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.

Sports & Recreation in Japan

For the long weekend, I went hiking in the Nagano region with two of my friends. This trip allowed me to explore the hidden beauty that I had yet to discover. Before I came to Japan, I had been told to venture many of the aesthetic attractions while my stay in Japan. Before this hike, I had only seen the scenery from seminar house 4 to Kansai Gaidai and back to seminar house 4. Let’s just say that this panorama did not impress me much. However, I was truly blown away by the natural beauty that I was exposed to while being on this hike. I was mostly amazed by the beauty, calmness, and cleanness. Additionally, I was very impressed by the very little garbage littering. The rule was to carry out whatever one brought and all of the hikers followed this rule very religiously. Furthermore, I noticed that many of the hikers were much older and traveled in large groups. Before coming on this hike, I would have presumed that the youngest people would be into hiking and that older people hiking would be hard to find. However, I was wrong and I was impressed to find these 70 years old women and men hiking. By what I have seen so far, I can conclude that the youth is much more concerned with their looks, being up to date with fashion, doing things that are popular rather than worrying about their health. It seems that with age, Japanese people are much more likely to travel, hike, or do sporty activities. Lastly, I would like to point out our interaction with other Japanese hikers. When we were hiking, every person that we encountered would look at us and greet us. It did not matter how tired, hurt, or hungry they were, they would at least greet us and smile. I think this kind of interaction is very lacking in the everyday life that I have encountered. I know that when I walk to school every day, I try to say hi to other Japanese people but they always seem to be in a rush and have an angry look painted on their faces. It almost seems like it is too much to ask to simply reach out and say hello. The following statement is being drawn from our hike and my everyday walks to school. It seems that when everyone is on the same level/status, it seems very easy to interact and open up to others. However, when class or status is introduced in the picture, everyone seems to change and this is when the interactions no longer follow smoothly and interactions becomes much harder. What I really liked about our hike was the fact that everyone was down to earth, no one was rushing to be somewhere, and there was not anything that divided us because everyone was going through the same experience. Thus, making our short interactions possible and pleasurable.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_0pRanZb6AHo/SPJtJ3PVVLI/AAAAAAAABGY/jT3OLYQPMlc/s400/jap.jpg

http://www.fandm.edu/Images/anime.jpg

Japanese Pop Culture and Entertainment

Globalization has fostered the spread of American culture and thus shrinking and homogenizing the world. Thus through Anime and globalization, I would like to show how Japanese culture is being influenced and changing. Anime originated during the 20^th century. It evolved through manga, which is known as comic books. The first famous anime emerged after WWII when Osamu Tezuta produced Tetsuran Atomu (Astro Boy). The techniques that were used in this film were burrowed from French, German, and American cinema becuase they were technologically advanced. Osamu Tezuta gave further provided guidance to people in terms of how to be and how to act. However, anime did not become accepted into the Japanese culture until the 80’s when anime became heightened in production. Anime started representing the popular culture: “manga and Anime…are not the totality of the culture but point to certain aspect of it” (Anthony Enriquez). This means that popular beliefs and traditions were incorporated in anime and further reflected the popular culture. This allowed the younger generations to rely on the media and popular culture to help them shape their understanding religious knowledge and practices.

I came to Japan in hopes to improve my Japanese skills. Thus, recently I have been watching anime films hoping it will help my listening and speaking skills. In these films, I have noticed the presence of American culture. For example, many of the characters do not resemble the Japanese people and instead look more like American people with blond hair, big green or blue eyes dressed in western clothing. Today at school, I met with my Japanese-speaking partner and I asked her why Japanese girls dye their hair blonde, dress in American outfit, and change their eye color. Her simple answer was that they want to look like and act like Americans and so they emulate these behaviors and lifestyles. This is very sad for me to observe because I can see the traditional Japanese culture slowly disappearing among the youth as they learn to adapt to more of the American culture and lifestyles. Globalization has many positive and negative sides and I am interested with the question of to what extent is it ok for globalization to take place. Or can globalization exist simultaneously without altering the culture, values, tradtions, norms etc.

Jin Kya Park. “Creating My Own Cultural Bubble”: Consumption of Japanese Spriituality in Anime. San Diego, CA, May 2003.

Neighborhood Hirakata

When I arrived in Japan, I came before orientation week began. During this time, I was placed in seminar house 3 where I had the opportunity of meeting students from all over the world. Here, I met a girl from Morocco and became very close friend with her. However, I had to leave seminar house 3 after orientation week was over, and I had to move to seminar house 4, which is located right across the park. I frequently visit my friend, and each time I must sign in. At first, the Okasan that works at the front desk was not very friendly, and she would barely say anything to me. Over the past month, I tried to talk to her so she sees that I am trying and that our one minute talk can be better. Even if it took a while, our brief interaction has improved.
When this blog theme was presented in class for our assignment, I thought about Okasan at seminar house 3 because the perception that I held about her has changed over time. Now, when she greets me, she actually asks me about my day, and our interaction is much longer. Today I visited my friend, I told Okasan about our assignment and asked her if I could write about her and take a picture of her with my broken Japanese. Without thinking twice, she responded by saying no and that I should take a picture of someone young like my friend. She asked me why I would want to take a picture of someone old and kept saying no. She thought some more in puzzlement and then discussed my requestment with her husband. After a minute of dialogue between them, they both said no. I thanked her for her time. As I was leaving, they requested for more information about my blog project. Finally they agreed upon the enough information that I provided for them. I immediately took my camera out and snapped a picture of her. Before I could leave, she and her husband wanted to approve of the picture I had just snapped. I was very thankful that she and her husband were flexible on their decisions. I think that if I had asked her in September, she would have never agreed to change her mind. I think that because she has gotten to know me, learn to trust me and like me, she felt much more open and comfortable. I think this example of Okasan is a perfect model of how time can change everything about a person. It is very important not to judge people on first time interaction and it is crucial to be open minded and flexible.

I like this picture because it clearly shows how crowded Japan has become over the last decade or so. I like how this picture shows the old and the new. The old in the sense that the houses are small and the streets are narrow. And the new in the sense that there is over crowdedness, modern clothes and cars. I know that when I walk to school every morning, I feel kind of claustrophobic with the lack of space there is available. I am always worried that there is not enough room and because everyone is in a hurry, I always make sure to take extra caution. I have noticed that in America, drivers are made sure to stop at pedestrian crosswalk but here it seems that drivers are less likely to stop for the pedestrian. Additionally, I like this picture because it shows the way Japanese people dress is not that much different from the way foreigners dress. Thus, this shows that the traditional Japan is transforming into a more western style and yet there are still things that remind people of the traditional Japan.

Early Impressions of Japan

Before coming to Japan, I had the impression that everything in Japan was modernized due to technological advancement that has been fostered by globalization. I thought that it would be hard to find traditional things in everyday life. After arriving in Japan and adjusting to our new life at the dorm, the school made a day field trip to Kyoto. On our way, I was amazed at the complex train system and it seemed impossible to figure out how to get from one place to another place. I noticed that almost all the girls wore very modern clothes and that they were all on their cell phones, which allowed them to communicate massive web of people instantaneously. As we made our way to the temples, I noticed the narrow road trying to fit the cars, the motorcycles, the bicycles, the trucks, the pedestrians etc. I think this was the first time I noticed how crowded Japan really was. As we were walking to the temple, I noticed this woman wearing a traditional outfit standing in the middle of a very modernized atmosphere. I did not want to be rude and so I politely asked her if I could take her picture and she nodded yes without hesitating. What I really like about this picture is the kindness and the gentleness that you can see from her pose. I like this picture because it reminds me of the traditional Japanese culture that I have read about from the classes that I have taken in college and that I have seen being portrayed in American Hollywood films. This picture is great because it represents the modern and the traditional culture simultaneously.