Youtube overrun by the worst parts of 4chan.

It isn’t pretty.

Amazing story. Thank you so much.

I’d never heard of TrainMan either, and just read the whole thing in one sitting.. god damn!

Really sucks you in huh?

This is not necessarily idiosyncratic to Japanese culture, it’s more a statement about the human condition in first-world nations.

Don’t forget the recent suicide gas “crisis” that has been going on in the last few months. http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11294805

…Yeeeeahhhh… Sorta. But I have to say, my friends back home in the US are generally a lot happier than my friends here in Japan.

The Japanese lifestyle really isolates people. My friends at home get together for BBQs, go on little trips together, do some of the minor holidays together, get to know each others’ kids and kind of build an extended family of friends. Religious people oftentimes have this via their places of worship. It’s a kind of small-village community that I think people need to feel comfortable, as social primates.

It really seems in Japan that you have a network like this only during your school days. I really think this is why so much of TV, etc, takes place in high schools. For many, it was the last time they really felt alive. I think the company has traditionally filled this void in modern Japanese culture, but I was watching a documentary show (Gaia no Yoake, probably my favorite show on Japanese TV) recently about the decline in this. Companies used to have company picnics and family days, etc. But now it’s just work.

Part of this, I think, is the stupid amount of time people spend commuting. A 2hr commute is nothing. There are a few people who work at my university who actually have to take a bullet train every morning to come to work. It’s preposterous, but the blame lies solely on the people doing it, IMO. I’ve had this conversation many times. “It would cost too much to live closer.” Yeah, it would cost more, but you’d actually have a life. You could spend that time with friends or family or whatever. But instead you spend that time crammed on a crowded, sweaty, stinking train with strangers who hate you. That’s your call, I guess, but don’t complain when you feel “lonely and depressed.”

So to sum up, I really do think Japan is particularly unhappy, even in comparison to other first-world countries.

Sorry to go OT from the beginning, um… if it wasn’t for 2chan there would be no 4chan and if it wasn’t for 4chan there would be no lolcats.

Back to thread-jacking, we have the concept of ‘square pegs’. All societies by their very nature attempt to suppress and repel anything that questions their collective sense of harmony.

What I thought was cool in a sort of sentimental way was the #comment-193021 Oh, I give up. I think I might have left a slash out. Train man story: http://www.rinji.tv/densha/ It's just the true story of a Japanese geek who falls in love/gets first girlfriend while getting advice from people on 2chan. Oh, I give up. I think I might have left a slash out.

Train man story: http://www.rinji.tv/densha/

It’s just the true story of a Japanese geek who falls in love/gets first girlfriend while getting advice from people on 2chan.