Hanami?  What’s that?  I’ll have to tell you it’s the most popular thing to do during the Spring time.  It’s the Cherry Blossom viewing!

(Above, the light-up sakura in Nijou Castle in Kyoto)

Back in the US, there were Cherry Blossom Parade in Washington, D.C. every year.  I have been to the Cherry Blossom viewing in D.C. before (I have even been a part of parade before, twice), but I’ve never seen the flowers blooming at the right time. >”<  They were always wilted when I got there and that’s why I didn’t know they were actually this awesome and pretty when they are fully blossom!

So what do Japanese people do when it’s the season of Cherry?

(Above, showing crowds of people coming to Nijou Castle in Kyoto at night to see the light-up sakura.)

They go out and sit under Cherry trees and have a picnic!  But what gets me on that is they can do it where-ever there is a Cherry tree.  They could be picnicking under a cherry tree in a park that’s near their house…or where-ever there is a cherry tree.  They also picnic in the day and even at night too.  I was a little bit surprise when I saw a bunch of people picnicking at night in a park with cherry trees.  I mean the park was not even light up enough that you can see the cherry trees.  What can you possibly see?  Well, in this case, I guess they were just enjoying the atomsphere and having fun chatting and drinking beer wth friends.

(Above two showing people climbing up to Yoshino-yama in Nara to see sakura.)

(Above showing three Japanese people enjoying looking at the sakura and chatting with each other while two gaigin students and their Japanese friends being pictures taken  with the pretty sakura as the background~~hahaXD)

Second, I have noticed the intensive use of sound/music in Japan.

It’s normal when your microwave finished microwaving your food and beeps at the end to let you know “it’s done”.  But the microwave that we have in my host-family’s house does more than just beeping at the end of term, it played a little song.  hmm…never had that.

You also know how Japanese prepared hot water for bathing every night, right?  Once again, I was surprised to see the technology is developing so well to serve human’s need, every house had this remote thing that you can set to have your hot water prepare for you every night. …and guess what it does after it finished doing his job–it sings.  I remember when I first hear that I thought someone’s phone just rang.  So I look around to my host-family and my host-sister just told me, “oh, don’t mind that, it’s just the bath water thingie.” hmmm…okay (゜△゜)|||

There are more and more examples that I can tell you.  For example, when a car, usually commercial use, needs to make a turn, the car will play a warning message saying it’s making a turn, so please watch out.  Or in the train station, you can always hear them playing sounds…that serve for whatever reason they have.  I asked about the bird “ju ju” sound they play in the train station what it means to my Japanese friend; she said she doesn’t know.  The music in Osaka Subway gets even more complicated than birds “ju-ing”; it’s a segment of music that my friend described as, “it feels like I’m going to heaven[as we ride up on the escalator]” Oh, no…I don’t wanna go to heaven, YET!

All in all, my impressions on Japan can just keep changing and changing if I stay here longer.  The list will just keep growing and growing.  But no, I’m leaving Japan at the end of this month.  I will not get to see how progressive my list of impressions in Japan has grown but I will always remember what I see here.

Above is an image of a bulletin board of Shimokami’s Neighborhood Association.

These organizations, according to Wikipedia, are usually voluntarily formed by neighborhood residences.  They gather to discuss and take care the things around the neighbor and to promote a “harmonized” neighbor.  By saying “harmonized”, you will have to recognize how the society of Japan is form; Japan is more of a collectivism country than individualism.  Which means, Japanese people emphasis the values or beliefs as a group rather than individually.  Things out of the normal norm will be tag as uncooperative very easily (see below for reason why I believe this deep in my heart~XD).  

Above is a warning sign warning littering people from the Neighborhood Association.

Sometimes I see them passing around a folder containing information to be check-off by each residence.  The folder looks like this:

If you open the folder, you will see several piece of papers clipped together where they contain information about an event or notice.  I think in order for this folder to work is you check-off your name in one of the papers–by checking off your name means you are attending–then you pass this folder on to your next door–by leaving the folder where your neighbor can sees it.

So remember I mentioned “things out of the normal norm will be tag as uncooperative very easily” in above passage? Why?

Somehow if I were to relate to 自治会 in Japan…I always have this impression of an acrimonious woman leading the group of housewife residences discussing, and maybe a little of gossiping, how to “make things right”.  I think these images comes from dramas like “斉藤さん(Saito-san)” or “アットホーム．ダッド(At Home Dad)”.  

