Changing Impression

As the semester is winding down, I am transported back to the time when I arrived in Japan. This makes me reflect upon how my experience has been so far up until now. I am sad to say that my impressions of Japan are mixed and cannot say that it has been an enlightening experience. I know that a semester in Japan is too short and not enough time to experience what the country has to offer due to the time restraint. I came to Japan expecting to live with a host family so I could master the Japanese language; however, due to the popularity of home stay, I was not able to have the opportunity of living with a host family and experience everyday Japanese life style. Currently, I live at Seminar House 4 and living here is like living at my dorm back in the States. I do not get to be around Japanese students and thus cannot really practice Japanese. And the few Japanese students that do live here speak perfect English and so it is easier to communicate in English. Furthermore, the entire international students speak English so trying to speak Japanese is not an option. Additionally, at Kansai English speaking people constantly surround me. I think it is very silly for Kansai to put all the international students in one building because it does not allow us to interact with other Japanese students. Yes, there are Japanese girls come to CIE wearing their latest designer clothes or bag so they can impress the guys. I feel like they are there to hunt for some nice guy to date/marry. However, leaving Kansai’s bubble and exploring Japan, I do feel that Japan is a beautiful place that is filled with so many untouched territories that I still need to explore. For example, when my friend and I went hiking at Kamikochi, the scenery, the peacefulness, and the purity the landscape offered amazed me. I literally was speechless. Still, even with few other experiences like this one, I cannot fully say that I love being in Japan. Yes, I met had the opportunity of meeting some very interesting people but I am happy that I am returning home soon.

Politics in Japan

http://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/hatoyama/images/actions/200911/13usa1.jpghttp://weblog.greenpeace.org/makingwaves/Yukio-Hatoyama-001.jpg

Just few days before my exchange program began, a huge event occurred in Japan. The national elections took place on the 30^th of August. This year, especially, was interesting rather than the Liberal Democratic Party that ruled Japan for the last half-century winning, the Democratic Party won. On the 16^th of September, Mr. Yukio Hatoyama from the Democratic Party was elected as the prime minister of Japan. This election has been radical for Japan because it changed from one ruling party to another showing peoples’ views and their involvement. The prime minister said: “"This has been a revolutionary election; the people have shown the courage to take politics into their own hands." (http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/h/yukio_hatoyama/index.html) However, just a few months after the elections, my friends that I have gotten to know were talking about their disappointment regarding the new prime minister. To explain, one of the fundamental parts of the new party’s campaign was about relocating the American Marine Base on the Island of Okinawa; however, when Obama came to visit Japan, Hatoyama did not mention Japan’s wish to renegotiate this deal with Washington. And so people were very disappointed and they thought that this issue was not as important for the new Prime Minister as he had claimed earlier. Furthermore, three months after the elections, Hatoyama got into a donation scandal where he has been accused of falsifying financial statements. He is said to have been taking more money than the law allows the candidates to and putting them under anonymous donations. This, in Japan, is considered as a major illegal action, and can especially hurt his credibility as a leader. The prime minister has been apologizing and saying that he didn’t know of these falsified statements. Yet, Japanese people say that they were dissatisfied with Hatoyama’s opaque explanation regarding on this issue. This has lead the public to think that the new prime minister might not be qualified for his new statues, and additionally hurting the new ruling party. Thus the question that arises is if the Democratic Party keeps on deceiving the public, is Japan looking for a power change again to the Liberal Democratic Party in the next election?

Christmas in Japan

Since we had the option of writing about anything, I decided follow up with the religion theme that we had for last week. Starting from the end of October, everyday when I walked from Kansai Gaidai back to my seminar house, I noticed a new person affluently decorates his/her house with colorful Christmas light. I think how the West perceives and celebrates Christmas is not how it is celebrated in Japan. In the post below, I discussed how Buddhism and Shinto are the two major religions in Japan and that only one percent of the population is estimated to be Christmas. Thus, with globalization and migration of people to Japan, the Japanese people have adopted many Western customs pertaining to Christmas. Additionally, globalization has really also made this holiday become more popular and become more of a commercial event rather than a holiday pertaining religious meaning. Christmas in Japan is not seen as a holiday where one spends time with one’s family. For young teens and single women, due to the influence of the media, it is a time to spend with that special someone in a romantic setting. For young kids, Christmas is about receiving presents from "Hotei-osho", a Buddhist monk who is equivalent of a Santa Claus. Like the US, it is common for parents to give presents to their kids but it is very uncommon for kids to give presents to their parents. This is phenomena exists because it is believed that Santa clause is the only one who brings presents and as long the kids believe then presents are given. However, in the US, the giving and receiving of presents reciprocates. Furthermore, the traditional Japanese Christmas food is the Christmas cake, which is made of sponge cake topped with strawberries and whipped cream, and fried chicken from KFC. I think the whole concept of eating fried chicken during Christmas is such an interesting concept. Do you know how this fried chicken became associated with Christmas?

Religion in Japan

As I have learned from my Japan and Globalization class, when Japanese people are asked about what they religious views, they are most likely answer that they are not affiliated with any one religion. In Japan, there are many religions that exist but the two major religions that people follow are Shintoism and Buddhism. Japanese people incorporate both Shintoism and Buddhism in their religious practices. For example, when a child is born, the celebration takes place at a Shinto shrine but when someone dies, the funeral arrangements are held in Buddhist tradition. Shintoism is defined as people believing in the spirits that exists in nature, which can be almost anything like a tree, a rock etc. Shintoism does make people follow any set of rules that Christianity or other religion has. I think the reason that people are not devoted to one religion or do not define what is religions means to them is because the role of religion has changed from what it once was. And not having a definite meaning attached to religion gives people the freedom and the flexibility. “We don't try to define it because we know that our definition would be either so wide as to be meaningless, or so narrow that it would leave out ever so many important things- The most we can expect at the moment are operative ad hoc definitions, adequate for the specific purpose which we have in mind…” (http://www.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/jjrs/pdf/CRJ-111.PDF). Even when religion does not play a huge role in people’s lives, they do still attend religious ceremonies at temples and shrines on certain occasions like a birth of a baby, wedding, funerals, religious holidays, new years etc.

These two pictures were taken at Kyoto during my orientation week at Kansai Gaidai. This shrine was one of the places that we visited in our small groups. When we arrived at this shrine, I saw a lot of young couples and especially groups of girls buying these wooden blocks and writing their wishes. This seemed like a common practice when visiting a shrine. Trying to follow the norm and tradition, we too purchased our very own wooden block and wrote down our wishes so they would come true. I asked one of the Japanese Gaidai tour guides, what kind of things we should write and she said whatever I wanted. When writing these wishes, we were not thinking of any religious figures; instead we were just writing to get our wishes be heard and maybe for our own self to know what we want and the kinds of relations we want to formulate with others.

Gender & Inequality

Everyday after my classes have all finished, which is around 5:30, I stop at Top World in hopes to purchase something fresh for my dinner. When I enter the grocery store, I usually see only the mothers carrying their kids like in the picture shown as they try to figure out what they will shop for dinner. It is almost a rare case to see a guy shopping for food at this hour. This is because most working mothers will get out of work early so they can be home before dark so they can prepare dinner for their families. The household chores are seen as the real role of the women and this means that women must take care of the kids, the family, clean the house, cook, etc. It seems that the household chores are not shared equally among the husband and the wife. However, men are not expected to rush home and help their wives with household chores. This is because Japan is a male dominated society where women are subservient to the male authority. Thus, men have the privilege of staying later at work, going out with their co-workers after work for a drink and not having to worry about household chores. I think it is just shocking to think about how much time and effort Japanese women put in their family. For example, when I visited my friend for dinner at his host parents’ house, I was really amazed and more shocked to see how unfairly the housework was divided between the husband and the wife. For instance, the host mother was in the kitchen the whole time preparing the dinner while the host father watched the TV and drank his beer. He did not for once get up and offer to help. He expected his wife to make dinner and serve it to him while he relaxed from his hard day. In a way he did not think that maybe her day was long and maybe she too was tired. He just followed the common belief that women belong in the kitchen and that they are expected to fulfill the needs of the men. Furthermore, even after dinner was over, he did not even get up to help clear the dishes from the table; he just sat and continued to drink his beer. And the wife accepted his behavior as normal and continued to clean.

Further Readings on Gender Roles:

http://marklsl.tripod.com/Writings/japan.htm
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20080224x1.html

Globalization

In my Japan and Globalization class, we have been reading about the various ways Japan is influenced globally and how the culture adapts these outside influences in order to suit their culture. One of the global influences is the introduction of McDonald, the world’s largest leading fast food restaurant, to Ginza, Japan in 1971. McDonald, which was founded in 1927 in San Bernardino, California by Dick and Mac Donald, progressed from national to multinational and thus became a global business that established all over the world working with local culture and needs. The success of McDonald was due to the fact that McDonald thinks globally and acts locally. This means that they were able to adapt to the culture by making various adjustments to suit the Japanese people. They have most of the staple McDonald choices on the menu, but there are some variations. For example, it offers teriyaki Mc Burger, Chicken Tatsuta etc. Also the drink size and fries are much smaller portion and everything is bit more upscale so eating at McDonald does not seem bad. There is also a similar fast food restaurant as McDonald that opened in Tokyo in 1972 called the Mos Burger, which literally translates as “Mountain Ocean Sun”. It originated in Japan and it is the second largest growing franchise in Japan. Today, there are 1,361 shops in Japan. Mos Burger is known for using fresh vegetables and unique Japanese flavored sauces. The concept is like that of McDonald but there are slight variations. They offer standard type hamburgers and cheeseburgers but also offer burgers that can't be found at McDonald's. One of these burgers is called the Rice Burger, which replaces the bun that is found in a typical hamburger with two flat round patties made out of rice, barley, and millet. The success of McDonald is really due to the fact that it was able to adapt to the needs of the Japanese culture so it could thrive. It was able to glocalize by bringing something foreign and adapting to the local culture and needs.

I like these pictures because the first picture related to McDonald two foreigner looking people with a sign that is in Japanese. I think it is interesting that they decided to use foriengers to package the product and then they use Japanese so the local people can understand. The second picture of the Mos Burger has signs that are written in English and then in Japanese. Even though this is a store that was founded in Japan, they still decided to market their product in English. I think that this is because the usage of the English language is something that is different and stands out.