12..Changing impressions

This is the last post for my visual anthropology project.

Through this project I took many pictures and did some things I had never done, like interviewing one of my neighbors, a complete stranger; ask my part-time job boss about the situation of kyabajyoo and so on.

I thought that I did my best, however my classmates' blogs were far better and surprised me.

My classmates got interested in our lives in a way I never realized before. Most of the posts were interesting and made me think about Japan from a completely different point of view.

Through their blogs, I felt that Japan is not original but maybe a guchagucha country...?

The cultures of many countries coexist with the old and modern Japan, like the celebrations we have through the year (Christmas, three different rites in one wedding, Valentine and White day, etc); magazines recommending western fashion; people trying to change their features to look "25% foreigner". All these things may give non-Japanese a weird impression.

This comes from the big influence that Japanese youth has right now in every field of Japanese society, like industry, the food we prefer, media and fashion, everything but politics... but then again, that is another story.

All the research I did for my project, reading my classmates' blogs, and discussions in this class led me to a new approach to Japanese culture.

Taking pictures reflecting Japanese situations was challenging but interesting as well.

I plan to continue with this blog, maybe at a slower pace.

I would like to post something about Kyoto, my hometown.

Look at the two photos below.

I guess that this photo on the left is not good but it is the Kamogawa(Kamo river).

Kyoto has some interesting faces.I intend to resarch them and post.

Anyway, Merry Christmas and Yoi otoshi wo! (happy new year!)

11.. Arts and Entertainment in Japan

Japanese modern arts and entertainment, I think that should be video games!

Some Japanese game companies have made great video games and these games have been played all over the world.

I want to write about the "Final Fantasy"series as an example.


This is a promotion video of the latest work. I choose this game series for today's theme because Japanese game's graphics have a certain prestige in the game industry and the Final Fantasy is very famous both for the graphics and for the stories.

The stories are a little complicated.

I read on the internet that Square-enix (the company that makes this game) meant the stories to be made into movies from the very beginning. Such movie-oriented scenario made a big hit.

The best seller (http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy) of Final Fantasy in Japan is the FFⅦ. It was the first 3Dwork of Final Fantasy series, and the graphics quality of FFⅦ impressed the world and boosted sales. This innovation gave a new meaning to Japanese entertainment and modern arts.

10..Politics in Japan -looking for jobs!-

The world economic crisis hit japan and as a result many Japanese lost their jobs. This problem affects young students, too.

Last week I went to a job fair held in KyoseraDome Osaka.

Currently, I am job hunting. At the job fair, students from many universities were visiting company booths and listening to explanations from the recruiting companies.

I saw a lot of students who approached the representatives and tried to give a good impression to them.

I was impressed by the passion they put in finding a good job and also by their fear of becoming part-timers or, worse "freeters" (Japanese English: Free-timers).

For more about this theme, look at the picture on the left. I took this photo at a small bookstore near my house.

All these in the book shelf are recruit books for students, full of suggestions on, for example, how to pass a job interview, how to write a good resume, and also drills for an employment examination.

Most of my university friends have, at least, one of such kind of books.

These days in Japan, it is not so rare anymore to hear about companies who suddenly cancel the unofficial acceptance of students as their new employee. Of course, KGU students might face this problem, too.

I think that I will see many news about the issue until I graduate.

9..Religion in Japan

Religion in Japan. It was an interesting theme for me to research.

Describing Japanese religion iｓ difficult because Japanese people embrace aspects from many religions, like, for example, getting married in a christian church or welcome the new year in a buddhist temple or a shintoo shrine.
However, many Japanese people tend to feel spirits in everything, what is known as Animism.

For example, I rememered a shrine dedicated to several gods, so I went there again for my research. It was in Kyoto, near Kyoto University.

The shrine is called Yoshida jinjya. As you can see in the cite, the shrine was established for four guardians originally but in the Muromachi era, the founder of Yoshidashintoo, Yoshida Kanetomo said that Yoshida jinjya was home to various kinds of gods. So, I took some picture there.

The above one is a shrine named "Kaso jinjya", dedicated to the god of sweets. The other one is "Sankei jinjya" dedicated to the god of cooking.

I found that both Kaso and Sankei shrines are very similar.
At the Sankei jinjya's photo, you can see many standing poles.The names of all the companies who donatied the founding to build that shrine are carved on the poles.

The amount of poles portray Japanese faith in Animism.

8..Gender in Japan~japanese women as powerless people~

Do you know what these photos are?

