Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on June 2010

SEX TALK

Regarding “Sex and the Metropolis” (Feature, June 4): Although much of this interview is tolerable, the hotspots that Miss Nakagawa recommends are fairly inane. Body Shop? Lush? Those two companies have shops in any city around the world. There’s nothing at all to recommend that someone search them out when in Tokyo. I guarantee that you will find nothing different in Tokyo Lush/Body Shop than Minneapolis Lush/Body Shop or Anytown Lush/Body Shop. What a silly recommendation.

Kinokuniya is fine but is nothing special. Its only claim to fame is really that there are no bookshops in Tokyo that can compete with its English book selection. Forget about the prices, you’re better off using Amazon.

Her restaurant suggestion is telling. It’s not even a Japanese cafe. A vegan cafe, serving some sort of fusion/California style food? Huh. Most native Japanese don’t even know what a vegan is. She could have recommended something more interesting, even more Japanese, but perhaps she doesn’t know of such places.

In short, her comments about Tokyo were pretty inane; the rest of it was readable. Sorry, Ulara, but I don’t think you’ve really spent enough time in Tokyo to make any interesting recommendations. In spite of your ethnicity, you missed the mark.

Miss Azuma: “Japanese women in my generation know how to enjoy life, but when it comes to relationships with men, they tend to take on a more traditional or conservative stance. They don’t tend to have this liberated, modern attitude toward men, and instead seek one man carefully and seriously.”

Oh brother. I don’t think you actually get out of the house very much. Way off the mark. Traditional? Conservative? As a long-term resident, it seems the majority of women who I’ve seen working in office situations certainly try to appear that way, and parrot the sort of phrases you used, but the reality is far different.—singlemalt*

singlemalt: So how much of the juice had you dipped into before logging in to Metropolis and leaving your woman-hating rants?

You are like so many complete jack-asses I know, hiding out in Japan, and avoid like the plague. Probably have been here for years working some mundane job. Wouldn’t be able to get a chick back in your home country if you paid for it. Real guys don’t need to wax arrogant and pick apart the words of what seem like four intelligent career women who are brave enough to put their real names out there and don’t hide behind a nickname.

I’d have a single malt with any of these women over you any day.—luke33*

Games people play

Regarding “Nintendo Magic” (Books, June 4): “Sony is a company where hardware leads, and software follows. Nintendo is the opposite.”

It’s statements like this that kind of bother me. I think there are always exceptions to the so-called rule. Sony had made some powerful hardware, and then some really good games with it, and I think Nintendo has done the same. Too much generalizing leads to the ridiculous console wars.—kokorocloud**

*taken from the Metropolis online comment threads
**taken from the Japan Today online comment threads

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