Reflections

One of my first encounters with something Japanese was watching the Pokemon anime when I was young. I associated themes from the show with what the country of Japan had to be like and may have believed for just a second that fantastic monsters existed in Japan. Of course there are no monsters here, and my ideas about this country have had to change. Japan is smaller than California, a fact which surprising enough many people must want as Google predicted that after I simply typed "Japan size", but unlike just being able to think about California in terms of north and south Japan requires to be broken down even more. As I have traveled I have noticed that each area has required a different mindset then the previous one and evolves the way I view the country as a whole. The language, landscape, food, and for lack of a better word spirit of the people change from region to region, forcing a change in perspective for those witnessing this country. Something is always open, this country never seems to stop moving, changing itself and the people that happen to be on it at the time. I am glad to have been changed by this country, while still being able to see and feel a connection to things from my childhood.

The Politics of Parking

Commuting by bike is a common way for the students at Kansai Gaidai to come to school. The parking lots reflect this by quickly filling up and becoming a nightmare, but there is a method to the madness.

The east gate has quick access to two parking lots, sensibly named the east parking lots. The smaller of the two lots is closer and also features covered parking; while the further and larger lot is less crowded, but not as convenient. Unless signaled into the further lot by one of the guards most students will park at the smaller, closer lot. This results in a surplus of bikes and a need for some order.

The roads are off limits, the sidewalks however have changed from a dividing line or "no man's land" and have become part of the parking lot. The inside of the lot is divided into rows with painted lines to show where parking is supposed to occur. However these spaces quickly fill up and a "policy change" has resulted in continuing the line of bikes past where it should end. While for a time it can be a parking lot for the people maintained by the people, eventually the school intervenes to maintain order. Of course with age comes wisdom, and what can the younger generation do right?

Sports, sports and more sports

Japan seems to have an affinity for all you can do shops. All you can eat, all you can drink, and with round one all you can sports?? All of the sports that Japan loves are represented here as well as some more obscure sports. It is a rather casual place and also somewhere where there are some odd combinations. The oddest would be all of the smoking areas, Japan seems to take their love for cigarettes everywhere and while playing some tennis and a game of volley ball is nice Japan does not want to give up nicotine to enjoy these events. Baseball is of course popular in Japan, it may once have been America's pass time however Japan seems much more enthusiastic about the sport than most Americans, and baseball is well represented at these places. A line of batting cages and another to practice pitching almost always had a line to wait in before you could take your turn. While baseball is a great hands on sport the fishing pond on the third floor of the building seems to be something that would only happen in Japan. The sports center also housed a decent sized arcade, which has DDR for people who want to exercise and play video games and also serves as a place for the kids to be while the adults play games they can't. The four story building with roof access is full of sports, caters to every taste, and is distinctly Japanese.

Gender

Visual K bands are an extreme representation, but the gender lines in Japan are blurring. Looking at a Visual K band it can be difficult at times to say for sure that all the members are in fact men, despite the fact that they all are. While not a common sight while walking around the city aspects of their more feminine style can be seen. One of the most apparent changes men do as they groom themselves and shape their appearance, is pluck their eye brows. I admit to grooming my eyebrows, but just enough to make sure that I do not have a uni brow. Controlling the shape and thickness of eyebrows seems to be a more common thing for men to do in Japan. In a general grooming survey for Japanese men about 28% of the 515 men asked said that they were grooming their eyebrows. Since it seems like a common practice I had assumed that Japanese girls maybe found a more groomed man more attractive, but when I asked Yuki, a girl that lives in the dorms with me, she said that guys with their eyebrows plucked too much look a little strange. There are even pages in magazines dedicated to showing a man how to pluck his brow, and the men's grooming section is just as large as the women's grooming section. So maybe they are just more well groomed, however there is a fine line between well groomed and looking feminine.
I would like to thank my friend for letting me take a picture of his well groomed eye.
http://whatjapanthinks.com/2007/10/16/japanese-men-and-personal-grooming-part-2-of-2/

Religion

The two main religions in Japan are Shintoism and Buddhism. However most Japanese citizens would not consider themselves to belong to any religion. Regardless of that fact, temples and shrines always have people visiting them. Most of the time these people are praying for help with something in their life or just sight seeing. To a foreigner everything connected to these religions can seem a little strange. Buying a fortune and if it is a good fortune tying it to a post in hopes that it will come true seem like a fun diversion, but not something that is connected to religion.

