Changing Impressions

When I first came to Japan, I didn't know what to expect. Well, I mean, I had some idea, but nothing can really prepare you for the real Japan. It has to be experienced to be understood. There's simply no other way. I crammed in a lot of traveling during this semester, which I was thankful to be able to do.


I suppose one way my perspective has changed is that my "romanticized" version is Japan is gone, as it should be. Everyone has it at some point, your own version of what you think Japan is before you get there. Most of the time, it's a positive perspective, perhaps overly so.

I think it's a bad to hold onto such an view, instead one should gain a more realistic perspective through experience. Firsthand experience, I believe, is the best way to study anthropology and the world itself. Japan is a country like any other, with its problems and successes. It's also unique in it's own way, with wonderful things to be experienced that can't be experienced anywhere else in the world. In this way, my perspective has been changed for the better, and I'm on my way to understanding and appreciating Japan even more so than I did before.



Ok, well, admittedly, there's some things about Japan that I will never understand. But that's okay, I am amused all the same.

Japanese Art and Entertainment

On the subject of Japanese art- I see it everywhere. Wall murals are all over, especially in places like train stations, restaurants, and other public areas. I love the overall visual aesthetic that is found in many advertisements, on the sides of trains or buildings, in fashion, at shrines or temples, or even on your plate. I even find some of the graffiti quite... profound. Basically, I'm a fan of Japanese design sense, and you can find it anywhere and everywhere. Japanese visual aesthetic is not just limited to "serious" art, but I appreciate it there all the same.







I could go on and on with the pictures, half of my iphoto library consists of pictures like this.

On the "entertainment" side of things, watching "I Survived a Japanese Game Show" in class was, in a word, painful. It was full of dumb reality show commentary, bad stereotypes, and they managed to somehow make people falling down NOT funny. That's quite a feat.

However, I wanted to point towards a Japanese show that was localized in the right way-MXC. They used footage from the late 80's-early 90's TV show Takeshi's Castle, cut the fat off of the clips so that it could fit in a half hour format, dubbed over the original dialogue and made a new script with silly jokes and puns that fit western humor, and most importantly, kept the sensei and talento personalities intact. The result was something uniquely Japanese, funny in it's own right, yet catered tastefully to a western audience. I wish there were more success stories like this...

Japanese Politics

When I first started walking around neighborhoods in Hirakata back in September, I saw all these posters around. Extremely photoshopped faces of smiley Japanese men. All the smiling and airbrushing made them look unnecessarily creepy. I figured they were probably something to do with politics, and I found later I was right. Something I noticed right away was that in Japan, faces seem to be an important part of the campaigning posters. Back home, all you need is a "Name, Name, Year" with red white or blue somewhere, with some decoration (like "McCain, Palin '08! *stars*). That's it. Maybe Americans assume everyone already knows what they look like?

Anyway, I did some reading on the Japanese political parties. I was surprised to find out that the LDP is the biggest party in Japan (LDP=Liberal Democratic Party, but they're the conservatives. Go figure.), but not so surprised to find out the number of crazy politicians there are in there. Government is wacky no matter where you go, it seems. The more liberal party (The Democratic Part of Japan, not to be confused with LDP!) seems to be the only opposition to the LDP. A two-party system, much like the US. Though I'm fairly sure that no one in Japan under the age of 40 gives a crap about politics, sadly. Political apathy seems widespread here, especially among younger people. Makes me wonder if an Obama-esque politician would have any success here.

Religion

I think its interesting how much Buddhism and Shinto overlap in Japan. Having (or following) 2 religions is okay here, something I'm not used to people being okay with...

In a statistic that was mentioned in class, a huge percentage of Japanese people do not consider themselves religious. I thought this was odd, considering religion is one of the things about Japanese society that I find is extremely visible. Shrines and temples are littered everywhere across the landscape (especially in this area, being so close to Kyoto), and it's not hard to find traces of Buddhist or Shinto thought in everyday life in Japan. So what's the deal? Are Japanese people really not all that religious, given how carefree and non-strict the attitude that most Japanese have when it comes to religion (esp. compared to the west and it's religions)? Or are Japanese people SO religious that religion is just an expected part of everyday life? For example, religion is so far ingrained into Japanese society that a simple ritual or religious tradition is something you just DO?

