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.