Nippon Television’s “斉藤さん”

Picture taken from OSABORI BLOG Season2

Both the leading characters in the drama holds beliefs other than what the neighbor recognizes.  Therefore, the troubles come.

However, despite the impressions drama gave me, I still think they are needed in the neighborhood.  With the help of the Neighborhood Association, problems going around can be solved easier or faster.

【熱血】 (ねっけつ)

I am not a big fan of sports.  But even a person like me is touched by their devoted passion for the sport; this is how I felt after watching the film “Koukouyakyu”.

(Photo grabbed from 綠野上的捕風手.)

When speaking about High School Baseball in Japan, you will have to mention the name “Koushien”.  It’s not a name of a person but it’s a name of a stadium.  Koushien is the stadium where all the high school baseball players dreamed to be; it’s called “Hanshin Koushien Stadium” in full.  Every year, the stadium host two main tournaments.  One in spring called the “National High School Baseball Invitational Tournament” and the other one in summer called “National High School Baseball Championship”.

(Picture of Koushien by DX Broadrec.)

There are several reasons for Koushien to be a sacred stadium for all H.S. baseball players.  One, Koushien is the place where it hosts the National tournaments.  It’s a place where schools from each prefecture come to compete with each other.  Every team only get a single chance.  If you lose, you lose.  Two, Koushien is also a stepping stone for kids dreamed to be a professional baseball player in the future.  There are several professional baseball players have been scouted from playing some of the top teams in Koushien.

I think for any kind of sports 熱血 is a must.  Not only the players need to keep a devoted passion with them all the time, the coach, or even the cheerleading team need to, too.  I love how they give 120% of what they have to the sport.  Even if they lost, they wish the best to their opponent while tearing sadly.

“No regrets because we’ve tried our best, the really best.” is how I feel about Koukouyakyuu.

【愛妻弁当】

(あいさいべんとう)

(“ai sai ben tou”)

(“好き”(literally means “like”) / Photo by Rei Rei on flickr.com)

Do you read it as “愛妻”弁当 or 愛”妻”弁当?

What’s the difference?  Well, here is the difference:

The difference is the speaker’s point of view.  If you read it as ”愛妻”弁当, then 愛妻 means “beloved wife” and 弁当 means “a lunch box” so all together means “luch box from beloved wife”.  In other words, the speaker is the wife; she is making the luch box for her husband.  However, if you read it as 愛”妻”弁当, I will interpret it as “a luch box for my lovely wife”–from a husband’s point of view.

So what does all this ”愛妻”弁当 or 愛”妻”弁当 have to do with Gender in Japan?

Women in Japan often pursue a full-time status housewife after marriage…in the past…but this concept has been changed lately.  There are more women pursuing a part-time job after marriage or even a full-time job.  This changing status has simultaneously carry out another phenomenom where woman is the breadwinner and the man is homemaker.  The presence of this phenomenom hasn’t grown rapidly yet but the existence still take places.  Japanese drama like “アットホーム．ダッド(At Home Dad)” and “誰よりもママを愛す(I Love Mama more than Anyone)” centered the story of the Father “working at home” while the Mother works outside.

So has this become a trend now or will become in the near future in Japan?

I personally think this phenomenom will progress–just by a little–but will not take place of the traditional role of man being the breadwinner and woman being the homemaker.  The reason to support this is by analysing the history of Japan.  Think about this: what is one of the famous and most respected role/job in the past Japanese history era?  I am thinking about Samurai and you?  The spirit of Samurai has never ended in Japanese’s tradition even till A.D. 2009, which is nowadays.  What do Samurai do?  They protect who they serve, their homeland, their family, and most importantly their pride of being a Samurai.

What I’m trying to say is how they view and praise the role of Samurai has more or less affected their view on gender role.  Of course not all men were Samurai at that time, but the values from Samurai must have carried onto civillian’s life.  While men working hard to protect their family outside, women should give all they have to make sure the prosperity of the blood line.  This is a very generalized idea but I think it was true for most of the family in the past eras.

