Sports collaborate with fashion

Recently, bicycle riding in Japan is becoming popular. Regardless of age, from people in their twenties to people in their nineties, the number of people who ride bicycles are increasing. If we go to Shinsaibashi or Umeda, which are places where fashionable people gather, we'll see many people riding nice bicycles and wearing nice outfits. The interesting aspect of these bicycles is that they are not cheap or ordinary ones, like the "mama-chari" bicycles. These bikes are very expensive priced (from 1 thousand to 2 thousand dollars).

How did such expensive bicycles become so popular? There are several factors for their popularity. First, these kinds of nice bicycles have become the trendy for fashion. Many fashion magazines insert snapshots which show fashionable people with a bicycle found in the town (like the picture above). At first, the bicycle boom was small; it was limited to fashion shop staff.However, the number of magazines dedicated to these fashionable bikes increased. This encouraged young peole to ride bicycles. When I went to shinsaibashi the last time, one week ago, it was congested with bicycle traffic and a lot of bicycles were parked in the vicinity.

Because of this boom, the number of people riding bicycles has increased rapidly. This fad may be temporary, but if it continues, and I hope it will, it would be good start in endouraging people to do more sports. Collaboration with fashion is really good idea to tempt youth to start sports.

This is the home page about how bicycles would be goot sport!

http://www.smile0yen.net/dietbicycle.htm

The first and seconpicture shows Shinsaibashi town! These picture came from

http://www.sportsoasis.co.jp/img/blog/img11232950375.jpg

Politics on shopping

Politics is every where in daily life when people gather and decide to make some type of thing together. For example when we choose the place we hang out, we need politics, or when we choose what we order in Izakaya, we need politics (espetially among Japanese). and unexpectedly, when we go shopping with friend, we need politics.

Many Japanese youth, especially girls, like to go shopping alone because going shopping together needs compromise and patience. Japanese girls relly like fashion, and they have their own particular style. ( Japanese girl' fashion genres are pretty varied and each girl cultivates their own style by mixing these genres.) So when they go to shopping, the shops they want to go and amount of time they want to spend in these shops are each different. Outfits in Japan are expensive, so girls think, " I want to choose carefully". But if we go shopping with friends, we have to stop at shops the other girl wants to go, and I'm not interested in that. Often, it would be an uncomfortable or annoying time.

To avoid this situation, girls talk and know what they want to go, and make solutions. For example, some girls choose to go together even if they knows it's annoying, because they also know going togather has some benefits. Also, others choose to spread out when they arrive at shopping destination. They plan what time and where they'll meet up. Or others choose to go completely alone even if shops or area they want to go are same.

The way they choose to take are different, but to get the solution, thet have to talk and find solution which is good for both of them.

This is the perfect manual for the organizer of drinking party. Organizer need political technique to suceed.http://www.hotpepper.jp/doc/bounenkai/kanji/page_03.htm

The second picture came from here !http://asajihara.air-nifty.com/photos/hibis27/mu2img_0703.html

The third picture came from here! http://www.350days.com/archives/003423.php

Surprising international students

Before I took classes at CIE, I didn't have any particular experiences with international students. For me, they had seemed to be all the same "gaijin" and not any thing more. I didn't know what they think or how they live. But this time, because I took four classes at CIE with international students, I was gifted with several chances to know them. During this semester, I was really surprised many times by them. Today, I'll talk about the 2 best surprising things that I experienced at CIE.

What I was surprised the best is their attitudes for class. What they did in classes was really incredible for me. For example, in one class, a female American student sitting in front of me was eating "kakino-tane", which is Japanese snack made by rice, during the whole class. It was so noisy and I wanted the teacher to stop her from eating, but not even the teacher including other students too cared about her and let her eat. After class, I asked an American friend that is it OK to eat something in class, and she said that's no problem. I was so surprised ! If we do in a Japanese class, the teacher would surely say "get out of here" and the grade for the class will be bad.

The second surprising thing about international student is their way how to plan hanging out. If it is among Japanese people, we plan the time we'll meet and the place we'll go in advance, at least one day before.However, international students are different. They plan where they will go some days before, but concrete timeschedule or some other particularity are planned some hours before going . At first, I was confused and thought this plan won't be carried out because they don't tell me anything about it. Now, I realized that it's their way and although it is still confusing, I'm getting used to it. Also, I found this casual planning is very comfortable for me because I don't feel I'm restrained.

