Changing Impression of Japan

I have been writing this blog for four mouths and it changed my impression toward how I see Japan. As native Japanese (although I think I have other cultural influence as well), I did realize that I was surrounded by Japanese culture until I did this blog. After I came to realize that many things relate to Japanese culture I believe I became more “Japanese” than before and better photographer.

Before starting this blog, I thought it was easy to find Japanese culture since I had an idea about what Japanese culture is.

But as you could see from these pictures, all the things that came up to my mind were traditional Japanese culture: things that I rarely interacted in everyday life. Therefore, I thought this blog posts would be challenging for me since teacher was looking for specific item or fact about Japan(more on things that can be found in daily life). By paying attention in class and hanging out with foreigner, it helped me to focus on specific things in Japan like school uniform, Japanese fashion, hosts and etc.

The practice of taking picture that is Japanese things became custom for me. Consequently, when I went back to my home (Mie) this May, I took many Japanese things. I think this happened because as I developed custom, my unconsciousness became consciousness. Therefore, things I feel that I became more Japanese than before. 

These are more pictures that I thought I would not have taken before I did this blog. I feel doing barbeque with only sea food is Japanese and so on. (Pictures were taken in Wakayama).

Throughout this blog I also improved my photograph skills. As I learned from this class, I try not to include lights or background that maybe disturbing. Moreover, I learned many techniques that may be useful in the future as well: skill for portrait pictures.

I enjoyed posting blogs and I think this helped me to understand my culture better and become an egg of visual anthropologist. So if I were to do this blog post again I would like to use character like my pet, Moose(cat), so that it would be more interesting for people who is reading this blog. May be like this?

I would like to keep posting more and more so that I would be conscious enough to introduce Japanese culture when I go study abroad. I would like to thank Mr. F for giving this opportunity to think about Japanese culture. It was good experience and had so much fun.

Politeness in Japan

This is second post that I am writing specifically about Japan's culture. After I've written first post, I became more careful to look at many things around me in order to find what's out there that symbolize Japanese culture. So in this post I would like to introduce couple of things that best described Japan's culture. The polite behabior of holding toilet paper in triangle for the next person and correct manner of sitting in seiza are symbolization of Japan's culture.

The politeness is good example of Japan’s culture and this can be seen in places such as in toilet. There are people who clean rest room and when they clean it, the toilet paper is usually holed into triangle.

 This is not done only by those who clean the rest room but also by the public people because we learn this method when we are in elementary school. By holding it in triangle it makes not only neat atmosphere but also easy to pull the toilet paper. Therefore, even though they will not get credit for doing this, many people in Japan has politeness to think about others (in this situation, thinking about the next person) which I believe this is important in Japan’s culture. I feel that this is important part of our culture because in Japan many people try to keep harmony in a group or in society and the ability to thinking about other people is necessary. That’s why many toilet paper are holed this way and it shows politeness.

                   Moreover, having the right manner is also important perspective in Japan because there are many rules in Japan that can be lead to be seen as a polite person or not. In Japan it is polite to sit in seicza like this picture.

 However, many people would not sit like this on the chair but on tatami. By sitting like this, it allows us to have personal space around us and others. Furthermore, sitting up straight and having unified legs allow others to have good impression due to the vestige of tea ceremony and samurai. 
                   In conclusion, holding toilet paper in triangle and knowing polite behavior is considered as Japan’s culture because it both concerns about other people and other people’s eyes so that they can maintain the harmony in society. Having the polite feeling and behavior it will allow us to feel good. Therefore, Japan’s culture is can’t be described without hospitality spirit like these.

What do Japanese people do?

When I heard this topic, “what do Japanese people do?”, サラリーマン(sales man) first came to my mind because I had a teacher who always said that “Japanese people work too hard that Karoushi  became universal language.” So I took this picture that my friend, Tatsuya, is working in suit which relates to this stereotype. However, I thought there are more to this topic.

As I think about this deeper and deeper, I came to the conclusion that Japanese people tend to adjust to people around them by forming a group or by 空気を読む(reading the air in order to keep harmony in relationship). For example, Japanese people try to line up and form a line every time. Even in 3.11, Japanese kept patience to form a line for gasoline or food.  

This gave big impact to the world. However, as native Japanese, I think this is natural because we get trained in the school such as in elementary school or in kindergarten. Like this (please see the picture below) .

When we’re doing physical education, we first learn the correct way: 1. the first person in line should put their hand in the waist 2. People after that should make fist size space between the person in front. 3. People should have their arm stretched forward so that they can make a straight line by adjusting to shoulder bump in front. Therefore, I observed that it is education and culture that have big influence on Japanese in forming the line.

Moreover, Japanese like to have fun with group member by going to karaoke or izakaya. This picture below is famous cheering that people do when going to izakaya. Sometime I feel that I adjust to too much to other people but I think that’s what Japanese people do.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆

More interesting information(movie) of forming a line and adjusting to the team is linked below. I took a picture of アルゴリズム行進(algorthim march) because I thought this is great symbol of Japanese people.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYJ-eVDH6OE

Portrait of Shintaro

Taking a portrait of someone is very difficult. Just because we know that person well, does not mean it is easy to take good portraits. Good portrait expresses their characteristic naturally which means we have to be very careful not to make the model nervous or serious so that they will not express their social face (meaning fake facial expression such as a feigned smile).

In this post, I decided to do portrait of my friend, Shintaro because we’ve been in the same class for two years and I feel that we are becoming close friend recently. I call him Shin just because it is short and easy to pronounce. Moreover, he is little bit shy at first but when you get to know him, he is kind and delightful person who is persistent in every field that he has interests. I don’t know a lot about his interests so I decided to take pictures by asking some questions such as “what do you like?” and “please choose a pose that best describes you.” Here are the pictures that I was able to catch. 

One in the right answers the first question. He made an image of reading books. By taking close-up photo like this enable us to see face clearly. In contrast, I depicted second picture a full-length portrait (one in the left and answers the second question). By showing his whole body this time made it more clear what he really looks like and his love of snowboard. Furthermore, the background, brick allow his fashionable clothes to stands out and makes casual images. In addition, I was talking to him while I took pictures so his looks more relax than nervous. However, I felt I can do better if I had other strategies because he has other unique characteristic (please see pictures below) as well and I think it will be wonderful if I were to draw out these image in a short period of time.

Again, taking good portrait is very difficult thing to do. It is due to the complexity of catching his or her atmosphere that best describes them. But, I realized that, at the same time portraits are interesting to take because it allows people to explore new self.  

Neighborhood Makinohonmachi

I have been living in Hirakata for two years now. I am from a country side of Mie prefecture so my first impression of Hirakata was more like “urban”, although 大阪人（osaka people） says Hirakata is not “urban” but “country”. So in order to talk about my neighborhood Makinochonmachi, I would first like to introduce why Hirakata is “city”.

 

              In Hirakata there is the station called “Hirakatashi” station. Japanese call it “shieki” because it is located in the middle of Hrakata. Hirakata station is big station because almost every train stops at Hirakata. Moreover, keihan trains come and go at least once every 3 minutes. This is very different from my hometown where they only have train once every 30 minutes. From this point I feel Hirakata is more on “city” side.

              Now that I’ve explained why Hirakata is a city, I will talk about Makinohonmachi. I live in an apartment and my neighbor is also a Kansaigaidai student. However, I barely know about this Katahoko Honmachi(place where I live) so I will talk about Makino Honmachi since I have friend who lives there.

           

If you live near seminar house, Makino Honmachi is pretty close and you can go there by crossing the bridge. From Makino Honmachi you can still see Kansai Gaidai building. However, as you can see from this picture, there are so many apartments and houses that are closely located. This Makino Honmachi has super sanko, which is a super market near the bridge. My friend told me that she goes to this supper market very often because they sell it in reasonable price.

What surprised me the most in this Makino Honmachi was that people were like that of my hometown. When I was busting her house people came to her house to おすそわけ（giving away something）vegetables by saying つまらまない物ですが(this is boring thing). I thought this was only custom in country side so I was really surprised. Furthermore, even there are more convenient transportation or houses that are really closely built, how Japanese interact with neighbor does not really matter if you are in city or country. The important thing I learned from this is to form a good community by doing おすそわけbecause we are Japanese.

☆Link about Osusowake if you want to learn　more:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ukvje_NI-1w

What is Japanese Culture?

↑観音寺(Kan non ji) in Kyoto

When people were to ask to determine their own culture, it is not easy to describe because they have to look their culture from objective point of view. For me, Japanese Culture had depth: unique culture that tries to balance tradition and trend in order to preserve and advance. 

     

First of all, shrine defines what Japanese culture. Since it’s consists of different purpose and history which relates deeply to the culture it allows people to learn about the history from the temple and try to pass it on to the next generation: preserve.



↑ Japan's traditional house with pillar (more than 100years old)



↑My grandfather who is manistay of our house.



Secondly, material and structure of architecture shows Japanese culture as well. Not only shrine but also traditional houses in Japan consist of strong wood, pillar in the middle to support the building. This structure can be seen in the family structure as well. The third picture is my grandfather who is the central pillar in my family. He is the one who usually keeps track of what is going on or what to do next. My family consists as a family because of his existence and by admiring him it allows us to pass ritual to next generation which is important part of Japanese culture: advance.



↑ Formal Japanese cuisne that can be seen in Ryokan



Lastly, there are two different type of food: formal and casual. As you can see from these pictures, Japanese culture can to change in situation to situation. However, the important tip for Japanese dish is always use fresh material such as fish. Therefore, Japanese culture try to protect the tradition even there is trend.         

↑ Casual Japanese dishes that can be seen in Izakaya

From preceding points, Japanese culture is usually hidden behind objects or feelings such as pillar and gratitude. Moreover, despite the fact that Japanese culture is changing the formation in today’s world to adjust on the necessity or trend, the root or principle of this culture is deeply connected to tradition due to appreciation in the history that makes Japanese culture as it is.