After looking at the history of Japan and what they are today, I see the value of Samurai spirits still exist and is connecting the past to present–of course.  I also see them absorbing a lot of ideas they gain from the outside world and localizing these ideas.  They are acknowledging the idea of woman and man are equal but…just not as much realizing the idea; it’s probably because the responsibility of being a man has never lessen from them.

The eauilibrium is just too hard to reach.

Shinto and Buddhism are the two most common religion in Japan while Shinto is the most popular one followed by the Japanese people.  However, Sensou-ji is not a Shinto shrine, Sensou-ji is a Buddhism temple.  It is also the oldest temple in Tokyo area.

Today, Sensou-ji is visited by people from all over the world everyday.  People come to enjoy the many street-long shops from the Kaminarimon till they reach the inside of the temple.  Foreigners also get to experienced little tradition of Buddist temple.

People trying to “grab” some scent from the inscense to see if it can bring some luck and health to them.

(Scroll to the bottom to see the updated content.)

Looking inside of the Sensou-ji, you can see the difference from the Jinja.  There is no rope that you can ring and no, you don’t have to clap twice before you start your prayer.  People can drop few coins into the box then they can start their prayer.

Praying with both hands clapped together is commonly seen in Jinja or temple.  This might be because of the  both Shinto and Buddhism are interweaving the practice of religion in Japan.  Since many of the Japanese may follow traditions taken from both Shinto or Buddhism.

As far as my impression to religion practicing in Japan, I consider them as believers but not as much as prationers.  They pray to the Buddist or the God in the jinja for whatever reason they have.  The reason may include to have a good grade, to meet[/fall in love with] a good person, to be promoted in job, to be safe, and etc.  They believe by praying to the God may have their wish come true, or at least smoother.  For me, to be a practioner, it feels like you’ll have to read and understand the meaning written in the old books.  But other than praying in temple or jinja, people live normally in their daily life.

UPDATED on April 2, 2009

Guess where I went today…a Christian(…or is it Catholic? I think it’s Catholic since the entrance said it’s 天主教.  But she, my friend, refer it to as a Christian church…?) Church in Osaka!  As I consider myself more of a Buddhism believer, I always felt kind of award walking into a church.  I have never read nor understood the Bible and thus I have absolutely-zero clues about Christian.  But going to a Christian church today is not my first time ever.  I have gone to churches before when they were serving food to people where I will have somebody, who is Christian, inviting me to see if I wanna eat some food there.  So of course, for someone who is a gourmet(?) just-a-plain-food-eater like me, I always agree to go with them.  Then I always regret after arriving there because I always feel people in the group have already develop a close bond between them that I don’t feel confortable getting into.

…Anyway, it’s not something that I was going to show you.  It’s just a personal religion thought.

So about this Christian Catholic Church in Osaka…

During the course of Survey of Western Arts, we looked through a lot of triptych from churches around the world.  They always have a main panel and two “doors” on the left and right side of the main panel.  However, the “triptych” I saw today is not quite arranged the same way but still it has three panels.  And here is the picture of the main panel:

and the left panel looks like this:

The right panel(Sorry for the lousy picture):

I found it interesting about this triptych the most is the main panel where Virgin Mary is dressed in Japanese kimono.  However, before my friend took me to see this she said her friend told her that there is a church in Osaka where the Virgin Mary looks like a Budda.  So when I first saw this painting in person, I thought no wonder her friend would have thought that.  It is very atypical to see Virgin Mary dress in the style of clothes that is other than the western style.  Second, my friend pointed out how this painter dipicted lower body part of Virgin Mary looks like She sits crossed leg, which is what you see how a lot of the Budda sits.  And last, I guess the face is a little bit Asianized as far as I considered.  But besides that, there is no doubt She is Virgin Mary because of the halo and how She holds Jesus with a halo, too.

For the Man and the Woman kneeling beside Virgin Mary, they are: Takayama Ukon(高山右近) and Hosokawa Garasha(細川ガラシア).

It’s a question that I’ve been wondering for a long time…just haven’t got a chance to ask a Japanese person.  This question was brought up by my sister where after hearing what she pondered, I pondered too.

