Changing Impressions...

When thinking about how my view of Japan has changed... I think that I really need to look to my recent trip to Tokyo for the best inspiration. After a series of unfortunate events, I decided to take the weekend of Golden Week to take on Tokyo alone, meeting up with one of my friends that goes to school there. I had no place to stay, and intended on staying in Manga Cafes for the two nights I had to spend there. I had no expectations, and really just wanted to see the city I'd been to before again, maybe in a different light and from a different perspective. I believe that in those three days there, I accomplished this goal.

Japan may seem to have it's so-called "strange customs," a tightly run society with more oddities than seem possible, and so many historical sights and hot spots to turn to, it makes Times Square look like a joke, its the people that really strike me now.

On this short trip to Tokyo, I met some of the most interesting people by mistake. I suppose the ability to converse in Japanese fairly easily made the incidents more easy to come by, but I still found that every conversation with a new person I had, told me something about myself, and about life.

I could relate to so many of these strangers, more so than I thought I might have. I expect to relate to people at Kansai Gaidai, because like me, they have an interest in studying abroad and are around my age. These other people, however, ranged from 22 to 45 and all of them had an interesting story to share with me, and interesting advice to give me.

Even the two in the above picture, a Vietnamese artist and an English publisher, began talking to me when I was resting on the infamous Harajuku bridge, waiting for a performance to start. These two have been living in Japan much longer than I have, and had a very different and interesting perspective on Japan and Japanese culture to share with me. I just found it amazing, that so many people were comfortable starting conversations with me and so easily shared part of their lives with me.

I suppose what I wanted to get at with this blog post, is that, I no longer see myself and Japanese people as very different from each other. Culture is culture and history is history, but people are fundamentally the same I think. There are shy people and outgoing people, there are crazy people and amazing people. There is no way to label everyone in one place, and no matter how hard we may try to categorize, there will always be exceptions to the rule.

The Politics... of eating and walking

As a foreigner, one often hears the rule "do not eat/drink in public" or at least "do not eat/drink while walking. If you're going to eat/drink, stand off to the side" because it is considered to be rude. Most of us abide by this rule, for fear of getting the unsettling stares from passing Japanese. I myself, rarely see a Japanese person walk down the street with even a bottle of water in hand (I can perhaps count the times I've seen someone walking with food/drink on one hand). However, this rule seemed to be quickly forgotten the moment me and my friends stepped into Kobe's China Town.

Not only does Kobe's China Town have a rather extensive selection of on-the-go treats, food carts and restaurants pack the streets, with rather impressive lines of customers at each stand. It seems difficult to get through China Town without some how ending up buying a pork bun or some other sort of meat on a stick or fried pastry.

Inadvertently, I began taking pictures of these people eating on the go. A public act that so many Japanese frown upon, was being documented even when I didn't mean to document it. My friends and I even commented after leaving the China Town street that, once one steps foot outside the gate, food has been eaten, and people act like this "disgraceful" action was never performed. For some reason, people felt it was more acceptable to eat while walking on this one street, than anywhere else in the whole city.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Japanese_schoolgirls_walking_and_eating.jpg

Sports and Circles: Soccer

"Soccer has become the second most popular professional spectator sport as well as the second most widely practiced sport among boys in primary schools. The Japan Football Association was established in 1921, and in 1948, the first national championship games were held. It became known as the Emperor's Cup, and by 1997, more than 3,000 teams participated in this tournament" (Soccer in Japan). Just like baseball circles and clubs in the Japanese school system, soccer clubs are heavily attended and popular. Even amateurs with no intention of continuing past their school years can be impressively good at soccer.

Initially, the league consisted of only a single division, but in 1972, a second division was added (wikipedia). Many teams are owned by different companies, and paid to strictly play soccer. Others are clubs that join the league to compete.

Whether or not these circles of soccer-loving players go on to do great things doesn't seem to matter to many of them. They join a circle to play a game them love, to network with other similar-interest guys, and to get adored by the dozens of girls who sit around and watch them play. Since I'm focusing on circles in particular, all of the above doesn't seem to matter to them. As long as they can run around and blow off some steam with their team mates, they seem happy to dedicate as much time as the circle demands to continue playing.

Gender in Japan... mothers

When I think about gender and the conception of traditional gender roles in Japan, I often think of Japanese mothers. In particular, I think of my own host mother, Kayo-san.

Kayo-san is one of the most patient and gentle mothers I have ever met. She isn't exactly the embodiment of the "perfect Japanese mother" but she is certainly something close for her family. Although she does not wake up at ridiculously early hours to make lunches, or keep a spotlessly clean house, she puts so much care and love into everything she does, and keeps life around her light hearted.


When interacting with her children, she never raises her voice, and doesn't even scold them when they hit her in anger. Since her children are still very small, she lets them play in any room they want, and toys are always free to lay around anywhere. I find it very intriguing how few rules she upholds in her household for her children. The strictest rules are for her five year old son, whom she often has to remind to hold his bowl correctly at the dinner table.

When talking to her, it was also really nice to hear that she sent her five year old son to the kindergarten across the street from their house because it was known to be a fun pre-school, rather than one that forces children to study all the time and write essays. She told me that it was important that her son was able to play with his friends, dance, draw pictures, and sing every day, and that she is proud that he has pursued learning kanji and how to write on his own.

