Changing Impression

My first image of Japan is a traditional and modern culture mixed country. However, the longer time I have been living there, the more I realized that actually Japan is still a very traditional country than a modern country. What I mean is Japan is modern externally but traditional internally.

As my previously post mentioned, Japan has numerous popular cultures in animation and comic books which influent almost everywhere in the world. Also, maid cafes which related to Japanese comic books are hardly found in other countries so they are often considered as the modern part of Japanese culture. Another side-product of the animation and comic books are the TV games, which has been developed rapidly in these 20 years. Besides TV games, the advance development of mobile phones and other household appliances in Japan is always described as the best and the most high-tech in the world. Nonetheless, those modern technologies are only the external part of Japanese society or culture.

If you spend time on looking at any one thing in Japan, you can easily find how traditional Japan still is. Take maid cafes as an example again. Although the concepts of maid cafes are very new and modern to countries other than Japan, the ways the maid serving their customers are very traditional. They call their customers “Masters”, and if you go to their cafes, they say “Welcome back Master”. This reflects the very old Japanese society before Meiji Restoration when husbands were considered as master of families whereas wives were their servants. This also reflects the inequality between men and women are still common in Japan but equality between men and women are always considered as a modern and liberal concept. That is the reason why I think Japanese people’s mind are still very traditional.

The same as many other foreigners, my first impression of Japan is much modernized but is still preserving many traditional culture. However, after living in Japan for 9 months, my impression has 180 degrees changed. Traditional culture is actually taking over the majority part of Japanese culture and Japan is only externally modernized.

Japan is always taking the leader role in TV games industry


Japanese mobile phone industry is another high technology symbol

Maid Cafe is the best example to see how Japanese culture is modized externally but traditional internally

Japanese Politics

When many of my non-Japanese friends and I just came to Japan, we found a big problem for us: Where is the garbage bin and which garbage bin should I throw my rubbish to?
Unlike many countries, it is very difficult for you to find any garbage bins on streets. The bins are mostly only located next to the vendor machines or in front of convenient stores. Even if you find bins at these places, you have to follow the regulation for recycling different kinds of rubbish into different bins.
Actually, in every prefecture or every city within a prefecture, the local governments have their own policies for their citizens recycling their garbage. Although the policies may be slight different from each other, most of them require their citizens to separate garbage into burnable, unburnable, aluminum cans and bottles, glasses and the so-called big garbage (Sodai gomi). People are expected to throw the separated garbage to the rubbish station on different days within the week, and they are expected to pay money for throwing the big garbage.
This policy was first trouble to us as being foreigners in Japan because many countries do not require their citizens to separate their garbage and it is difficult for them to distinguish each session of the garbage. However, I soon realized that this policy the cause of Japan being a very clean country and the cause of “Stand and eat and drink” culture.
As I observed in these 9 months in Japan, Japanese people will never throw their rubbish into the wrong bin. Even though Japanese people like having party under Sakura and produce tones of rubbish afterwards, they still throw their rubbish correctly into different bins. Moreover, as I mentioned before, you can only find bins next to vendor machines or in front of convenient stores. If you like to enjoy their drink or food that are bought from vendor machines or convenient stores while you are walking, you may find a big problem after you finish it because you cannot find any bins unless you find another machine or convenient store. You may have to hold the remains of the food or drinks for certain time until you find the rare bins. That is why I think Japanese people like standing and eating and drinking next to the vendor machines and in front of convenient stores.
The garbage policy helps Japan making its country clean and environmental to the earth. Although the policy may be troublesome to some of the public, especially to those foreigners from countries that do not have the separation of rubbish regulation, it is seldom the case to find this policy is not obeyed. I wish more countries could follow Japan to carry out compulsory garbage separation.

5 different bins for 1.plastic bottle and cans, 2. glasses, 3. burnable, 4. unburnable, 5. paper

English instruction for separation

The aluminium cans were properly collected after sakura parties which produced tones of rubbish

Japanese Sport

Baseball is the most popular sport in Japan. No matter male or female, youngsters or elderly, many people in Japan are crazy about baseball.

In March 2009, Japanese national baseball team entered the final of the World Baseball Classic (WBC). Many shops, like McDonald’s produce various products in order to cheer their national team players. At the day of final game of WBC 2009 which Japan was against Korea, many of my Japanese friends skipped their lessons with a view to watching this final game. “It (the game) is one of the most important events every year in Japanese people’s mind” my friends told me. At last, Japan won the game and right after that, many shops provided various discounts to celebrate the victory of Japanese team.