Kanbans that I spotted on the streets of Shibuya.  ”Contact’s Eye City”

If you know a little about Japanese, you probably have already realized the vast amount of “gairaigo” words they use and written in Katakana.  These are words, the goo.ne.jp dictionary explains, borrowed from other languages.  (So when are the Japanese gonna return the “words” they borrowed? ha~XD)  So I guess my question is that how do Japanese understand these words when they see them?  Maybe the young generation will not have any problems understand these words but how about those 爺さんと婆さんは？

Mountain Dew as in マウンテンデュー

However, Mountain Dew is only a name…so it’s okay to translate the word into Japanese.  But what if I were to mention “グローバリゼーション” when I am talking to an elder person.  I bet they didn’t study gairaigo when they were in school as much as the young generations do today.

And it also makes me feel like if I were to speak English but I were to pronounce it the Japanese way, wouldn’t they’ll understand exactly what I am talking about? Theoretically…?  And the fun thing about having a lot of gairaigo from English is that whenever I don’t know a word in Japanese, I always try to use the Japanese pronounciation to see if they konw what I’m talking about.  

So are these newly appear gairaigo part of the result of globalization?  Or they just think that if words were written in gairaigo with katagana they look more classy?  If it’s true, it shows a lot about how a lot of Japanese still have a lot of admiration to the western culture.  Nothing wrong about that but I thought that was the past already.  so Globalization?  hmm…

Above is a photo of Daido Moriyama adding comments to his works at his show.  (Photo taken from white-screen.jp)

He is a photographer; furthermore, he is a Visual Anthropologist.

Moriyama, born in 1938, began his career as early as when he was 20.  He first started off as a graphic designer but two years later he began his study of photography under photographer Takeji Iwamiya.  [1]

Moriyama often described himself as a “stray dog” where he will wander around the town to find something or do something–find the subject then take pictures.  He also described the town as “his studio and his classroom and also where his energy for his creativity is provided from”. [2][3]

He enjoys taking pictures of–literary–things he sees where his photos explore a lot about the reality happening.  He doesn’t use fancy composition but rather he concentrates on getting the subject at its perfect timing.  Even though most of the photos you see taken by Moriyama are black and white, you can still feel a lot of emotion coming from them.  And there is no people or objects posing for his photo.  It is just simply reality, period.

The most influencial photographer of his life is William Klein.  Moriyama felt the strong and straightforward sense of feeling from Klein’s photo that he’s never seen that kind of style in Japan before.  [2][3]

Above is a photo taken by William Klein.  (Photo taken from COLIN PANTALL’S BLOG)

Below is a photo taken by Daido Moriyama.  (A snapshot photo from a video on Youtube.)

Most of his works were taken by point and shoot cameras because he had realized how people may be intimitated by if a person is holding a prefessional looking SLR with an expensive looking lens taking their pictures.  With only a point and shoot camera in hand, he can easily snap a shot quickly and un-noticeably but also wonder around the place freely. [2]

Because his “rough” method–comparing to studio photography–of taking pictures, he often catches daily life scenes in his photos.  Photos taken by him reflect a lot upon on what is currently happing–the good times and the bad times; the old times and the new times.  It’s not necessary that he chases the current pop culture of the world, but the relatives among himself, time period, and the moment. [2]

His recent show “Ginza/DIGITAL”, as you can probably guess from the show title, is a show showing works of his using digital cameras.  He felt the use of digital camera will ”give his shooting in Ginza area light steps” because he felt he had been taking photos of Shinjuku for too long that he’s lost the sense of familiarity in Ginza. [1]

Till this day, Moriyama has been awarded several honor recognitions and has been featured in many different places.  His photo captures the most upfront of people, of town, of ethnic.  His passion and thirst for photography has endured him in this long life of photographer.  He is not afraid of the emerging digitized world but he will difinitely miss his old days in the dark room with all the chemicals and all the adjustments he can do to his photographs.

I enjoy looking over his photos overall.  I see the truth of the world.  I like photos where he uses flashes but does not seem interrupting at all.  And the contrast of the photo is just beautiful.  Sadly I did not get a chance to get closer to the photos because I’d like to see all the rough particles on the photographys that add on one by one onto these awsome photos.

Bibliography

[1] Daido Moriyama’s Official Website
http://www.moriyamadaido.com/

Two interviews with Moriyama from March 2008:
[2] http://www.shenchaoliang.com/CHINESE/NOTE/C-note09.html

[3] http://www.bnext.com.tw/LocalityView_7142

An example of current Purikura decorating place.   At the bottome of the pictures, there are several panels you can switch to to get to different effects.

