Beauty

My very first post on this journal was about the beauty of the Japanese landscape. Below is the picture that I wrote about:

At the time I was very entranced with the beauty of some everyday objects in Japan such as this river and other such places. However, after taking a few classes here a Kansai Gaidai it soon become very obvious that many other people before me were entranced by the same thing and to me in many of their writings, it seemed very obvious that they did not appreciate the Japanese people themselves. And so I began to try to look less at the Japanese beauty and more at the Japanese people themselves. So I began to go to the places where normal Japanese people go, like malls, and restaurants. However, no matter what I did I could not find away to be drawn away from the Japanese beauty, like in the picture below:

I think that after several months living here in Japan I have finally been able to find a good balance between the two. For me I have discovered that the answer as to whether the real Japan is the beautiful place that usually exists only in foreigners dreams or the modern world full of malls and fast pasted restaurants lies in both. Japan is both of these worlds and for most Japanese people they are able to live and see both, it is just foreigners who at first I think can not see both of these worlds can live side by side with each other.

Kinkaku-ji

In one of my travel books I remember reading how most foreign people believe that Kinkaku-ji is one of the most beautiful temples in Japan. After going there my self I can see how this could be true. One thing I found interesting about visiting this temple is that it is so short. You spend about 5-10 minutes along with a couple hundred other people trying desperately to take a good picture that in the end you forget to actually look that the temple with your own eyes. And the actual Kinkaku-ji temple is very small and consist of only one building that it is over before you know it.

Well besides that one of the most memorable experiences from visiting Kinkaku-ji is that pond that beautifully reflects the temple in the water. In this aspect I could see why they Japanese are considered masters of art. The reflection on the water is truly a stunning sight and in many ways creates another world.

Christmas time

Before coming to Japan I had always thought that Christmas is the same all around the world (I think it is a childhood thing). In America Christmas time is all about family. It is the one time a year when family is supposed to come together. However, after coming to Japan I was shocked to find that the Christmas holiday is more of a couple time while New Years is a time for family and friends.

So after discovering that Christmas is just not the same in Japan I was very surprised to find that near my dorm there were a few houses with Christmas lights up. It reminded me very much of home where people would sometime compete together to see who would have the best house decorations that year. However because the house was so nicely decorated, in a way that it seems most Japanese people just do not seem to do, it makes me wounder if the owner of the house is Japanese or a foreigner.

Questions about understanding

One thing I have always wondered about when foreigner people come to Japan for like a vacation or something of the like and go to visit temples and shrine is why do so many of them want to go to visit a place when they can not really understand what the meaning of it is. I mean they can go and look at the temples and shrine in an artistic sense and appreciate what beauty it holds but for the average traveler they can not really understand what the temple/shire is suppose to mean. For example, in the above picture when foreigners come they would probably be able to make an artistic comment about it, but for the average foreigner just traveling for fun, they will most likely not have a good understanding of Japanese Religion. And if they do not understand what is happening what kind of image are they taking back to their own countries? And how much of that image is skewed by what they can not understand?

Temples/Shrines

At a temple my friends and I recently visited, there was this place where people stopped to try to throw money into a tiny bowl. According to my Japanese friend, if a person makes it into the bowl, then there wish will come true. I have always found it interesting temples and shrines in Japan have found very efficient ways to make money. Of course me and my friends tried this and although we did not believe our wishes would come true, they were still able to get money out of us because it was fun just to try to get your coins into the tiny bowl.
Another example of this would be when people pay for charms or other trinkets. Maybe it is because I am not a very religious person, but I have always found it odd that temples and shrines make money off selling different kinds of protections. Also I am sure that the money goes into the upkeep of the shrines/temples, but somehow I have always though that it was selfish for the temples/shrines to keep the money. I suppose for me it just seems odd that they are making money off selling the Kami's protection or other such things.

Geisha

A few weeks ago a Japanese friend of mine showed me around Kyoto. While walking to Kiyomizu temple were talked about various traditional sights of Kyoto and one thing that was borough up was Geisha. I had never taken a class on Geisha or any other kinda of art forum from Japan, but one thing that teachers made sure that we remembered was the idea that Geisha girls were not prostitutes. So I was very surprised me Chieko admitted that many Japanese people thought and know that many Geisha are just high priced prostitutes. It was very interesting to hear this from a Japanese person because for so many years I have been told that the Geisha themselves were too good to be prostitutes.

The picture above was taken at Kiyomizu temple. According to Chieko these two women were actually Geisha and were entertaining a client at the temple.

Second blog essay

After reading this post on Willy's Visual Blog I decided to write my second visual anthropology blog essay on this post. When I first read that he spent the whole day with a Japanese child, who from the picture appears to be quite young, maybe around 11 or 12 years old, I was kinda shocked. I mean, who would let their child be gone that long without knowing where they were. But admittedly this reaction was quite awhile go, since I read this about three or four weeks ago when I had not explored much of outside Hirakata-shi.


When I am travailing around Japan I often see little children (this weekend I saw like five year olds staking the train by themselves, but my Japanese friend Yuki explained that it was quite common when the child was smart at a small age and had to travel far away to school. So even thought I see little children travailing alone in Japan I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

As to his reference to when he was a child his parents taught him not to talk to strangers this was for safety reasons. If a stranger wants to talk to you in the U.S. he or she most likely wants to do something bad to you. However, in my Struggle for Justice class, which is about the law systems in Asia we have talked about how Japan has a low crime rate. So most likely if a stranger stops to ask a child something most likely they don't want to kidnap him or anything like that. So in that little boys mind he probably didn't once think that these foreigner might hurt him. After all, whenever I see little Japanese children usually I think "Oh no, they shouldn't be out alone, what if someone kidnaps them?"

As to the reference that he often see Japanese children doing things that his parents would never allow him to do, I have had this same thought many times while in Japan. But I suppose it is the same in America. My parent would never allow me when I was a small child to do some of those things that I see Japanese children do, but as you grow your parents usually become more lenient and you get away with some of those things that you wouldn't have been able to before. However the opposite is true in Japan. In Japan, until pre-school children are allowed seemly free range, but once they hit pre-school/elementary school age they stat being hammered into good Japanese citizens.