This is an question that I've been pondering. Western religions and their integration in society are a huge contrast to what I've experienced in Japan thus far. Visiting temples and shrines is one of my favorite things to do here, but I have yet to find a concrete answer. I probably never will.

Gender Issues

Men and women in Japan have equal rights, just as men and women in other developed countries do. Each gender has a role that is not clearly defined, but is present. These roles can be broken, but social stigmas and expectations can make this difficult. This can be true of any country.

One thing I noticed before and after coming here is that I've never heard of a powerful Japanese woman in the world of business. You see the typical salarymen (both old and young) everywhere, with their suits and briefcases. I read articles on the richest people in Japan. All dudes...(or at least the top 20 were, I got sick of clicking through pictures of old businessmen.)

Thing is, I've heard of a perception in Japan that once women get married, they are pressured to quit their jobs and become full-time housewives. Nothing wrong with being a full-time mom, but I would imagine it would make things harder for women who actually want careers with upward mobility (and aren't just waiting to find the right man to settle down with and become dedicated mothers.) I've seen way more women in certain jobs, like teaching, food services, etc. and men more so in business (there's lots of young female secretaries, though they probably won't ever become the company president.) It's interesting to see the gender lines when it comes to employment. Big business is still a man's world in Japan, it seems.

Japanese Sports-Baseball

I will admit it upfront: I'm not the biggest fan of sports. I occasionally will watch the World Series, because it's the only baseball games that I find somewhat interesting. I grew up in Cooperstown, NY- the supposed "Home of Baseball", complete with the National Baseball Hall of Fame and the Dreams Park. Every summer, tourists flood in from various places and overcrowd the downtown area with their white sneakers and baseball uniforms. I worked a couple of summers during high school as a sales clerk in a few baseball stores. I hated it. Baseball pervaded everything about my town, so I tried my best to ignore it. It's not that I disliked the game itself-it's fun to play, and as I said before, I don't mind watching the World Series sometimes. But, the oversaturation I experienced because of my hometown has trained me to ignore it, becuase I found the whole sports scene irritating.

Of course, the Japanese love baseball. I could not ignore this, because this was the first time that I've seen another country besides the US actually giving a crap about this sport (the rest of the world seems to like soccer a whole lot more, heh). From the little I've seen of the KG team practicing as I pass the athletic fields on my way to class, they already look like they put in more effort than my high school team ever did. However, this could be because they're a college team. The movie we watched in class, Kokoyakyu, definitely showed the amount of work and dedication that high schoolers here put into their sport. This is something that was a stark contrast to my own high school-sports were important, but the effort (at least to the extent that the Japanese kids had) wasn't really there.

Also, from what I've seen of Japanese baseball games, they seem to have a different atmosphere than the few I've experienced at home. I don't know how to describe it, but it seems "friendlier", if that makes any sense. If I get the chance, I hope to go to one someday and see for myself how different it really is.

Globalization- Fooding

Japan is well known for borrowing things from other cultures and modifying them. The result is something that is not quite the same as it was, but something that is a combination of being foreign but also uniquely Japanese.

This strange crossing of cultural elements has been most obvious to me thus far in food. The Japanese have taken foreign foods and adapted them a bit. The end result is sometimes surprisingly good, but also sometimes awful.


From what I've eaten thus far, the Japanese take on spaghetti is neutral. Compared to what I'm used to in the States, it's not better or worse, just different.

When it comes to cheese, however, I can't say the same.


Japan doesn't seem very big on cheese. I managed to find a few foreign brands that taste about the same as what I'm used to at home, but the vast majority of regularly available cheese is...not exactly what I was expecting. You can find good cheese if you look hard enough, but the stuff that is mainly available in my local grocery stores is almost exclusively the type of overly processed cheese that tastes a bit like plastic. They even have cheese that is fruit flavored, which is something I have never seen at home.

However, its comforting to know that despite the Japan's affliction for putting their own twist on food, some things stay the same. The original Coca-Cola is a big brand here, and hasn't changed in terms of taste. Are there other coke flavors unique to Japan that I just haven't seen yet?