The topic I’m dressing today is the プリント倶楽部(Print Club) or プリクラ for short.  I can’t recall how many years ago I had my first Print Club experience but one thing I do remember is it[the machine] is well evoluted nowadays.  I remember back in…probably 1995~…you can only select one kind of frame and get one picture taken; it will cause you about 3 dollars for that(currency is different nowadays but at about the same cost).  

An example of the early Purikura.

An example of early Purikura frames.  (Picture taken from PHOTO STICKER MACHINE RENTALS, LLC)

An example of early Purikura from Wikipedia.

and then it got modified.  Now you get to choose…about 5 different kinds of frames but you can still only get one picture taken(or maybe you get to take five different pictures).

Another example of the early Purikura where five different background selections were printed.

Next I remeber taking a Purikura at a machine that is more similar to the Purikura machines you see today–the cuts of the pictures are different and you can write on them…but still only one shot of picture.  I remember it was three of us taking the Purikura where we all stand and looking up at an angle.  After our picture was taken, we can doodle some stuff on our pictures at the place where our picture was taken.

It is different now.  You get to choose how your skin wanna reflected (light or dark); and you get choose at least 5 different kinds of background.  After your pictures are taken, you can choose from a wide variety of pen brushes to doodle.  You can die your hair to a different color.  You can change your hair shape by adding more hairs onto what you have now.  You can put make-up on your face.  You can totally change to another person if you want!

This picture showing how you can use infared to transfer the pictures onto your cellphone.   There is another option of emailing the photos to your email account too.

So how far is the Purikura machine’s gonna get?  I wondered.  I’m excited to see more creative ideas to be added to the machines.  I think if Johnny’s start their Purikura business, it will be another hit for them–Purikura with the Johnny’s. ha~:D  They already have several Johnny’s shops for fans to buy picutres of their artists; why not putting few Johnny’s-custom-made machines in the store, too?  I guess fans will be happy, too! hehe~;P

I think Japanese have a lot of respects to not just to people other than themselves but they also put a lot of respects on what they do, too.  I think this respect they have is the reason how they form their actions today.  For example,

Respect to Job–where their job is their pride

I remember when I watch the “どっち” cooking show, they always have a corner to introduce a special ingredient they are using today.  Then they will take us to the places where this ingredient is made and show us the process of making this ingredient.  Each time as I watch the VCR, I feel a whole lot of effort they put in to make the ingredient as flawless as possible.  And this process is passed from one generation to the other.  They are proud of what they do and they have respect for what they do.

Respect to Others–helping others to gain the pride

You know Obama has always been part of Japan where Obama also has it’s own kind of souvenir?– へぇー！マジッスか？

They are “awe”ful.  If I were to show any knowledge of anything they don’t know, I will be treated with “へぇー！” all the time.  I think this is an obscure way of showing respect, so do speak.  By lower yourself a little, other can gain pride from it but it should not be overdo.

“Futsuu” (Ordinary)

This is the word that pops into my mind when I think about the neighborhood of Kayashima… Why is that?  I’d said because I haven’t been to other neighborhoods in Japan that makes me  expert enough to make judges.  But so far if I were to compare Kayashima to the neighborhoods around the Seminar House (because we all lived around there for a week), I would say it’s about the same: type of houses, cars that they have, narrow streets…etc.  Though something that I’ve noticed here in my neighbor is a lot of poster about picking up after your pet and  not throwing away the cigarette butts. 

“Wait!”

and here is another one that I took…

“Let’s bring the dirt back home”

I think there are a number of signs being posted here and there is because leaving the feaces behind has became a problem that I’ve seen happening in Japan.  I always thought some day I will definitely step on one of them–without a doubt.  

“…even the shops around the Station has closed because of the bad economy.”–Machiko-san

Compare to the other towns like Neyagawa or even Hirakata, Kayashima is…small.  Another thing that I’ve heard my host-mother talked about is how the economy has effected the shops around the Station too.  I think this is big because even the place where there is a flow of people coming and going can bring down the shops.  For this to be true, I realize how bad the economy is and how puny this neighbor is…  However, I’m surprised that Kayashima is one of the station that they didn’t skip when going toward Demachiyanagi at Jyunkyuu.

Here are some random photos of this neighborhood: