My Favorite Foreign Country...

Japan!!!!!

The reason this lovely little island is my favorite place away from home is because I owe much of my entertainment to products from this country and the Meiji Era is one of the coolest times in history.

My love for Japan starts with a little company called Sony. Now exempting the tragic defeat of the Beta-Max by VHS Sony is the  primary developer of not only Cd's but DVDs and the Ultimate in home viewing Blu-rays. This means that every time you buy a movie (unless you are still using VHS and if you are stop) Sony gets a little bit of the top. Yes that's right even though Sony has its own movie production and distribution company if Warner Bros wants it out on DVD its gotta pay up. With the exception of recent TV models, I have been Sony fan for years they made the first portable music player (anybody remember Walkmans) and the first portable TV. With a company like this, though Japan is in a funk economically, hopefully  they will make it through because I really like my PlayStation 3.

The second reason I love Japan is Anime!! This art form is so much more than what we consider cartoons here. Japanese animation can range from children's entertainment to full on dramatic feature-length films. The themes can range from satirical (though admittedly we are far superior in this particular category) to existential. The artistic standard of these cartoons is even being mimicked in our own culture here. More and more Saturday morning cartoons are reminiscent of Japanese anime story lines. The exportation of these films and shows are a huge chunk out of Japan's film industry and are exported by the case load as demand globally is large.

The third reason I love Japan is the rich cultural history and the juxtaposition of very modern architecture and ancient shrines throughout the country. They symbolize the very nature of my favorite era in history which is the Meiji era. It was during this time that the Tokugawa Shogunate ended and there was this cohabitation of modernization and traditional elements of society. They had an emperor but a constitution. The variety that must have been experienced not to mention the end of isolation due to good ole' U.S. of A.

If there was only one country I was ever allowed to go see it would be this one, it would be a hard choice but I'm pretty sure Japan is the coolest thing floating in the ocean.