The Temple of Dagon

Because the Japanese make very good movies about the supernatural.
The culture is rich in ghosts, demons and assorted spooks, the language and cultural barriers add an air of mystery and there is still a great deal of superstition in daily life.
Enjoy it.

if you get the cartoon network, watch [adult swim] on the weekends, like saturday night maybe.. from what i've seen, japan is up to its eyeballs in witchcraft, alchemy, magic powers, ancient gods and monsters, legendary this and that. shintoism is still there, isn't it?

Flourishing-with many gods and spirits.
Examine the tengu, a demon that looks like Dick Nixon, among other horrors.
Like the Haunted Samurai Crabs.

Just a few of the reasons that Japan is so cool/strange!


http://www.deathnote.tv/ Download comics and episodes of 'Death Note' one of my favorite anime/mangas

http://www.sacred-texts.com/shi/kwaidan/index.htm Lafcadio Hearn's master work of horror from japan.

JJ Burke wrote:if you get the cartoon network, watch [adult swim] on the weekends, like saturday night maybe.. from what i've seen, japan is up to its eyeballs in witchcraft, alchemy, magic powers, ancient gods and monsters, legendary this and that. shintoism is still there, isn't it?

Man I dont need to watch Adult Swim to know that

but if you did, you could

Thank you, odin2, I've searched for the text for years, Hearn is hard to find.
Those Samurai Haunted crabs are a real thing, often used as proof of evolution in action.

the best thing i ever saw on Japanese tv was a show we all called BattleTards. i don't know the real name of the show, but it was like they took Down Syndrome kids, gave them football helmets and told them to have at it.

best thing ever.

ooh! the Happy Family Plan was good, too. like, they take the world's premiere fire-from-two-sticks guy and have him teach a guy how to do it, then they give him a week to practice. then, at the end of the week, they have him, his family and a whole ton of shit he's going to win if he can start a fire with two sticks in under a minute. of course, he can't do it and they wheel all the good stuff off stage with the kids bawling their eyes out.

second best thing ever.

yeah.. if you're ever feeling inferior to japanese people, with all their stoic dignity and bushido work ethic, just watch some japanese game shows

Bushido was a code for samurai, not the ordinary population.
The Samurai were tasked with keeping those ordinary people in line.
The Black Dragons claimed bushido for their own, but never understood it.
Ask any Korean you meet how much he or she likes the Japanese.
Ask the same question of a Chinese.
And when some Japanese starts crying over Hiroshima or Nagasaki, repeat these three names....
Nanking, Singapore and Bataan

An anthropology prof. I know, once told me that the code of Bushido was never really followed by anyone.
It was studied but it just could not stand up to real world problems..

Also you should check out http://www.sacred-texts.com for any hard to find books you are looking for.
They have helped me alot.

yeah but later, 'bushido' became appropriated by the business culture.. maybe just in american eyes. like, we have to watch out for those japanese corporations, they're full of fanatical productivity, and if a japanese businessman ever loses an account, he has to seppuku himself or else his family be disgraced... there was a lot of that in the 80s, as i remember.

like the way americans are sometimes compared to cowboys.. a romantic vestigial kind of thing

"The way of the Samurai is to grasp the sword, and die."
"As the cherry blossom falls at the first breath of wind, so does the Samurai die for his master."
'Meditation is the sword, is the brush'
All of the code of Bushido is contained in the "Story of the 47 Ronin".

While we are talking about Japan, I must ask if anyone plays Go??
I play it like its a drug....

Grendelvs wrote:the best thing i ever saw on Japanese tv . . .

I can't figure out which culture holds the title for Most Entertaining TV Programming that the Average American Cannot Understand, Spanish or Japanese. Spanish stations have more hot chicks, but the Japanese win hands down for strangeness.