A night of fun at the Ichiriki ochaya costs around $6k a head. And, even if you can afford that amount, admission is not for everybody. You can get in only if someone with direct contact with the owners has personally recommended you. It’s impossible to get in.
Ukiyo-e prints so fascinated Western artists of the time because, despite ignoring strict perspective, creating completely asymmetric compositions that had no object of interest placed at the center, and omitting pictorial detail to the extent the work might seem unfinished, they were able to represent evocative and beautiful scenes that were full of energy. Japanese prints handle perspective through the manipulation of reality. Many use superimposed planes to evoke a false sensation of depth and they hardly ever rely on shading.
Postimpressionists like Monet, Degas and Gauguin, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec each had their Japonist period, with Japanese prints and culture in general being a source of inspiration for them.
The extreme humility of the Japanese might be one of the reasons there are not many media leaders. If we compare the world’s great economies, how many Japanese businessmen have you heard of? And how many American businessmen?
“Deru kui wa utareru” — Stakes that stick out can be hammered.
War, made by armies, is the greatest expression of violence and ignorance.
According to a famous poll, Japan is 80% Shinto and 80% Buddhist, and another oft-quoted dictum stated that Japanese are Shinto when they live, Christian for weddings and Buddhist when they die, since funerals usually use Buddhist rites.
Toward the end of the 80s, there was a second big economic boom called the Heisei Boom. One of its keys was the production and exporting of cars and electronic devices. In the 1990, the Japanese economy rocketed. They had the highest income per capita in the world. You could breathe wealth in Tokyo — the oldest people say there was not one beggar on the streets — lower classes almost disappeared, and the price of 900sqf apartments in Tokyo rose to several million dollars at today’s value. The Japanese had money and spent their time going from one party to another and traveling all over the world with brand-new cameras produced by their own country. Tokyo became the city with the highest GDP in the world, ahead of Paris and NY, as it is today.
Japan is the country with the highest percentage of air conditioners installed in homes (over 98%).
Normally, the Japanese consume a lot of beer and end up picking on their boss right to his face. It’s a good system to deal with stress. There is another unwritten rule: on the following day you must not talk about anything that happened the previous night. That’s why nothing will change. The boss will keep on doing what he must do, as usual, and the workers will too, even if there are things they don’t like. Making changes in Japan is difficult. Everything is slow, there is a lot of paperwork, everybody must agree, and there are tons of meetings. But when things are done, they usually work to perfection — everything goes well.
Japan is one of the most advanced countries with the lowest crime rates in the world. In the Land of the Rising Sun, 1.3 thefts are committed per 100K inhabitants, whereas in the US the rate is 233 per 100K. The difference is incredible!