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PaperclipPerfector  4d ago (text post)   793 thread views

Transnational Thursday for April 17, 2025

Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

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I'm not that into watching other people talk about Japan. I will say I happened upon this account by a European German girl living in Kyoto that made me rethink everything about living here. She makes every day seem like some sort of glorious moment of learning and experience, whereas I'm buying a coffee at the Family Mart. I realize this is because her channel is highly produced and she is probably insufferable to actually know (as she is probably filming everything). I'm convinced my life is reality, whereas what she is doing is for the cameras. But it certainly is beautifully made.

Oh god. I hate autoplay videos on YT channels. I hate this "too close to the microphone" sound (is it what people call ASMR?) even more, it's like biting on wool. I will never know what this girl has to say about Japan.

I would be the first to claim ASMR is bullshit, except I understand the purported sensation. The earliest I remember feeling it was when Katherine Drew crinkled the paper bag in which she had brought whatever the hell she had brought for show-and-tell in Mrs. Rice's first grade class, many many years ago. Later, certain quiet rooms and voices could bring on the feeling --like a tingling fizziness in the spine, and not at all sexual. Very peaceful even. But I have not had the same sensation in years, and never once to any of the supposed ASMR-inducing videos that our porn-obsessed culture (s) have produced. The subreddit is another case of reddit-fueled pathological fantasizing.

Going to China briefly from Japan definitely makes it clear how much unconscious expertise is required to live in any country. Getting reset right back to the “ohgodohgodhowdoieat” stage reminds me that when I first came to Japan I spend a solid hour in the supermarket trying to figure out how to safely buy eggs and rice to make TKG. Even making microwave gyuudon required sending a panicky text to a friend to check that the 1m30 on the label was correct and I wasn’t going to get food poisoning if I heated it for less than the 7 minutes specified in the UK. It’s humbling.

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