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50 sats \ 3 replies \ @mallardshead 11 Sep 2023 \ parent \ on: Introduction to the Bitcoin only scene in Japan. bitcoin
That's a great summary. What culturally about Japan are you attracted to most now that you've been out there?
It's still a clean and orderly society. The people are great, for the most part. The food is great. The society is conservative in a good way. I guess the "being decades behind" works both ways. Not good for IT. But good for social cohesion and common sense. It's also a country with a lot of natural beauty and blessed with many natural resources such as rice, fruit, fish. The government is weaker than its G7 counterparts, again in a good way. There was no lockdown in Japan during covid--they couldn't legally do it. There was no vaccine or mask mandate. Now, as it happened, most people went along with both masks and vaccines, but the point was nobody was forced to. Cash is also still widely used here. You can withdraw 3000USD worth of JPY from the ATM and nobody bats an eyelid. You can pay in cash everywhere. There is no nonsense laws on maximum cash transactions like Europe. The trains, buses and planes all run on time. The police are reasonable, for the most part. Also there is always a feeling like Japan could be back any day now. Just waiting for a few things to click and who knows. Probably not going to happen, but at least there is the hope.
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I highly agree with many points you mentioned. Just food, I may be to picky compared to you, but the corona virus money led to a sudden highly felt shrinkflation (almonds imported from Vietnam, nattô with worst beans, no plastic bags given in conbinis, etc the list doesn't end).
Yet, are may country where we have the best beaches in the world (Okinawa) and at good ski courses (Nagano and Hokkaido)?
I left Japan since April to travel in Asia, and in every country I go, there is always a moment when I feel like Bruce Lee ("it is better in Hong Kong") and am thinking this and that was better in Japan.
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I think you are right about shrinkflation, not just since covid but it's been going on for decades. Not only in goods but also in services. You can still pay for quality, though, although of course that price tends to track actual inflation. (by my reckoning goods have doubled in price in the last 10 years)
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