You people have it all wrong

[Great Rumbler]

Yes, I know what seppuku means. And harikari/harakiri.

[deanna]

Nobody cares...

[Great Rumbler]

Luke: I care.

Me: No you don't!

Luke: :(

[A Black Falcon]

It's harakiri. :)

[Great Rumbler]

It's both.

[A Black Falcon]

Properly, it's that. Hari-kari is it Americanized. Which, as usual, means 'changed to something easier for Americans to say.' :)

[Great Rumbler]

That's why I put both.

[Dark Jaguar]

I heard that in MGS2, but no I have no idea what harikari means... Is it sushi? Please oh PLEASE tell me it's just something innocuous like that!

[A Black Falcon]

OB1 explained it... in japanese it's hara-kiri and it's like seppuku -- ritual suicide done because of honor.

[Dark Jaguar]

Ah, to tell you the truth I disapprove of suicide most of all. If you live you can do something good for people, but if you die, that's it, you've only done something shameful and vanished. Certainly a far worse thing...

[Great Rumbler]

That's not how they see it in Japan though, especially about 50-100 years ago. If the caused some great embarassement to their family or themselves, they felt the only way to rectify the situation was to take their own life. They felt pretty strongly about it back then.

[Dark Jaguar]

Sure they did, too bad they were WRONG.

Besides, does current day Japan really feel that way? If so, their popular entertainment sure seems to fly in the face of that.

[Great Rumbler]

They don't feel that way quite as much as they did back then, I think.

[OB1]

Yeah not anymore. And I agree, I consider suicide to be a terrible thing. But when it comes to foreign cultures you're going to come across a lot of odd things like that. People in other countries think we do a lot of really weird things, too. And they're right.

[Dark Jaguar]

When you say "too" you suggest that you said they were doing something weird, but no, you said "terrible". Weird does not equal terrible. Katarami Damacy is weird... Well, okay it involves crushing entire cities and all, but they SEEM to be alive... I think...

[OB1]

Weird and terrible in our eyes.

[Dark Jaguar]

Not exactly sure what you were talking about there... Stuff we do that's weird and terrible? Such as? We're Americans, we do no wrong!

[A Black Falcon]

I agree, they were wrong... but they definitely believed it.

People in other countries think we do a lot of really weird things, too. And they're right.

This is true too.

[Great Rumbler]

"It's true that American go inside their homes with their shoes still on, right? Then what if the American father steps in dog poo, but doesn't notice and goes inside?"

I love that quote. :)

[Dark Jaguar]

What's that from?

And um, how are you NOT going to notice that? What, are these people running around on their lawns or something? I stick to concrete thank you very much.

But yes of course there are things we do differently. However, if you want something to compare to this, it would be more like...

Well, it's like whereas the Japanese bow courteously to each other as a show of mutual respect, Americans murder babies and eat them.

[Great Rumbler]

What's that from?

A personal favorite of mine, an anime series called Azumanga Daioh.

And um, how are you NOT going to notice that? What, are these people running around on their lawns or something? I stick to concrete thank you very much.

The idea is that we, Americans, walk inside with our shoes on, something that is very odd to people from Japan.

[OB1]

Yeah. And the whole guns thing... just about anywhere you go in the world that is not a middle-eastern country (funny, huh?), people are afraid of coming here because they think that everyone has a gun. That's all you ever see about us on the news in other countries, shootings and such in America. We are pretty crazy that way.

[lazyfatbum]

I love it when people say that something that has been a part of a culture for thousands of years is wrong.

Oh well, atleast we know we're right in everything we do today in this country.

[A Black Falcon]

In Slovenia you didn't wear shoes in school... there was a room where you put your shoes (then it was locked i think) and you wore these slipper things in school. :)

[OB1]

I love it when people say that something that has been a part of a culture for thousands of years is wrong.

Oh well, atleast we know we're right in everything we do today in this country.

Today in Japanese society, suicide is considered wrong. Just like in our society today we consider throwing Christians into lion pits wrong.

[OB1]

In Slovenia you didn't wear shoes in school... there was a room where you put your shoes (then it was locked i think) and you wore these slipper things in school. :)

Oh man, don't remind me of that. When we lived there the only damn slippers I could find were these horrible ballet-like slippers, and I walked around school in them all damn day.

Thankfully several other Croatians wore the same slippers.

[A Black Falcon]

It was kind of weird, but after a while you get used to it... I don't remember what kind of slippers I had though.