lol. In this world, I don't think anything is normal anymore. For real

Define normal. The man on the Clapham Omnibus is a general philosophical yardstick. Have you heard of it?

A fuc*head.

Either that or Colin Powell :) In the right crowd, he could've been a good guy.

I like Colin Powell.

However, sometimes I think he spent too much time trying to not make waves, rather than change the direction of the boat.

Colin Powell didn't pack the punch that others did. He reluctantly read 'that' speech, knowing it to go against his moral compass/conscience. In all honesty, the key decisions were over his head anyway. He was an ideas man that never had the clout to follow through on them.

Japan also attracts a lot of bookworms of particular tastes. Some of the best non-mainstream novels (not light novels) in the world are still being produced in Japan.

I'd like to read some Murakami. I gather that he won yet another prize this year. What is his main thematic focus? I heard that he likes to cut against the grain of the mainstream and is highly original. Sounds like my kind of guy.

I'd say abstract. and Psychological. His characters tend to do a lot of soul-searching in sort of unusual ways and often his main characters are ordinary, boring people pulled into very very odd situations. I think in some of them his main character didn't even have a name.

Mina san wa totemo kyoumibukai komento wo kakimasita kedo. Seiyou ni sunderu otaku wa hontou ni nagai koto terebi geemu wo suru no ga suki desu. ( tsudukeru mae, watashi mo otaku da to itta hou ga ii to omoimasu). Super Mario Brothers ya Street Fighter ya Sonic The Hedgehog ya Soul Calibuar ga dai suki desita. nihon no kaisha wa takusan no geemu wo amerika ni undou site imasu. sore ni, terebi geemu no naka de sorera no geemu ga ichiban yuumei desu. dakara, otaku wa terebi geemu ni kanka saserarete iru koto ga wakarimasu. sore wa waruku ja nai kedo, sono you na hito ni atta koto ga arimasu. sono you na hito to nihongo no kurasu de benkyou shite imasu. nihongo no kurasu de benkyou shiteiru ikuninka wa sekininkan wo mochinagara, boku ga atta otaku wa daitai totemo namakemono desu , (mada tomodachi desu kedo...) kyoushitsu de shuuchuu shinai kedo, nihongo wo hihan shite imasu. "nihongo de kaitari hanashitari iken wo nobetari suru no wa muzukashii da yo" to itte imasita "nihongo wo manabitai kedo, takusan no kanji wo tsukau no wa mueki da" to itte imasita kedo, kyoushitsu ka nihongo no kurabu de nihongo de nanimo iimasen desita. inuyasha ni tsuite hanashite tsumaranai terebi geemu wo shite imasu. . terebi geemu wo suru no ga dai suki desu kedo, watashi sae mo PlayStation no kesikata ga wakarimasu. anime ya terebi geemu wo konomu no wa waruku ja nai desu kedo, moshi nihongo wo mananderu hito dattara, shuuchuu suru hitsuyou ga aru shi, sailor moon wa tsuki nou mahou de tsukawanai koto ga wakaru hitsuyou ga arimasu. Inuyasha ni izon dekimasen. tsui ni nihongo wo kiwameru you ni naru tame ni tsuyosa to yowasa ni tsuite manabu hitsuyou ga arimasu. nihongo wo kiwametai to omoeba, sono you ni shite mite kudasai. guchiritai　to omoeba, guchi wo tsugunde kudasai...

everyone's comments are interesting. Otaku living in the western world love playing video games for a long time. They loved Super Mario Brothers, Street Fighter, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Soul Calibur. Japanese Companies are shipping a lot of video games to the United States, and on top of that, these games are the most popular games there are. So, i can understand that many otaku have been influenced by them. that is not a bad thing, BUT, i have met people like that. I've studied with people like that in japanese class. although some people carry a sense of responsibility, most otaku that i have met are lazy (they're my friends, but lazy). although they don't concentrate in class, they sometimes criticize japanese. they'd say "writing, speaking, or expressing opinions in japanese is hard". They'd say "i wanna learn japanese, but it futile to use so many kanji", but in japanese class or japanese club they don't speak a word of japanese. they watch inuyasha and play boring video games. . I love playing video games, but even I know how to shut my PS2 off. Liking anime and video games isn't bad, but if you are a person who is　studying japanese, you have to focus, and on top of that, you have to understand that Sailor moon isn't going to use her moon magic to teach you how to speak japanese. you can't depend on inuyasha. you have to understand your strengths and weaknesses in order to finally master japanese. If you wanna master japanese, please try to do so, if you just want to complain, please just shut up :mtongue: