XPost: alt.folklore.computers   
   From: bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com   
      
   On 1/8/26 22:58, rbowman wrote:   
   > On Thu, 8 Jan 2026 22:15:11 -0500, c186282 wrote:   
   >   
   >>     However Japan IS a bit different ... their geographics did let them   
   >>     build a kind of singular culture over a very long period.   
   >   
   > Their culture doesn't like to examine its roots. If it wasn't for Koreans   
   > teaching them how to grow rice they'd still be eating millet. The   
   > calligraphy is mostly Chinese eve if it is pronounced differently. Shinto   
   > is homegrown but Buddhism came from the west.   
   >   
   > That's not to say there weren't tweaks. Avalokiteshvara had a sex change   
   > and became Kannon, who has overtones of Amaterasu, The Kirishitans blended   
   > Kannon with the Virgin Mary. Very adaptable people.   
   >   
   	China was the most powerful and cultured nation in the earliest days   
   of Japan and so it tried to copy or emulate the Chinese organization and   
   civilization as soon they began to learn about them and got over the   
   habit of moving capitals frequently.  They confusingly used Chinese   
   characters in two different ways but soon enough they developed their   
   own syllabary in two modes one for native sounds and one for the   
   strange sounds of foreign works using very similar characters.  They   
   still use the Chinese characters to indicate how words should be   
   pronounced as superscripts. I tried to study Japanese about 20 years   
   ago but gave up as my brain fog from exertions left me without   
   adequate working memory.   
      
   	bliss   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)