This is just awesome...

[AsahinaKimi]

[1monster]

1. The youths of today are really into Japanese culture. My son recognized this group by

their sound.

[AsahinaKimi]

2. Mostly largely due to the popularity of Anime ..

Though it seems right now America is undergoing a KPOP (Korean Pop) invasion which is slowly rising to the surface. I am glad to see it, though I do favor Japanese pop (JPOP) rock, (Jrock) and Visuel Kei. If it wasn't for Kwon Boa, I probably would have not listened to as much Korean music these days..

[1monster]

3. Yeah, it started with manga and anime, but it has gone farther. Kids are learning some

Japanese language and kanji and the music. I haven't seen any interest in the tea ceremony or Kabuki Theatre yet, though.

[Art_from_Ark]

7. It's hard to believe that 30 years ago,

"Japan-bashing" was all the rage.

[AsahinaKimi]

8. I am glad I was a baby

30 years ago!

[Art_from_Ark]

9. I'm sure you would have been angry if you had been aware of it

I think that the "Japan-bashing" probably peaked in the late '80s, although there were some teabagger types who got their knickers in a knot in 1995 when the United States decided to (mercifully) nix the issue of a proposed World War II commemorative stamp that featured a mushroom cloud and the inscription "Atomic bomb ends the war".

[AsahinaKimi]

11. most probably...however

Now.. there are so many fans of Japan.. here in America.. mostly because of Anime and manga.. but I still run into pockets of resistance from time to time, who simply hate all Asians in general, though that is mostly on line, and not in the area where I live.

[Art_from_Ark]

12. In some little way, I may have helped to get the anime ball rolling

At the height of Japan-bashing, I was working at a school where elementary school kids from all over the northeastern US would come for a week to learn about things they couldn't learn about at their own schools. One of my classes involved having the kids imagine they were taking a trip to Japan, then we would watch an episode of Doraemon and I would ask the kids to explain about what they had seen, without knowing what had been said. Doraemon is a robot cat who has a pocketful of amazing gadgets that can do amazing things, and most of the kids thought the cartoon was "awesome". One kid who was particularly impressed had a father who worked in the broadcast industry in New York, and he couldn't wait to get back home and tell Dad about it. So who knows? I might have done something to help bring Japanese anime to the US!

[marasinghe]

4. nice

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. Traditional Japanese ensemble music

is largely an oral tradition with only minimal written notation. In the old days, the shamisen player wrote the melody, and the other instrumentalists wrote their own parts. All of them learned mostly by ear, and "musician" was considered a great job for a blind person.

[Richard D]

6. Very nice

Thank you.

[april]

10. thank u

[Kablooie]

13. Pretty cool!

The switch from the pentatonic to chromatic scale was very effective.