Changing Impressions of Japan

I started this blog with my impressions of contrasts- between Japan and France, and within Japan itself.  It’s easy to think about Japan in light of its visible contrasts, modern and traditional, insular and globalized, homogenous and multi-faceted.  In the film The Japanese Version, they explored some of these oppositions by looking at what is globalized and ‘glocalized’ in Japan.

In a sense, putting culture into oppositional categories can be useful to revealing its dynamism.  But even looking at ‘both sides’ of a culture can be limiting.  Also, in highlighting the opposition between cultures.- you are creating an impression of necessary difference.

In my anthropology theory class, we watched this video during our discussion of Orientalism. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k4iZqbDsMs

While the video may not be directly offensive, we were asked to question the humor.

It is only implied that the mixture of Korean and Scottish is uncommon, but the humor is derived from the strangeness of the uncommon.  (And of course, stereotypes are used to create this effect).  It raises an important question~ in a highly globalized world, what is the utility of highlighting difference?  Since anthropology is very much about recognizing patterns of cultural differences and similarities, it clearly cannot be avoided altogether.  But can anthropology be responsibly represent difference that isn’t ethnocentric or superior?

Anthropology is stuffing something very BIG, into a tiny box- an ethnography, a film, a story.  I hope that this blog can be a tiny cut-away window into my experiences of Japan, as part of the larger whole that is Japanese culture.

As a result of time constraints and travel restrictions this semester, I missed out on having some of the important well-known Japanese experiences.  I didn’t go to Tokyo or Fuji or Hokkaido.  But in no way will I ever feel like I missed out on ‘Japan’.

To me, Japan has been the old apartment in the winding neighborhood, the unexpected acquaintances and the frequent Nabe dinners.  It was the street dancers, the nightlife, the parks, the food, the celebrations, and the people.  My exploration of Japan has been far from conclusive, but I have had the opportunity to observe Japan from my mimic of an ordinary daily life.  I got an apartment (that according to my Japanese friends, probably would only be rented by a foreign student), I learned how to ride a bike (better late than never,) and I got to go to college in Japan (if only an international student program).  Maybe this blog only provides a blurry window view into Japanese life, but it is the fragment as I have experienced it.  Japan can be comparable to other cultures only as a reference, but to really understand, I lived here and let the culture speak for itself.

An unlikely croud

Windows 

Watching