Japanese people are enthusiastic about professional baseball, but also the high school and university baseball league. In 6th November 2008, I watched a match Waseda University team versus Keio University team in Jinguu Mae in Tokyo. The stadium was full of audience and I had to line up 3 hours before the match started in order to get a good seat. Before and during the match, the Japanese style cheering squad, ōendan, who was wearing their uniform, were dancing, yelling and hitting Taiko drum non-stop. At last, Keio University lost. Not only were the players upset, the ōendan and many of the audience cried seriously.

In my point of view, baseball in Japan is a glory. They care so much the victory or lost of baseball teams because they want to prove themselves united if not strong. The ōendan as well as audience devote themselves to the matches not weaker than the players because these three sectors are inseparably united within any Japanese baseball teams. Please feel free to enjoy the enthusiasm of Japanese baseball.

More information of Japanese Baseball
http://www.baywell.ne.jp/users/drlatham/baseball/nihongo/diction.htm

WBC folder produced by McDonald's

female ōendan during the university baseball matches


Waseda V.S. Keio

The caps of the uniform of Waseda male ōendan

Japanese Gender

There are differences between men and women in Japan. This post I want talk about the differences of treatment for male and female customers in Japan.

Japanese women are often thought as inferior than men that they are weaker and do not know how to protect themselves properly. Thus, external methods are needed in order to protect women. Many train lines in big cities in Japan provide “Ladies Only Compartment” during rush hours in order to protect women being sexually harassed by Chikan. Because of my gender, I cannot go into the “Ladies Only Compartment”. But one of my friends told me her story providing that “Ladies Only Compartment” really helps protecting women. “There was one night I was in a hurry so when I arrived the platform, I rushed into a normal compartment with a lot of Salarymen. But then, there was a mid-aged man started trying to talk to me and asked me if I want to drink with him. I didn’t answer him but then he started touch my body and so I got off the train immediately in the next station”, she told me. Truly, Japan is famous of having so many cases of sexual harassment in trains so “Ladies Only Compartment” can prevent women from Chikan.

Another example of difference of treatment for men and women is the case of “Capsule Hotels”. “Capsule Hotels”, as its name said, are hotels that providing capsules for customers to sleep. However, most of such kind of hotels only accepted men. “Is this sexual discrimination?” I asked the bell boy when I stayed one capsule hotel in Okayama during the winter break. “No. It is because the capsules we provide to customers have no lock and closed-circus television inside, it may be dangerous for women as someone can get into their capsules and do something bad to women, then we will be in big trouble”, the bell boy said. That is the reason why most of the “Capsule Hotels” accept only male customers.Besides these two facts, there are still many examples showing the difference between men and women in terms of treatment, like Ladies’ Day in cinemas and night clubs. The sexual difference in Japan may be more than what you thought.

Service Hours of "Lady Only Compartment"

Instruction "Lady Only Compartment"

Capsules without any locks in a “Capsule Hotel”

It has only one cloth to cover your capsule

Religious Japan

Japan is famous for having thousands of very old temples and shrines making Japan has an image of religious country.
No matter whether temples and shrines are Shinto or Buddhism, they are strongly connected to Japanese people’s daily life. If Japanese people have something they want from gods, for example, love, health and good academic result, they would go to temples or shrines and pray to the gods. For some Japanese people, they may have their wedding at the shrines. Also, many of the temples or shrines have one or more festival (Matsuri) for pray for good luck.
Not only do the temples and shrines connect to Japanese daily life, they are also used for advertising. Fusimi in Kyoto is the best example. Fusimi is famous for having thousands of Torii in its shrine. If someone donates certain amount of money to the shrine, a Torii will be made having the donator’s name. Many Torii in Fusimi are written in companies’ name and they are actually nothing more than advertisement. Not only the famous shrines like Fusimi have this kind of advertisement, I found a less famous shrine called Hiroda Shrines near Namba in Osaka also has its lantern and columns written in companies’ name
Things about religions can be found easily in Japan by observing Japanese daily life and religions are also very important in Japan as it is a median to advertise companies.

advertisement in Fusimi

a couple having wedding ceremony in a shrine in Hakata in Kyushu

advertisement on wall in Hiroda shrines(1)

advertisement on wall in Hiroda shrines(2)

Globalization In Kansai

Osaka and Kobe are famous international cities in Japan that you can find products, restaurants as well as people from all over the world. But if you look at the stuffs you found “international” in Japan more carefully, you would probably find that the “international” stuff is actually “Japanized”. China Town in Kobe and American Village (American Mura) in Osaka are good places to find this Japanese style of globalization.

