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Forum - View topicINTEREST: Graffiti, Misuse of Piano Cited at K-On Model School
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Asrialys
 Posts: 1168 |
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So this place is just open for the public to freely use? Is there no sort of staff or regulation? Heh, then again, it's not like neighborhood parks are any resistant to vandalism.
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4906 |
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It does seem like one of those "only in Japan" stories. Open what is essentially an entire empty school building to the public, and then complain when people invariably start screwing around with the stuff inside? Yup, makes sense to me.
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configspace
Posts: 3717 |
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lol, I would totally expect that. Heck I'd be tempted to do that myself too. |
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Egan Loo
Posts: 1380 |
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There is a staff, and even a place to buy goods. While it is no longer being used as a school, the town uses it for other purposes. |
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Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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It's always a few wotas twunts that have to ruin it for the rest.
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Emerje
 Posts: 7447 Location: Maine |
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Once the otaku stop considering something sacred it's time to move on. I'm sure someone thought they were doing the place a service by broadcasting their piano playing over the PA system (assuming those were the same incident).
Emerje |
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Mr. sickVisionz
 Posts: 2175 |
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Meh, people are always gonna be losers no matter what is or where they are. This was probably done by some teens who were bored and rather than grief people in videogames, run around the internet calling people f****** or goto a theater and ruin everyone else's experience, they figured trashing a cultural site would be way cooler.
Yeah, people vandalizing public property and stealing is totally a "only in Japan" thing... |
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TarsTarkas
 Posts: 6048 Location: Virginia, United States |
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That is because you are approaching the matter with a western mindset. Because of Japan's culture and society they are able to do things, like keep buildings open to the public without the degree of supervision and the security guards that western nations would require, especially the United States. You can see this in the freedom small children have to travel alone to school or the market, sometimes at a significant distance or by train. |
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Top Gun
Posts: 4906 |
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Lrn2rd. I said that "only in Japan" would you find people seemingly surprised that a large campus open to the public would attract some degree of graffiti and general mischief. It was sort of a given from the start, hence my point.
Sorry, but I'm not about to buy that. Regardless of cultural differences, every society has their juvenile delinquents and general morons. (Hell, Japan is one of the few countries whose local term for organized crime has become part of the international lexicon.) This isn't exactly an unexpected occurrence, and obviously the town doesn't have enough security personnel on-hand to effectively cover the site. Suggesting that the Japanese would uniquely be able to avoid incidents like this sounds a hell of a lot like a No True Scotsman. And as far as children's safety goes, there are plenty of places in the US, including New York City itself, where children reliably use public transportation on their own. |
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BleuVII
 Posts: 672 Location: Tokorozawa, Japan |
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No, TarsTarkas really does have a point. You are thinking about this from a completely Western standpoint. Westerners would hear this announcement by the town and consider it a challenge. Japanese people would see it as a chastisement. Really, were it not an Otaku Mecca, I think this announcement would ACTUALLY WORK. However, since it IS an Otaku Mecca, I give it 1 more month before some !@#!@er ruins it for everyone.
PS: Logical fallacies have little meaning in a culture that has never heard of Aristotle. |
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Top Gun
Posts: 4906 |
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And you know all of this...how? Do you have some overarching level of experience that allows you to make factual blanket statements about heterogeneous groups of people?
...wait, what? I was referring to how TarsTarkas presented his point, which has nothing at all to do with Japan. And since when are basic logical principles not applicable within certain countries? |
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BleuVII
Posts: 672 Location: Tokorozawa, Japan |
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Does a 4-year degree in Cultural Anthropology (plus 2 years of continuing academic study) and four years of focused study within Japan count? It's not even a matter of fact; cross-cultural communication is much more about perception--something that not too many people seem to be aware of. To someone who grew up in "stick-it-to-the-man" America, it is likely that a statement by the town would be perceived as a challenge in their minds. To someone who grew up in "the-nail-that-sticks-up-must-be-hammered-in" Japan, a statement like that would be perceived as a chastisement to the community for not doing its job.
Yeah, I typed that and then quickly went out the door, and realized as I was traveling that you had been referring to something different. Sorry bout that.  Anyway, WITHIN Japan, pointing out logical fallacies has very little meaning. For thousands of years, wisdom has been defined by Confucian and Zen principles, where contradictions are just a way of expressing an inexpressible truth. When I try to apply Aristotelian logic in arguments with Japanese people, it invariably gets me nowhere.
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TatsuGero23
 Posts: 1277 Location: Sniper Island, USA (It's in your heart!) |
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It's not that unusual of an idea for a old building be open to the public. Basically it serves as a Civic Center. My hometown did the same thing to an old school too. Alot of town meetings or classes like Ballet or Yoga classes where held in the building. Some times rehearsals for local or school plays, sales or events etc etc. You just either had to arrange for the time and space or pay a fee to rent the space. There was a base staff to answer questions and clean but for the most part, it was up to the people who rented out the space for all the important stuff.
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Top Gun
Posts: 4906 |
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Um...yeah, I think that puts me in my place pretty damn well.  You definitely have a hell of a lot more authority to speak on the topic than I do. The thing is, though, the original surprise I expressed wasn't at any sort of reaction the statement might generate; it was at the tone of seeming surprise that said incidents happened in the first place. I'll grant you the fundamental difference in cultural sensibilities, but even taking that into consideration, any sort of publicly-accessible structure with insufficient supervision is probably going to see a punk kid spraying a bit of graffiti on it, or fooling around a bit with a piano.
Heh, no problem. I find your point about differing views on logic to be very interesting, though, since one tends to think of logical principles applying universally, regardless of whether or not they're even acknowledged in a given situation. I wonder if Chinese and Japanese science students have to consciously fight against that cultural mindset a bit when they're first starting out, since accepting contradictions doesn't serve one too well in scientific fields. |
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