"An Overture to the Commencement of a Very Rigid Search" - J. Safran Foer

Since I began my year abroad, I have been asked countless times- why did I choose the combination of France and Japan?  It may be easier to field this question to David Sedaris, I don't have an easy answer.  I expected dynamically different experiences from each semester, but I appreciate the cross-over of cultures along the way.  This is why, for my blog dedicated to Japan, I choose not to start with my departure at Kansai international airport, but instead in Paris, at the palace of Versailles.

In the fall of 2010, a Tokyo born artist, Takashi Murakami, opened an exhibition of Japanese pop art at Versailles.  Extremely controversial, Murakami’s brilliantly colored animated sculptures were displayed in the bedrooms and halls of Louis XIV’s palace.  The ‘clash’ between classical history and Japanese pop art has since then inspired a hoard of critics and polemic controversy.  During my visit, mobs of visitors disclaimed the art as disgraceful or, much to my amusement, attempted to avoid looking at it altogether.   I was surprised by how unanimously the display was condemned.  It was clear that the artist combined modern and ancient for a purpose, whether or not the result was popular.  It begs the question, in which spaces are cross-cultural identities shared, and in which are they seen as mutually exclusive?  I am bound to find out, but this time from the other point of view; from Japan.

Link: http://www.coolhunting.com/culture/murakami-versai.php

Japanese culture has been filtering into my life gradually and subtly for a long time.  Somehow, glimpses of culture that belonged to historically insular Japanese society worked their way into the nucleus of my small Maine community.  I see this in the law student who quit school days before the bar exam to pursue a career in Bunraku puppetry.  Or, the vietnam veteran whose shed is a workshop for Raku pottery.  I came to Japan following a trail of personal curiosities, about the culture, the artisans, and the traditions that have captivated so many people around me.  

My greatest challenge here so far has been understanding part of a culture that runs on a stream of technology and fast-paced communication.  I'm a borderline neo-luddite, so I find it hard to understand the speed at which Japan has modernized and expanded.  I am coming from a state with the ‘last frontier’ of America to the electric light culture that is anime and pachinko parlors, Harajuku and host bars.  In seeing anthropology as “making the strange familiar and the familiar strange,” I have definitely come to the right place.  

Osaka at Night

Overwhelming  Bamboo

So far, my impressions of Japan have been more or less on a superficial level.  Even thought I am meeting new people and developing relationships every day, I am still very much observing life here.  When I begin to adapt to the rituals and patterns of daily life here, the obedient attention to crosswalks, the routine of classes and grocery shopping, the exchanges with Kansai Gaidai students, I find myself abruptly introduced to pockets of Japanese life that are new and unexpected.  Watching Soul Train and delivering pizza for a bohemian Japanese man at four am in Osaka, hiking around Hotani campus in the unexpected snow with french speaking Japanese students.  The best part about travel is unquestionably the people you meet and the doors they open; to webs of connections and networks of acquaintances.  I love people- it's why I study anthropology.  I am looking forward to the following months here- and hope to begin to uncover the undercurrent of life that makes this pacific ocean country so incredibly unique.