For anyone outside the loop confused as to what a Menhera is, it's basically the japanese equivalent to those BPD hipster e-girls but with their own aesthetic/subculture/whatnot.
This video gives an insight as to what the closest thing to menheras we have in the west would be.
Basically, your standard art school rake. The kinda ones that broke your heart by doing some insanely cruel shit you would have never thought possible but they did it anyway and don't even understand they did anything wrong, just with their own japanese flavor and a lot more self-harm and a lot more debt for going to host clubs. And like their western counterpart, they glorify prescription multi-drug abuse.
It's a rabbit hole and a half.
Bemani is the best, I've been looking down people who plays SEGA rhythm games like maimai or Ongeki because they're more made for casuals and underage teenagers. The kind of people who plays beatmania would be STEM university students with no social circles or hobbies to do other than spending many credits on beatmania.
About a year ago I was playing beatmania to kill the time until the sunset as I was too anhedonic from antipsychotics, and could not enjoy things for whole day so I decided to only go back to my room and do things I like after 6PM.
Hey, at least sega games get interesting music. They can keep milking casuals as long as they keep paying artists to make more music for all i care. It's still better than the avalanche of ufo catchers game centers are replacing actual games with.
STEM people playing beatmania is quite true, and that's also my main game. I can relate to playing it while anhedonic, when i've had bouts of depression i just play BMS for hours on end (but even so I keep failing Chuuden at the last measures of bad encryption, and i fucking hate it). Smoking a ton of weed with some dextroamphetamine and then playing IIDX for 4 hours straight is one of my favorite things to do.
Shmups i have to play sober though. I can 1cc Ketsui (1-all, 2-all is too hard) when sober but if i'm high i just lose all my extends in stage 4 because cinderella amber filters me like a dirty casual.
(with "illegally downloaded" roms)
It's always interesting to see the 'normal' japanese perspective on piracy, it's almost as taboo as drugs and as a westerner i've always found it a bit silly. It's the same deference to authority that you talk about for drugs, but applied to corporate interests (and not so much 'fair use' or intellectual property). It's also extremely frustrating because getting proper rips of obscure japanese games/music/art in general is often difficult because of people's disgust towards file sharing, and it only results in media being lost for good, the whole "piracy is theft" argument is hilarious and pure bootlicking.
I would assume it's still very very uncommon to see people file sharing in general over there, right?
Meanwhile the people who would buy MDMA which seems to be one of popular illegal things in Japan, are different people.
Is MDMA that popular in japan? Aside from meth, i know it's one of the top street drugs, but that's still gotta be a hyper-minority. It also seems like it would be impossible to source unless you already know people or are willing to risk getting your life ruined by the authorities.
I would also imagine nobody practices harm reduction/testing in japan because of the low drug use and general ignorance, so i wonder if you guys actually get MDMA or stuff like MDA/2C-B/other research chemicals. I'd be very sketched out.
It's a shame, MDMA is one of my absolute favorite drugs and everyone should probably try it at least once.
I know that people take high doses of Venlafaxine because it can almost feel like MDMA, but having used it therapeutically for depressive episodes, the side effects were so fucking uncomfortable that even normal doses felt like i was on the verge of serotonin syndrome, the body load for me is 10x heavier than even LSD.
Still, do people take heroic doses of SNRIs recreationally in japan too? With all of them going around, there MUST be recorded instances of it.
Lastly, please be careful with that Bron stuff, unless you extract just the opioid (even so, recreational opiates are definitely never a good idea). Chlorpheniramine ages your brain really fucking fast because of how neurotoxic it is. Tons of dangerous drugs that have been banned in the west are still OTC in japan (like Apronal, the one in EVE ibuprofen tablets i believe, that shit is dangerous as FUCK) and i can't understand why.