The Japanese religions seem more concerned with people's day to day lives than our western religions. This focus on the day to day is reflected at the temples and shrines by the things that one can do and buy there. Kiyomizu temple sells paper dolls that after bought a person writes their problems on and drops it into a bucket of water. When the doll dissolves in the water the problems written on it also disappear from the writer's life. Fushimi Inari just a few minutes away by train has two stones that people pick up and depending on if they feel heavy or not the person lifting the stone is able to tell if they will be able to get rid of their problems or not. Every shrine and temple also seems to have a gift shop type area that sells charms to help in different aspects of a person's life.

Japanese people are said to be born shinto and die buddhist, and from an outsiders perspective the religions they practice during life seem to be a helpful guide from point A to point B.

Think Globally, Change Locally

There is one Japanese word that I have heard more than any other Japanese word. Everything in the country seems to be able to be described as "kawaii" or cute. As various items and characters are brought to Japan from all over the world, it seems that there is a level of cute that must be met to enter the country. Disney characters are already love able, but it is only in Japan that I have seen them as cute as they can be, and also in forms that are not available anywhere else. The characters are made cuter and smaller and then either put into one of the capsule shopping malls or some bento item. (I realize this is a terrible over generalization, but that is life.)
Another strange import to Japan is Obama and his slogan "yes we can." "Yes we can" has been used in different way by different people here. One time a host was using this as a chant while out at an Izakaiya and another time the same words were being used by a shop to advertise their spring sale. Obama's face is appearing many places too, and can now be worn as a mask purchased from Loft or another store that sells costumes.
America was once called the melting pot, however now Japan seems to be even more of a melting pot. Absorbing different items and ideas from the whole world and making them uniquely Japanese.

Photographing Japan

Ihei Kimura was born around the turn of the nineteenth century in Tokyo Japan. When in the third grade he bought his first camera (Hammond 1) and from that point on was busy photographing the Showa era of Japan. He photographed the people of Japan and through them was able to capture Japanese culture on film. After studying photography in Taiwan he returned to Japan and established his own studio based out of Tokyo. In 1936 when Kimura visited the Akita region of Japan he photographed the people and claimed that the area was the “epitome of the reality” they lived in. He even photographed for Japan’s war propaganda during world war two. Kimura’s photography represents Japanese culture both showing the people and what is happening at the moment. The pictures that I was able to find left me wanting more, from them I feel that Japan at the time he was photographing Japan can very easily be found and through the pictures you can feel like what it was like.

http://photojpn.org/news/modules.php?op=modload&name=Reviews&file=index&req=showcontent&id=103

http://www.artnet.com/library/04/0466/T046614.asp

http://metropolis.co.jp/tokyo/555/art.asp

http://www.kahitsukan.or.jp/ihe_e.html

Popular Culture in Japan

When thinking about pop culture in Japan one name can cover a lot of ground. There are twelve performing groups with the Johnny's label and even more dance groups. Each performing group usually consists of six to twelve members, however two groups are only two people each. Each fan however tends to pick only one band and within the band one member to obsess over. Most people know about the groups appearances on the popular television dramas, their talk shows, advertisements, and music; which is what Johnny wants people to know about he would rather keep the rape allegations against him out of the news. Which has worked and even when they did make it into the news he won a lawsuit against the magazine for printing a story that could hurt his reputation, despite the fact that it was agreed that it was true. Regardless of this less than wholesome news women both young and old are still obsessed with them and guys still want to be them.

This can be seen in the types of advertisements that the Johnny's boys make. There are commercials of them shaving and selling what must be one great razor because I can't remember seeing a johnny with facial hair so it must work. Then there is the happy bath day ad campaign which features all the members of one of the more popular groups carrying a rose to wish women a happy bath day when they buy and use this particualr brand of soap. All of that leads the female fans in hoards to the Johnny's stores all over Japan. Not a single cd is available at the store, but rather pictures of the Johnny's boys (which is the reason I dared not take a photo inside the store I shudder to think what the high schoolers and house wives would have done if I took a picture, also the legal reasons).

