#japan

I realized that the world did not exist for my benefit. It followed that the ratio of pleasant and unpleasant things around me would not change. It wasn't up to me. It was clear that the best thing to do was to adopt a sort of muddled cheerfulness. ↗

— Banana Yoshimoto

#change

In most collectivist cultures, direct confrontation of another person is considered rude and undesirable. The word no is seldom used, because saying “no” is a confrontation; “you may be right” and “we will think about it” are examples of polite ways of turning down a request. In the same vein, the word yes should not necessarily be inferred as an approval, since it is used to maintain the line of communication: “yes, I heard you” is the meaning it has in Japan. ↗

— Geert Hofstede

#japan #yes #communication

Of late the nights are dawning plum-blossom white. ↗

— Yosa Buson

#death

Come out, Yamiko, come out... ↗

— Katlyn Charlesworth

#historical-fiction #japan #death

By means of steam one can go from California to Japan in eighteen days. ↗

— Townsend Harris

#days #eighteen #go #japan #means

Als ich sehe, wie Harus Haar verspielt im Wind tanzt und völlig zerzaust wird, und das, obwohl das Grau da draußen doch bleischwer in der Luft lastet, erkenne ich auf einmal, wie weit, weit weg die Vergangenheit ist. Weiter als der Tod, ja weiter sogar als die unüberbrückbare Distanz, die zwischen zwei Menschen besteht. ↗

— Banana Yoshimoto

#deutsch #distance #german #japan #japanese

We only have one life to live. Since everybody has the potential to be successful, I hope we'll all take an action and actually live it. ↗

— Gackt

#japanese-singer #life

My own family and thousands of other Japanese Americans were interned during World War II. It took our nation over 40 years to apologize. ↗

— Mike Honda

#during #family #ii #japanese #my own

As to the war with Japan, the President had already received my memorandum in general as to the possibility of getting a substantial unconditional surrender from Japan which I had written before leaving Washington and which he had approved. ↗

— Henry L. Stimson

#approved #before #general #getting #had

He was prepared to die for it, as one of Baudelaire's dandies might have been prepared to kill himself in order to preserve himself in the condition of a work of art, for he wanted to make this experience a masterpiece of experience which absolutely transcended the everyday. And this would annihilate the effects of the cruel drug, boredom, to which he was addicted although, perhaps, the element of boredom which is implicit in an affair so isolated from the real world was its principle appeal for him. ↗

— Angela Carter

#baudelaire #boredom #love #art