Welcome to General Chat - GAW Community Area
This General Chat area started off as a place for people to talk about things that are off topic, however it has quickly evolved into a community and has become an integral part of the GAW experience for many of us.
Based on its evolving needs and plenty of user feedback, we are trying to bring some order and institute some rules. Please make sure you read these rules and participate in the spirit of this community.
Rules for General Chat
-
Be respectful to each other. This is of utmost importance, and comments may be removed if deemed not respectful.
-
Avoid long drawn out arguments. This should be a place to relax, not to waste your time needlessly.
-
Personal anecdotes, puzzles, cute pics/clips - everything welcome
-
Please do not spam at the top level. If you have a lot to post each day, try and post them all together in one top level comment
-
Try keep things light. If you are bringing in deep stuff, try not to go overboard.
-
Things that are clearly on-topic for this board should be posted as a separate post and not here (except if you are new and still getting the feel of this place)
-
If you find people violating these rules, deport them rather than start a argument here.
-
Feel free to give feedback as these rules are expected to keep evolving
In short, imagine this thread to be a local community hall where we all gather and chat daily. Please be respectful to others in the same way
Huh. I wish I'd known all this a long time ago. Saved for future reference. Thanks.
I want to add just one more bit you might find interesting. History books paint Japan's isolationism as some kind of backward thing and most Japanese accept it as a fact as well.
However, just one example of just how far beyond the Western world that Japanese were during that time - when Americans finally opened up Japan and started trading, they found out that even the cheapest penny coins were so exquisitely done with craftsmanship that was unmatchable, that they started buying up these penny coins for hundreds of times their value, sometimes in actual gold.
Villagers were lining up to exchange their pennies for gold! So much so that soon the country ran out of small coins for day to day usage.
If you are interested in this stuff I would suggest the book "Before the Dawn" by Shimazaki Toson. However, I cannot vouch for the English translation. But the Japanese original is an incredible book.