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.

McDonald's

It's surprising how different the same company can be in different countries. In both America and Japan, McDonald's seem to be very busy. In America, when they become busy service becomes very slow and the employees become not so nice. On top of that, whenever you make a special order they always seem to mess it up somehow. In Japan however, even when they are very busy I have never had to wait more then three or four minutes for my food, where in America I have waited for ten minutes or more. Also, and maybe this is more because I don't understand the language very well, but I have never had a McDonald's employee in Japan be rude to me. I do know in America however (at White Castle were I worked) that when someone comes in that does not speak English, no one is all that nice about serving them.

Drinks

Before coming to Japan I had heard how easy it was for a person of any age to buy drinks with sake in them out of vending machines, but I had also heard that it was becoming more difficult because vending machines now how age identifying readers in them. The above picture is of the sake drink that I bought out of a vending machine near the park. The group I was with were very surprised that because there was no way to identify age, anyone could purchase. (This type of vending machine would never be allowed in America because there would be so many drunk middle/high school students stumbling around). However, apparently after a certain time (I think it was around 11:00 p.m.) the machine shuts off.

Beds

When I first came to Japan one of my friends from back in the States asked me, “do they make you sleep on the floor?!” And of course I replied yes, because in Sem four students do sleep on futons. The above is a picture of my bed. It has surprised even me that I don’t mind that much sleeping on the floor, in fact the matrices is quite comfortable. Before coming to Japan I thought that if they made up sleep on the floor, that at least it would help me get out of bed on time, because really who wants to sleep on the floor, but that idea has completely changed now.

To which the better?

A few days ago I told a friend that I have only visited one temple since coming to Japan and she scolded me for it. She said that you could only experience and understand Japan if you visited temples and other such things. This idea that you can have only experienced Japan if you have been here or there has been bugging me for a while now. However, just by walking down the street or interacting with every day people I feel like I have experienced more of the true Japanese culture then if I spent all my time at temples or other places that my friend made fun of me for not have visited.. So my question is Japan the one on the left? With the old cultural such as temples or is it the one on the right, modern day cultural? Or does the answer only exist in both?

Of course the answer exists in both because the Japanese cultural that exist today couldn’t and wouldn’t exist with the influence of the old. But I do not like it when people suggest that to experience Japan, one only has to visit temples and shires and then one can understand Japan. To understand the Japan of today, one must also explore the modern day cultural as well.

The first picture was taken in the Fushimi Inari shine, the only one in which I have been to. The second picture was taken in Osaka. To which would you show your friends to represent Japan?

Shallow??

One of the people that I know at Kansai Gaidai mentioned the other day that she hated how shallow many Japanese girls seemed to be. She was mainly commenting on the idea that girls will like a person or group only because of their looks or because of a person certain associations within a group. The above picture was taken in Shinsaibashi and is of two members of a popular boy band under Johnny Entertainment. You can read more about the band and the company here; company, band. The reason that the above picture is relevant to this is that JE is known not the produce the most talented of singers (although there are some) and yet they are popular among young Japanese people and older Japanese women. Yet according to this person, they have no right to be popular because all most all of them have no talent.

In my Struggle for Justice class we have been talking about how the idea of Japanese group based cultural has helped contributes to why the crime rate is so low in Japan. So I wonder, does this desire to fit into the group (to know who there people are) related to why these bands are popular? Does the idea of group cultural even fit into this idea as to why certain bands (and items) are popular in Japan? If it is then I don’t see much of a difference between Japan and America. Even in America the average person just wants to belong to the group. So personally I don’t think that a person is shallow for just wanting to belong to a group or just by association belong somewhere.

Disclaimer: I do understand that America and Japan have different cultures. America is mainly individual driven and Japan is mainly group orientated driven, but in this idea I think that maybe they are driven by the same want.

Religion

Japan’s view and ideas about religion have always amazed me. These two pictures above were taken at Fushimi Inari shine in Kyoto. The one of the right is from the main part of the shrine and reflects the Shinto elements that one would expect to see from a Shinto shrine. However, the second picture on the left is (according to the religion teacher that we were with) is Buddhist in nature. Coming from America where people from one religion look down of those who practice another, this idea of two religions living peacefully side by side, even co-inhabiting the same piece of land amazes me beyond words. While I am not exactly a religious person, even in my western mind it is hard for me to accept the idea of two religions living peacefully side-by-side. I think thought this is one thing that I America would take to heart, the idea that people from all different religions can live in peace with each other.

Sidewalks

One thing that I find really amazing about Japan is the ease that you can walk around. Back in American it is very hard (at least where I live because I have never moved from my neighborhood) to actually to walk to places such as the store or to a place where you want to meet your friends because there are almost no sidewalks next to roads and if you tired to walk on the side your most likely to get run over. However here in Japan this is not true, you can find sidewalks or places next to the road where you can walk almost everywhere (except I'm guessing on the freeways). I have walked a lot around the Makino area and there have been several times when walking that I have thought that people can not walk, however only to find that there is a specially walkway for people or that you can in fact that there is a place for people to walk.

Cars sizes

Ever since I have arrived in Japan Japanese cars have fascinated me. They just come in so many different sizes!! When I went to Australia a few years ago I remember just how small and compact they were, they were so worried about conserving space. So when I came to Japan (which is much much smaller then Australia ) I'd imaged the cars would be very very small like they were there. However that is not the case, I have seen several large SUV types of cars around. In the picture of the Avail parking lot you can see that there are cars of several different sizes or a fairly large size. I do wounder if the cars in Tokyo are small because there are so many people and so little space?

Naked Sign Language

Our post this week is supposed to be an article posted on our professors blog. so here it is:


After reading both my professor posting and this article it seems that the main point of this program is to give the news to deaf people. However, my question is why do they feel the need to have the newscaster strip naked in front of the camera? To me it seems more likely a strategy that cares more about the ratings then if deaf people get the news or not.

