Radical difference between East and West regarding marriage

[cliffy]

Give me a Town name please, I grew up in Victoria about three hours from Melbourne, shit everywhere is about three hours from Melbourne or thereabouts . No hassels just curious I never fit into the mindset of my hometown myself .

Do you know Albury-Wodonga or Wangarata ? This area.

Yep I grew up in the cosmopolitan Shepparton . I thought I recognised the cringe, you would have been a very large round peg in a square hole there

[Mulboyne]

From Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics:

Sleep-Related Nighttime Crying (Yonaki) in Japan: A Community-Based Study (ABSTRACT)

Objective. To examine factors associated with the phenomenon of yonaki, or sleep-related nighttime crying (SRNC), in Japanese children

Methods. A cross-sectional design incorporating parental self-report was used to investigate relationships between developmental, psychologic, and constitutional/physiological factors in the incidence of SRNC. Participants were the parents of 170 infants, 174 toddlers, and 137 children at a well-infant clinic in Tokyo, Japan.

Results. The lifetime incidence rates of SRNC were 18.8% (infants), 64.9% (toddlers), and 59.9% (children). At all ages, children were most likely to cosleep with their parents; however, infants with reported SRNC were found to cosleep more frequently, whereas infants without SRNC were more likely to sleep in separate, child-dedicated beds. Toddlers with frequent SRNC were more likely to have irregular bedtimes and to have nonparental day care than were those without SRNC. Preschoolers who typically slept 9.5 to 10.5 hours per night were less likely to report SRNC than were children with longer or shorter nighttime sleep durations. In all groups, children with frequent SRNC were more likely to suffer from chronic eczema, and toddlers and preschoolers with SRNC exhibited bruxism more frequently.

Conclusions. The traditional Japanese arrangement of cosleeping represents an environment in which parents are readily accessible to children during waking episodes. Physical proximity to the parents in infancy, but not at other ages, is associated with SRNC. The higher incidence of bruxism, chronic eczema, and day care use among children with frequent SRNC supports the hypothesis that nighttime anxiety may promote SRNC.

[amdg]

Yep I grew up in the cosmopolitan Shepparton . I thought I recognised the cringe, you would have been a very large round peg in a square hole there

Shepparton seems to produce a large number of people who don't fit in there. I used to do some business with SPC, so I know the town a little bit. It's a cultural hell hole, but with some very nice people.

[rooboy]

Who was so distressed by the lack of culture, narrow-mindedness, insularity etc of we Aussies.

Well now, I am going to surprise you but when I have visited France ( a no of times as I got interested in France when I studied French in high school, studied for 3 years in uni as well) I have been appalled by the insularity of French people, right down to the tendency of many people I met everywhere (yes many) who just looked at me and shrugged, or laughed and then proceeded to ignore me when I spoke to them in French.

I`ve had my level tested and while I am not near the highest level, I am intermediate or a bit higher in my ability and I know I don`t speak the usual tourist phrasebook style. Why then did so many French people not want to acknowledge my speaking French? This was in the usual course of travelling - I didn`t run after people trying to converse as a French bandit.

My answer - it`s the common French insularity whereby foreigners aren`t supposed to speak their language. More common than you`d think. I also found a lot of French people ready to slag off black people, Algerians, etc whose grandparents/parents had come to live in France but were French citizens. And nope, they weren`t targeting the ones who rioted in Paris last year - this was before.

I think insular people are found everywere - France, Australia, Japan, the US, the UK etc etc etc. Parochialism is alive and well in Oz but the history of Oz as a British colony that was a haven for working class English, Scots, Welsh and Irish provides some of the answer to that. People came to Oz in the 19th century to escape the class sytem, British imperialism, or because they were dissenters (religious etc). South Australia was known as a `paradise of dissent`. It provided refuge for a lot of people who wanted to establish a genuinely democratic system. This lead to laws like that for lower working hours, the strength of the trade union system and the early victory of women in getting the vote.

There is also a real rebel element to Australia - from the convict era, the bushranger (outlaw) times. Anti-authoritarianism is more pronounced in Oz I think. Oz also has its bad history of dealing with indigenous people but there`s a lot on the positive side as I mentioned above.

But I have to challenge the French bloke`s notion about lack of interest in culture or whatever. Some of the finest ficition in the English language, some excellent movies, and some exceptional artists are from Australia. The fact that the French bloke doesn`t know about these tells me he was being the insular Frenchman to some extent.

As for political/social debate - you clearly didn`t listen to Aussies debating everything under the sun everywhere. One thing I really love about my country is its people know they have rights and you don`t deserve them if you don`t stand up for them. A big difference between the persisting feudal mindset in many ways, subtle and not so much, in Japan.

[Buraku]

Annual Number of Births in Japan Falls Below 800,000 for First Time
https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-data/h01699/

The Divorce Temple
https://www.amusingplanet.com/2023/02/m ... emple.html