I have been staying in China Town in Kobe for 2 hours during Chinese New Year in 2009. There was a parade in the main street which had many characters from a Chinese novel “Journey to the West”. It was actually a very Chinese style but actually the actors and actresses are Japanese. Beside the parade, few Japanese restaurants are located in China Town which is totally not related to China. Even though the remaining are Chinese restaurant, their menu and method of operation are also Japanese style. For example, Chinese food does not have fired chicken (Karaage) and Chinese people do not sit on TaTaMi.

Parade for Chinese New Year

Japanese restaurant in China Town

Gaikokujin in China Town

As for the American Village in Osaka, it is another place good for finding the products which are mixed of Japanese and other countries’ styles. The shops there are selling clothes in American or western styles and most young people there are wearing like an American (for example, hip-hop style). However, the clothes actually do not fit the Westerners’ size but Japanese or Easterners’ size. Also, many clothes sold in there are made in Japan, China and other Asian countries.
American clothes bought in American Village was made in China


Japan collects the best from all over the world but it makes them into the Japanese way instead of directly copying. This is the Japanese way of globalization.

Tadahiko Hayashi

Business Man 1950　（http://www.flickr.com/photos/brainblame/174608761/）

Fishing Boats Japan 1956　（http://www.flickr.com/photos/brainblame/174608762/）

Naked Woman (http://www.jipango.com/mailservice/87/mailservice87.html)

Tadahiko Hayashi was one of the most celebrated photographers in Japan after Pacific War. His mother was also a photographer and inspired him to be a photographer[i]. He worked in China in 1945 as a new reporter of Pacific War and he returned to Japan in 1946 and started taking photos of changes of life in post-war period.

His photos are always focusing life of Japanese people. His photos represent Japanese culture truly during the post-war period. At that time Japan was occupied by the Allied Powers and so many western cultures and thoughts came to Japan. Thus, Japan was facing mixture of traditional Japanese culture and Western culture. On one hand, buildings, roads, clothing and so on were being westernized, but on the other hand, Japanese people preserve its traditional culture like martial art. Hayashi showed this kind of new culture mixtures in his photos.
Like “Business Man 1950”, we can see that the business man in the middle and his partner were dressing in western suit and walking down the western style which was full of western building. But the woman with two children standing next to this couple was dressing in kimono. “Fishing Boats Japan 1956” are more or less the same that kimono wearing women were standing in front of western house and fishing boats. “Naked Woman” reflects how western thoughts affected Japanese culture: naked in public was immoral in ancient Japan but was becoming generally accepted by public.

The nowadays Japanese cultures are still a mixture of the western and traditional Japanese culture. If we look at the Hayashi’s pictures, we can see this mixed culture is actually rapidly changing from the post-war period since 1946.


Reference:

[i] Shōsetsu no furusato (小説のふるさと, The village settings of stories). Tokyo: Chūō Kōronsha, 1957.

External link:
Studio Equis - Tadahiko Hayashi: http://www.studioequis.net/showArtist.php?artistID=313

Japanese Popular Culture

It is often said that Japanese popular culture, especially animation, comic and AV (Adult Video), is extremely popular not only in Asian countries but also in Western countries. In Japan, of course, people are more enthusiastic about its popular culture than other countries.

shop selling maid costumes

I went to Akihabara, which is known as the paradise of Otaku, on the Boxing Day last year to see how this culture is popular. I spent 2 hours walking around Akihabara. There were many shops selling toys and figures of the animation and comic books, selling Cosplay and maid costumes, electric appliances and so on. The customers I observed in those shops are aging from 10 years old to 50 years old men and women. They did not hesitate to buy these animate or comic related products. I am very shocked because people in Hong Kong feel embarrassed to buy such things. Also, I saw there was a very long queue of young and mid-aged men waiting for a singer of an animation theme song for her autograph, and they did not mind to be taken by television channels. This is also completely different from Hong Kong since Hong Kong people try to hide their hobbies of Otaku as possible as they can.

people waiting for autographs

Japan, as the leader of animation and comic culture, is actually generally accept the people who are addicted to it.

Japanese People : Women's Outlook

In western people’s view, people from East Asia look no differences in their face. Especially, they could not tell what the differences between Chinese, Korean and Japanese are by looking at their outlook as I have been observing in Japan. However, people in my own city, Hong Kong, people can recognize who are Japanese and “HongKongese” (Hong Kong people) easily. I have been living in Japan for more than half an-year and continuously observing Japanese outlook. To prove what I found in these few months, instead of using participant observation, my friends and I have done a little experiment in Kiyomizu Temple, Kyoto.

