The "place, Japan" meme completely broke people's brains and made them unable to ask seriously what is so special about Japan. The answer is perfectionism and sensitivity.
Japanese sense things that foreigners cannot sense, and when they set about a task they actually try. This is why Japan is "weird." When a Japanese person has a weird idea, they force it to work. They make it harmonize with the surrounding environment. This creates a situation where every location in Japan feels like a breath of fresh air. Everything has its own unique approach or style. Everything from the design of a storefront to the character of a hammer is unique.
Westerners, of course, are allergic to quality and insist that things be made as quickly and stupidly as possible. So every city in the West feels like a trash dump, and not a place where people live.
@zennospace “Jesse. We need to make superconducting magnets. Grab all that copper you stripped out from your house while you were tweaking. We’re gonna make HTS tape and sell it to magnet companies under the table. This is way more profitable than meth.”
How your neighbour’s teenage son who you’ve hired as a handyman over the summer because his dad thinks he needs to be toughened up looks at you when you tell him that you’ve had a dead bedroom for years