My professor mentioned that this could be a good way to get people interested in Japanese sign language or deaf cultural in general, however I wounder if this is true. I think that it would attract a large number of people, however I don't think any of them are paying attention to her hands or even the Japanese writing that sometimes accompanies the hand signs (in case someone might actually try to learn something). At the end of the day most viewers are only there for their daily does of free porn and most likely go away without learning anything. Or maybe the next day it will be the joke around the water cooler, "hey did you see the Japanese sign language news last night?" "Yea, I sure did learn something."

The whole of idea of a naked sign language programme to me seems to cheapen and even in some ways insulting to deaf people. It me it almost seems to say, "here is the only way to make deaf people interesting." I find that disappointing.

Conserving space

One aspect of Japan that I am constantly amazed at is how they fit everything in to such tiny spaces. This is a photograph of my dorm room. Before coming here I wandered how I was going to fit myself (and share) into an eight tatami mat sized room. Not that I really knew how big that was, but 8 did not sound like a very large number to me. Back in my old room, it was so messy and crowed because we had a mini-refrigerator, a t.v and so on that it really took up a lot of space. But because those things are not allowed in our dorm rooms even thought these rooms are a lot smaller then my dorm rooms back at Witt in many ways my dorm room now seems a lot bigger.

Seeing this aspect makes me wish that I had chosen a host family to see how a Japanese family uses that small amount of space they have in effective ways. While out this weekend I will try to find accepts of Japanese cultural that reflect this idea.

Questions....

Every day I come to Kansai Gaidai I find myself very surprised at the interactions between both international students and Japanese students. Almost every day when I am at school I am approached by someone who just wants to have a conversation. The friendliness and the willingness to try to understand someone from a different cultural amazing me everyday, because back in the States almost no one makes an attempt to do such things.

In my Japan in Western Film and Lit class we have been talking about a point in in western history known as the Yellow Peril. Talking about how America and other western nations reacted to Japan rising power made me start to wander what the residences of Hirakata-shi think about every year so many new foreigners come to their city? Also, what do people who live outside of Hirakata-shi think about those Japanese who live in Hirakata-shi and interact daily with many foreigners?

The Statue of Liberty

I took this picture of the tiny replica of the Statue of Liberty in Amemura. When I saw it I was honestly kinda surprised that it was there. Doesn't the United States care that it's there? I mean I know others replicas like this exist in Japan as well, but I still find it very interesting that it doesn't really matter. I would think that something that United States takes great pride in they would not want spattered around another country for the sake of scenery. Even as I saw this though I believe that America has probably done the same thing to a famous landmark of an another country so it doesn't really matter.

Something to think about....

Before coming to a different country it's funny the things that you don't think about or think don't exist. You only think of the things you enjoy about the country, almost never it's faults. This picture is of a homeless mother cat and her kittens near the Kuzuha mall. Before coming here I knew about the homelessness of many people in Japan, but I never really thought about animals before. It was kinda shocking to see them because I had been here almost a month and had never seen a homeless animal. It makes me wonder if there are a lot of homeless animals in Japan or is it a rare occurrence? People here seem to really love their pets!

Viewing Japan

In many of my classes this week we have been discussing about how Japan has been viewed by Western societies in the past and present. In many cases, western societies have the idea that the old Japanese cultural is better then the new modern culture, which is seen just as an imitation of the west. Upon reflection, I have discovered that I myself am guilty of doing the same thing.

Since coming to Japan I have done a lot of walking around the cities. In doing so, while I find the cities very interesting, they are in many ways just like home. Just another city. However, it is when I see sights like this and those that I have posted about before that I think, "This is Japan," "This is what I expected to see." Of course I also respect many things about present day Japanese culture, but I suppose all those years of influence do not get washed away in a matter of a few days.

I still think that areas like these are beautiful, more like the Japan I expected to see. But now maybe I can appreciate other areas of Japanese culture a little bit more now.

Vending machine

Okay, so hopefully this is not too inappropriate, but ever since I took this picture I have wanted to talk about it here. For me the most surprising thing about this vending machine is not that it sells porn, but that it actually sells magazines. Although I am sure that those people who actually buy out of this vending machine are not buying for the reading material (if there is any).
When I first took this picture about a week or so ago it became one of those images that really set America and Japan a part for me. In America you would never find a vending machine that sold reading material (even questionable ones). After all, vending machines are for buying drinks, not books. When I saw this I immediately thought that "wow! Japan and America are really very different places". It set Japan and America apart for me in a way that other things I have experienced here have not.

Okay, my first post. I'm not too sure what we are suppost to write about, but here I go anyways:



Ever since my bus first pulled out of Osaka airport I have wanted to see these hills. To me even here in Kirakata city they seemed so far away. This is actually the closest that I have come to them since comming here. One intersting thing that I discovered about them was that from so far away these hills look so pretty, untouched by modernization. However, that is clearly untrue since those telephone towers go right through them. I guess that it should not have been so surprising because it happens in America too, but isn't Japan suppose to be the county that is closer to nature? But I guess if that was ture then no one in Japan would be able to talk to one another, after all, there are many pretty hills in Japan.

Before comming to Japan I had this idea in my head that Japan was a place where no matter where you stood inside the city and the surrounding areas, that all you would see is concrete buildings. I had this notion because Japan is a very small place with limited land available for actual use that it just made logical sense to me that the Japanese would try to use all the land that they could. However, I took this picture not ten minutes away from my dorm. Back home I would have to walk miles and miles away from the city to see a sight like this. I think that is the most intersting part. That America is so wide and vast and yet it is in Japan which is so small that I can just walk out my front door and see such beauty.