Alien Cool

I think it was Joe Haldeman who said about creating aliens for science fiction: "If they're not at least as weird as the Japanese, the author has failed."

Well, the Japanese have got even weirder.

Cracked.com demonstrated this with a list of 6 Japanese Subcultures That are Insane (Even for Japan).

Check out the Mountain Hags, the Male Host gigolos, the Yankiis, and the Visual Kei. Plus the truckers who customize their rigs with radical light racks and cool tubes, or whatever those objects are called.

Can I just state for the record that we could really use some of these subcultures over here?

Though we see all kinds of cosplay going on at, say, Dragoncon, we don't see nearly enough of this stuff on subways, in churches, and in supermarkets (or on semitrucks). Our subcultures are showing their age. Goth is old hat, steampunk is looking a little creaky, and punk is something your grandfather did. We need something that truckers can do besides sexual harassment and having inane conversations on CB radio (assuming they do that anymore.) We need people dressed as anime characters playing frisbee in our parks, or hanging out in Irish pubs.

Some of these styles are more than a decade old in Japan, which means they're about ripe for export.

The Mountain Hags can stay over there, as far as I'm concerned.