Two of my female friends from Hong Kong and I went to Kiyomizu Temple on an weekday in January. Both of my friends have dyed their hair to blonde and was wearing color contact lens (making their eyes look bigger) and putting up their makeup, and they were wearing Kimono to visit the Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto which is a place full of Chinese visitors. As soon as my friends arrived, many Chinese visitors came to ask them to take pictures by speaking limited Japanese and English. By chance, there was another Chinese girl wearing kimono at the same place that day at the same time. She did not put up any makeup nor dye her hair. Conversely, no foreign visitors came to ask for taking pictures by using Chinese. The setting of this experiment is that wearing Kimono is to tell people I am an Japanese, and putting up makeup, wearing color contact lens and dyeing hair is to give people an image of Shibaya Kei (渋谷系) which is often considered to be a general image of Japanese women in Hong Kong. The request of taking pictures of not is in fact the confirmation of Japanese of my friends. The people who requested to take a picture with my friends came from the same country, China, but they could not recognize by first glance because they tried to use Japanese to ask my friends. The other girl who was also Kimono although has been asked for taking pictures, the requestors were using Chinese after their first glance. This experience can tell us the use of color contact lens, dyeing blonde hair and wearing make up (the symbols of Shibuya Kei) make differences between Chinese and Japanese women in terms of outlook, but it cannot generalize the entire Japanese and Chinese women.

two of my friends were dressing in Kimono and taking pictures with Chinese visitors

Therefore, addition observation should be done. As I observed in 109 Building in Shibuya (in which a place full of Shibuya Kei women and HongKongese) at night in late December 2008 by walking around that plaza, I found that the Cantonese speaking women (people from Hong Kong use Cantonese) were with dark hair, wearing relatively less concentrated make up, and wearing Jeans whereas Japanese speaking women had the same dressing as my friends in the experience in Kiyomizu Temple and wearing skirts and boots. This proves again there are huge differences between Japanese and Chinese people in terms of outlook.

Shibuya, Tokyo, a place where a lot of Shibuya Kei dressing Japanese women are there

To conclude, the effort of making themselves beauty by dying blonde hair, wearing concentrated make up wearing color contact lens or so on is the symbol of Japanese women’s outlook.

Neighborhood Hirakata

(someday at 22:05 under Hirakata Shi station, two boys were performing guitar show)

If you go to the open area under the Hirakata Shi Station every night after 10p.m. or every Saturday and Sunday, you can always find some buskers performing guitar, dancing and bicycle no matter how weather is bad and how important the days are (like Valentine Day). In weekdays, they start their performance at around 10p.m. when many salary men are standing and waiting for taxis under the Hirakata City station; in weekends, they start performing at 1p.m. when many parents are taking their children to Hirakata City for holidays. In other words, their main audiences are someone waiting for taxi to go home and families enjoying their holidays.

Unlike the mid-aged buskers in Shinjuku, Tokyo, the buskers in Hirakata are look like they are in their 20s. They usually spend 1 to 3 hours a day to perform. For the dancers, they bring along with them big amplifiers to play some music while dancing; bicyclists just use their bikes to perform; guitarists bring along with them music notes and promotion leaflets. Unlike in Hong Kong and Mainland China, buskers in Hirakata perform not because of money, but they wish people could admire and enjoy their endowments. Like the cases of the guitarists and dancers, each time when they finish their performance (a song), their audiences though not many clap them. And afterwards, the buskers bow the audiences heavily to thank them. Sometimes, they will disturb their leaflets to the audiences to promote their crews. They will respect you a lot if you spend a few minutes to watch their shows (I spent 30 minutes to watch their performance and in return, they gave me an almost 90 degree bow) because appreciation is the biggest return for them.

(A band performing music on a Saturday)

(A family and some other audiences were enjoying their show)

Early impressions of Japan

I have been living in Japan for 5 months and my first impression of Japan is that it is a very modern county with high technology and its modern popular culture, and on the other hand the traditional culture and buildings are still well preserved.

Before I came to Japan, I could read from newspaper and Internet that how modernized Japan is. This is true that I can easily find Pachinko shops and game centers with the latest software and hardware even in rural areas like Hirakata City where I am living in (see right). Also, you can find almost everyone in Japan has their own cell phones. But these modernized images cannot describe the whole picture of Japan.

(Shrine near Seminar House)

Walking around in Hirakata City, I can easily find Shrines and temples between modern buildings. My friends and I went to Kyoto in the first week in Japan. We were so surprised that so many traditional and modern buildings are mixed together in Kyoto. Also, we saw many Japanese women wearing Kimono and Yukata in streets and in the temples(We took pictures with two Geisha in Kiyomizu Temple). But the local people were not surprise of Kimono wearing women. If you wear Cheongsam (Chinese traditional dressing) walking down the streets, everyone will look at you! That is not the case in Japan as many Japanese women wear their traditional clothes in their daily life. That is the reason why my first impression of Japan is a traditional and modern culture mixed country!