I started learning about Japan and Japanese culture about six years ago now, and I kind of fell in love with it. I don’t know any other way to describe it. I would love to go to Japan someday (though it’s seeming very unlikely and more unlikely with each passing day) and see some of the very beautiful sights I’ve only seen through the web and YouTube. I want to see the Seto Ohashi, the sakura trees, the Umeda Sky Tower, Kinkakuji, and a few other beautiful things you can only find in Japan.

There are very few places in the world with such natural beauty, such a long and storied history full of beautiful things like art and culture, and such a well-deserved pride in that history. Not to mention a people that are (to some degree) polite and welcoming.

But it never really does to idolize that which you’re in love with, does it? For even when it comes to women, a man like me might fall in love with one (I haven’t yet, but in theory), and she might be the most beautiful thing/person to ever walk the face of the earth. And, someday, she’ll fart. It’s guaranteed.

That’s just how it is. It’s the imperfections which make someone human, and you might love someone in spite of and even because of them, but they’re still imperfections.

I was watching a video last night about the awagasaki train derailment in the early 2000s. I didn’t know about it, and it was a tragedy, worse because it was an entirely avoidable tragedy. There were many causes, but one significant cause was the fact that the Japanese work culture demands perfection, and the train driver was about a minute behind. So, he took a curve too fast, went off the tracks, and slammed into a condominium. Quite a few people (I can’t remember the exact number) were killed. Apparently JR rail has built a monument to that disaster, which is appropriate.

Japan has flaws. Some of them are really bad. Some of them are deadly.

That really hurt when I first realized that, if I’m being honest. I, quite literally, fell in love with Japan. I don’t remember when exactly, how, or even why, but I did. But I can’t say honestly that I love everything about it – there are some things that I strongly dislike, or even hate. How can it be otherwise? Nothing’s perfect, not even that which you love.

But I still love Japan. I don’t know if I’ll ever not. Maybe it will grow, maybe it will mature, maybe it already has, maybe it’s the flaws that make me love it even more in a weird sort of way, but I love it nonetheless. Even though they don’t love me back, it’s okay. As much as I would like for them to, that’s not really how love works, is it really?

Japan, please do more of that which I love, and fix the things that I hate, and then I’ll love you even more!

Just kidding. Well, I’m not kidding. But… isn’t that kind of how all of us feel about the things we love?