The first one is the board of Hankyu train's platform where it says women should line up there to board the women's coach. The second photo is the timetable of that coach. This train runs only on weekdays.

This system started in 2001.
Why was this system implemented? What does this train system implies?

It portrays that Japanese women can not protect themselves because of their weakness.

Japanese women are powerless...such image comes from their long long sexual discrimination history.

Check this cite. http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/essay-04.html

As you can see, Japanese women were treated as if they were inferior to men and this image exists still now. The "Ladies only" train was invented because there are many women who are under threats from the gropers. It is rare in Japan that woman scold at man who touch her.

My friend, who had such dreadful experience told me that when the man was touching her hip she couldn't say anything. In addition, she was raised by her parents as a traditional Japanese girl, so, she didn't know well how to defend herself. She feels that this train system is helpful.

My friend Shoko, on the other hand, said that she doesn't mind when a man is in the lady's coach and it could be that he didn't notice it was a women only train. Other passengers don't seem to mind, either. She doesn't need such a kind of train. She insisted that women should be stronger, and we can do that.

"Ladies only" train was invented for Japanese traditional women and it works well.
However, this system gives an opportunity to rethink about Japanese women's position at the same time. Will we see the women's coach in Japan ten years from now?

7..Sumo Wrestling

'Sumo' ('Sumo' wrestling) is one of the major Japanese traditional sports and known as the national sport.

For more information about 'Sumo' check this site.

http://www.sfusd.k12.ca.us/schwww/sch618/japan/MartialArts/Japanese_Martial_Arts.html

There are many foreign fans of 'Sumo', like my Mexican friend who is a fan of Takamizakari and Kitazakura (both are 'Sumo' wrestlers).

So, what makes people from overseas to be fasinated by this Japanese sport ?

This time, I picked up 'Sumo' as a topic and asked my friend why he likes sumo.

He said that 'Sumo' is very interesting because 'Sumo' is a sport in which strengthness, inteligence and ceremonial aspects are mixed together.

Actually, when you go to 'Sumo' games you will see some events before and after the match.
For example, the 'Sumo'wrestler is scattering salt in this photo.

Purging with salt the field and pray for his own safety, is one of the traditional rites in 'Sumo'.

Every wrestler shows an original performance when they scatter the salt, which is very interesting an funny. It is said that 45kg of salt is spended a day at this performance.

When one 'Sumo' match is over, both wrestlers bow. Through this bow the defeated seems to be accepting the strength of his rival.

My friend likes this scene because for him, it shows the sportsmanship which is inside 'Sumo'.

In addition, I found some interesting items . Look at photo at the right. These are 'Sumo' wrestler cards. There is the wrestler's picture in the front side of the cards and their profiles at the back side. It is interesting that the Japanese national sport, 'Sumo', is approaching people in such a unique way. In my opinion these cards helps to make people getting much more familiar with 'Sumo' and this could lead to increase the number of 'Sumo' fans.

6..Japanese globalization: International marriage and mixed children

In Japan, the number of international marriages is increasing.

Look at this data.

http://whatjapanthinks.com/2005/11/29/international-marriage-still-means-japanese-man-and-asian-woman/

As you can see in the comments, Japan may be still a closed society but I feel the boost in international marriages in many situations.

For example, this is a kimono company`s calendar 2008. They are two mixed (in Japanese half, but it would rather be "double") girls wearing kimono. I've never seen such models until I got this calendar , and we often see many mixed celebrities in the Japanese media these days.

This situation is really different from the one fifteen years ago.

Look at this photo. It's me. I have Mexican and Japanese blood. I have lived in Japan as a stranger from my early childhood. Anytime and anywhere, when I started speaking Spanish with my family, people would stare at us surprised.

The most impressive memory that I can remember is at my high school entrance ceremony.

When students from other classes heard that a mixed girl was among them, they ran to my classroom to take a look at me.

I was so uncomfortable and thought "These are really narrow minded people."

I asked my friends why those other students had such a strong interest in me and they said "They want to see you because a mixed student is a rare sight around here."

International marriage was not common at the time. I think it could be because the law regulations for immigrants were very strict and there were not many chances for Japanese and foreigners to meet and develop relationships.

Nowadays (look at the data on the link) , it is a different situation; maybe laws have not changed that much, but in practice there are many more chances (international parties, world fairs, chat sites on the internet, etc) for Japanese and foreigners to meet.

Concluding, the Japanese say that Japan has entered globalization and statistics are there to prove it, but still, they keep on staring at international couples and mixed children.

This is globalization... or not?