Like this article has found, she doesn't consider herself a large part of the type of people her children turn out to be. Just like she believes that the number of strokes in one's name does not determine one's personal luck, she thinks that self-motivation and perseverance will get you far in life.

Religion, A Thing of Beauty...

(Picture Link)

Religious places in Japan top the charts for the most beautiful places in the world, in my opinion. Even the smallest road side shrine adds beauty to the area around it. Not only are the structures themselves beautiful in construction and shape, but they so beautifully mold the nature surrounding them into something truly magical.

Although surveys and studies have proven that the Japanese as a whole do not consider themselves religious, and instead pass off their "religious" activities as merely "tradition", there is something truly wonderful about the structures that they built, in many instances, hundreds of years ago. These shrines and temples that tourists and followers alike visit everyday, are so well aligned with the nature that surrounds them. Two that I think are particularly well situated in nature, are Koya-San and Fushimi Inari.

"Kôyasan is home to an active monastic center founded twelve centuries ago by the priest Kûkai (posthumously known as Kôbô Daishi) for the study and practice of Esoteric Buddhism. It is the headquarters of the Kôyasan sect of Shingon Buddhism, a faith with a wide following throughout Japan. Situated on a small plain at the top of Mount Kôya is the sacred area known as the Danjô Garan, a complex of temples, halls, pagodas and Buddhist statuary that welcome visitors to this serene and hallowed place" (Koyasan Homepage).

The way the graves in Koyasan's ancient forest harmonize so well with the trees that rise above them is beyond stunning. Although many people may come to Koyasan purely for pleasure rather than religious reasons, appreciating the beauty of the mountain top and the harmony of man with nature is something that few would be able to go without doing.

Fushimi Inari displays a different sort of beauty. Instead of naturally aged stone graves lining a stunningly beautiful path in the woods, the Tori of Fushimi Inari carve a path into the mountain that accentuates the mountain's natural lifts and falls, while the bright orange Tori separate the path from the forest and intertwine the surrounding nature with the shrine. Although many people come to pray at the small family-owned shrines on the mountain, others come to see the beauty of the mountain and challenge it's height so that they can gives thanks at the top.

Globilization.... english

Although it is probably rather cliche... I am choosing to look at Japan's unique and strange use of the English Language.

I have begun to notice that, when talking to my host mother or my speaking partner, English words begin to be slipped into conversation, words that have a Japanese equivalent, and are relatively elementary, in my opinion.

I once received a text from my speaking partner in which everything was in Japanese, except from the word "lunch." Lunch is not a very difficult Japanese word, but for some reason, among the Kanji and other words in the text, my speaking partner chose to spell out "lunch" in English.I suppose I find it interesting, because I have seen so many signs that Japan's language is applying more and more of the west's influence to itself. Since quiz shows are so popular here, I have seen many shows where english-influenced words are the topics of various quizzes. In one game, the shortened version of a longer english-turned-katakana-word was being questioned about (since the Japanese also seem to really enjoy shortening their words as much as possible).

Also, there are many shows in which kanji are the main topic of conversation. It is baffling to see people struggle when using their own language, because these ancient characters (taken from China in the first place) are so difficult and there are so many to learn. There has even been a test created, where kanji readings and recognition make up the entire test.

All in all, I wanted to point out something I have been noticing that goes a little further than silly engrish on t-shirts and miss-spelled store front signs. I think that there is something else going on in the Japanese language, and the way that it is evolving and changing as the world gets ever smaller.
On a slightly related note, I found this wikipedia article about "Franponais" to be rather interesting as well... although not as wide-scale as Engrish.

Special Blog Post... Photographer: Kyoichi Sawada

photo credit

Kyoichi Sawada was born February 22nd, 1936 and died October 28th, 1970. He is a Pulitzer Prize winning photographer who took many gruesome and painful documentary-style photographs during the Vietnam war (bio).

photo from world press

The photo above is one of his two photos selected as the "World Press Photo of the Year" in 1965 (world press). The other photo won in 1966 and was the image of a Viet Cong being dragged behind a personnel carrier.

Kyoichi was killed October 28th, when the car he and his news bureau's chief were riding in was shot while riding through Vietnam. Both were dragged to a field and shot repeatedly (journalists memorial).

This photographer was a journalist/documentary style photographer and did not directly represent Japan with his photography work. Although one might want to point out that by taking such direct photographs of victims during wartime, he himself is a criminal for not helping the individuals that are the subjects of his photography. However, in no way does this represent Japan. From previous photo-history study, I have come to understand that there are many photographers from around the world who do this exact same style of hands-off photography. He tries to act as the un-seen force documenting the actions and events of the Vietnam war. His subjects are the victims of the war, the innocents that have been infamously harmed by the events and mistakes of both parties taking part in the war.

I believe that this type of photography work is extremely difficult, because the photographer has to be torn between capturing the perfect shot and helping the people he is victimizing by taking pictures of them. It is cruel, in many ways, to be the hands-off photographer who takes the picture and lets "nature take its course." It provides the public with solid image of the horror of war, and yet, leaves the photographer with a sense of guilt. That is to say, only if the photographer really is completely hands-off.