On a weekend the stores are quite easy to find just look for the stream of girls walking out with the bright yellow bags. However why make the trip when one or more of Johnny's boys are constantly on television, on the pepsi vending machine around the corner, on the majority of magazines at 7-11, and pretty much anywhere else you can think to look.

http://www.j-storm.co.jp/index.html

http://www.johnnys-net.jp/j/index.html

People

Whether dodging the grandmas walking down the street, or being passed by an elementary school student while boarding the train. The one thing that always seems to come to mind when thinking about Japanese people is how independent and self sufficient they are. In the supermarket rather than the cashier bagging the groceries or the all American bag boy, each shopper is given a certain amount of bags and they move to tables to bag their own groceries. Each person is responsible for taking care of this task themselves, which in turn speeds up the entire check out process and helps everyone else as well. So as children grow up helping their parents with the bags they are learning to take care of themselves and also do what is needed to help the community. A simple restaurant also shows the independence of each individual because some rather than having tables to sit at and converse have just a long counter. In the above picture each person is there by themselves and the only interaction I witnessed was with the employees. While some might think of such a meal as slightly depressing everyone their was enjoying themselves and it seemed rather a place to take care of your own needs as you are on your way somewhere, just a pit stop. So while Japan is often thought of as a homogeneous society each person can identify themself as an individual.

Neighborhood Hirakata

Hirakata has been my home for a couple months now, due to the fact that I have been a student at Kansai Gaidai. Being told to write about Hirakata I realized how little I actually knew about the neighborhood. The one thing that really stood out in my mind was how this somewhat smaller city in Japan had the addition of around four hundred foreign students every semester; a fact that seems like it would have an impact on the city itself. Has the city integrated certain foreign aspects or have the foreign students just been grafted into the city like a branch that grows different fruit onto a tree? On the road to get to the school there is a shrine that has probably been there longer than anything else in the city, but what seems strange about the shrine is the fact that in front of the shrine has become a small playground. There are often groups of children playing there, usually ignoring the playground equipment to instead play with their video games, and every so often a group of children being supervised as they clean the area. I mention this shrine to show how something that seems out of place and from a different time landed in this residential area has been integrated into the everyday function of the lives of the people who live here. Maybe it is a bad example, but if a shrine that the Emperor once worshipped at has an added playground and is now at times just a place for youth to spend time together it would make sense that for as long as Kansai Gaidai has been in the area and having hundreds of foreign students come that some western ideas may have made a transition into life here. However being tall and white on the same bike ride that I pass the park I have some students say a quick "hello" to practice their English, but more often am just met with stares. Then I noticed the fences around the school and the seminar houses where the students live, and wondered if theses were only to keep people out or maybe to keep some things in away from the city. Was there no integration, no grafted on branch, and rather just a potted plant sent over every year. Besides shop owners having English language menus and specials for haircuts, there was integration and a much better integration. Japan and Hirakata had made themselves part of my life. Knowing which side streets to take, lining up with everyone buying the vegetables outside of Fresco, crossing the street where it is not marked, and many other things from the day to day life in Hirakata have ingrained themselves into my person; I have grafted another branch onto my tree. Just like the older shrine made itself part of the modern city, the older city has made itself part of my life. Hirakata has incorporated itself into all of our lives out here and isn't that what being part of a neighborhood really is not leaving an impact, but rather letting it leave an impact on you? Sorry its so long and my camera battery is dead right now so the pictures will go up tomorrow after its had a charge.

Early Impressions of Japan

Well... just as the little prince crash landed on the Earth in the now famous story, I have arrived in the seemingly alien world of Japan what is often thought of as the land of contradictions and where today is tomorrow. Fortunately and unfortunately this is my second semester here at Kansai Gaidai, I say fortunate because I get to spend more time in Japan, but unfortunate because it makes writing a blog post about my early impressions of Japan rather difficult as they happened back in September of last year. However coming back after a brief respite in the states has allowed me to view some things with fresh eyes so here we go. While some people think of the adjectives small, little, tiny and so forth when describing Japan I now prefer space efficient, if that makes sense. Biking from one location to another I pass by many condo like houses cramped together and then when there is open space there is something useful like I don't know tons of tiny gardens. They seem to litter the landscape, but a good kind of litter not destroying the Earth kind of litter. Every square inch seems to have a purpose here, even vertically like the double decker trains where on the bottom level you are sitting beneath the train platform, with just as many people above you as there are around you. While some place can be empty at times like the campus is for now, it can quickly become overrun with people and the need for the amount of sidewalk space becomes clear, and on some crowded city sidewalks you will wonder why there is not even more space. So having come to Japan gone back home and returned only to continually notice the use of space and at time complete lack of space, sorry to not have a picture of this will get one up in a future blog, I thought I would just share my two cents on the subject.