[Nyororin]

I get a real kick out of people who have never been to Japan saying that Japanese is a dying language, or that Japanese culture is fading away.

It`s hilarious. Really.

As for children all over the world striving for different things in the past... Umm... Take a few anthropology courses. Humans in all cultures, all through time have been working toward the same basic goals. Yes, those goals have been colored by cultural differences... But you`ll be hard pressed to find a culture in which anyone was striving for something other than a comfortable life. This is true regardless of the country or the era.

If you`re working to feed your family - what does it matter what they are eating? That`s the level of difference we`re talking about.