[TalnSG]

We've been using Anime as the example of an unreasonable basis for a decision (not that I disagree!), but I just thought of other some of the other equally unreasonable routes foreigners take to decide they should move to Japan.

I remember when samurai and ninja movies were the big rage in the U.S. and all the guys wanted to be in Japan so they could learn marital arts and sword play. And older ones to be catered to by geishas. Totally ignoring that the days of the samurai were long gone and even worse, completely misinterpreting what a geisha was.

Maybe I understand it because when I was about 14, I wanted to move to Japan. It was only to study and practice Shinto. And a little bit because people laughed when I insisted on wearing geta instead of flip-flops in the summer. To me that was "Japanese culture". I learned how much a culture really entails before I could do anything like spend my life savings on a less that well thought out plan.

But I think Godwin sees that today younger and younger people are able to make such leaps of faith without a net to catch them when they fall.