Firstly, love hotels are a sign of not being lonely. They do not offer a prostitute; those batteries are not included
Secondly, I do not gain the impression from that that all do it, merely that they note that the very existence thereof is exceptional. In particular, of the used underwear vending machines, when the story broke many would not believe it and thought it was a hoax, but it actually exists.
No one thinks that every U.S.A.-man bought an assault rifle at a gas station or got one as a gift for opening up a bank account, but that the practice even exists, that the number of occurrence isn't zero — that is something remarkable in and of itself.
> The media loves to spin up an image of Japan to naive westerners by exaggerating its quirks.
What I must ask is why the term “western” invariably always drops whenever Japan is discussed.
Experience taught me that more often than not “the west” in that context simply means “The U.S.A.”.
There is no “west” relevant to what you claim. All that matters is “Japan” vs. “everything else” or at least anyone not particularly experienced with Japan which applies as easily to, say, India, Russia, Uganda, or Indonesia.
> It reminds me of HN. If you read HN too much, you might think that you can only write applications in Rust and Go using K8s, no JavaScript but Typescript only, but in reality the vast majority of apps being written are using boring technologies to implement CRUD around a relational database.
I find that every time an article about a, shall we call it “exciting language” is posted most of the comments, though impressed with the theoretical innovations thereof, doubt it's real world applicability.
My observation from travel is that love hotels are a sign of multigenerational housing. Young adults need somewhere to go without their parents watching.
They're actually cheaper and nicer than hotels, so if you're not icky, it's a cheap way to stay in the country ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Do you speak Pashto enough to know that Afghanistan does not take the crown in this, for instance? Do you speak Danish enough to know that Denmark also participates?
For him to confirm his claim that it is a specifically “western” thing to treat Japan so in news sources, he has to speak a variety of both “western" and “non western" languages to truly ascertain that trend.
He must both confirm that it happens in “western” news sources of many different countries, as well as that it doesn't happen in ”non western” news sources.
One would have to speak a considerable number of languages to claim sufficient expertise in world news reporting to make this claim.
I'm not sure as to how I'm supposed to challenge the challenge to my challenge without being “confrontational” as you call it and point out the faults with the argument.
This is a hard problem, and a difficult lesson to learn. I know it took me a while, and I'm still bad at it.
I find it helps to make your points, while trying to maintain a pleasant tone (Easier said than done, and I'm not a good person to teach this). I also find it helps to add questions asking for either other peoples opinions or clarifications on their position, as that helps show that you're not just talking, but also listening.
Edit: Also, the largest part for me at least is to remember that an attack on your argument is not a personal attack against you. I've had issues with doing this my whole life, and am still working on it.
I did not.
Only if one makes a claim about what is generally written in such books.
Look up "delivery health". The batteries may not be included at the love hotel itself (although I've heard of places that do come with a menu), but it's also a common use of love hotels.
The only place I ever see "weird Japan" content regularly is Reddit and western vloggers living in Japan posting the most sensationalist stuff possible.
It even made the news in Japan.
“ Something I've also noticed in Western media is that when covering issues about other cultures (ie India, Middle East, etc), the bar for evidence is pitifully low, especially if the story matches existing confirmation bias.”
It's like when a Kpop/Kdrama fan approaches me expecting me to know all of the pop culture when in my experience most Koreans simply consider BTS to be like Justin Bieber.
Imagine if people from Japan starts asking you if you watch Justin Bieber sing and then getting offended when you speak the truth. This is exactly what people in Korea and Japan are going through but you will almost never see them express it but its getting extreme in some situations like below:
https://www.reddit.com/r/korea/comments/gxa6qr/this_girl_mak...
Here you can see her physically harassing Korean men by hugging them or trying to kiss them. It's getting to the point where Western women are fetishizing Korean men similar to how Asian women are often fetishized by foreigners (not through popular culture but mainly through pornography).
Pff. Everyone knows Haskell, Idris and Elixir are acceptable, too.
source: there are several people in my weekly support group for exactly this reason, it gets out of control
It reminds me of HN. If you read HN too much, you might think that you can only write applications in Rust and Go using K8s, no JavaScript but Typescript only, but in reality the vast majority of apps being written are using boring technologies to implement CRUD around a relational database.