Through this semester, I have experienced a lot of culture shocks, but I guess Internatinal students have also had shock on Japanese culture. the culture shocks that I have experienced are not always bad. There were some which Japanese should take in.

this is the article about Japanese impression wrriten by Alan J. Wiren

http://www.japanvisitor.com/index.php?cID=359&pID=1443&pName=culture-shock

the picture above is the typical class of Japanese university. Usually, in classes in Japan, no one can bring snacks or drinks in classes. This picture came from here ! http://kaitokudo.jp/04present/p1_10.html

Has youth's thinking about marrige life changed?

Recently, in Japan, the idea of ジェンダー (Gender) is changing. Some decades ago, it was widely believed that woman were inferior to men, and woman couldn't express their own opinions, especially to their husband. Also, few woman worked with men , and even if they did, their status in the workplace was really low. However, today, woman's status has become more equal, and many families share housework .

So, what do today's youth think about marrige style? Has their thinking changed into a more equal relationship? I interviewed my friend about his idea for marrige life. He wished to remain anonymous. His name is "M". He is 24 years old.

Question; Do you want to get married in the future?

M; Yes, I really want to. I'm yearning for marrige. If I don't get married, I'd be afraid of the pressure from my family and society standards. Also, I want to have children, but to be a single father is too hard for me.

Q; What kind of woman do you want to marry?

M; I have many conditions. I want my wife to have long hair and be humble, like typical old Japanese wife. Also, I want a woman who is good at housework, cooking and household money matters, and who likes children. And I want her to respect me.

Q; Oh, you really have many conditions. You'll never get married. Next, how do you want your married life to be?

M; I want to have 2~5 children. I want my wife do all the housework. I'll help a little, like push the washer buttton, but mainly housework should be done by the wife. I don't want her to have a full-time job. Just part-time job is O.K, but not full time. I want her to concentrate on housework and raising children. My dream is that when I wake up, my break fast is already prepared.

Q; O.K, what do you think about woman's role and men's role in married life?

M; Men's role is to work hard and earn money. Woman's role is to do housework and raise children. I think these roles are really the natural way for human beings because women and men are genetically more capable of doing these respective things. (Excitingly) Now, it is said that sharing housework is the symbol of equality, but, I think people misunderstand "equality". What man are good at and what women are good at are essentially different. So, I believe equal society means that women and men do their own respective roles.

I appreciate him telling me his honest thinking. His idea for married life is really close to the typical Japanese married life. His idea is just one of millions among youth, but I'm sure many Japanese guys would agree with his idea.

The picture of father and baby came from here!

http://plaza.rakuten.co.jp/syufugyou

The picture of housework (second one) came from here-!

http://www.apa-meido.com/faq.html

The first picture is my original photo, she is my grand mother. She is a typical Japanese wife. She buttered her husband up. Also, she is really modest.

Link

This site shows women's thinking for marrige.

http://www.macromill.com/r_data/20060803marry/index.html

How religion influences on Japanese people

If we ask Japanese people that what kinds of religion do you believe, many people would say " I have no particular religion". And as native Japanese, I also agree that our daily lifes are far from religious one, because we celebrate Christmas and saint valentine's day and also we do "Hichigosan" or "Hatumoude".( Hichigosan is a the ritual of sinto and we celebrate children who become the age of 3,5,and 7 years old. And Hatumoude means to go to temple or shrine on new years day and pray fortune for new year.)

However, fundamental parts of Japanese people are still based on Japanese religion; sinto. As the examples of this, I want to suggest three things; Shrines in town, Legend, and Children's stories.

First, when we walk in town, we often find shrines. Some shrines have small playgrounds, like picture above, and some haven't, but shrines are in everywhere in Japan even in big cities. And I'm sure that many Japanese people, especially people from rural district, have played in shrines when they were kid. For kids, precincts, which is playgrounds of shrines, or pounds in shrines are playground even if they doesn't have swing or slide. As they haunt shrines more and more, they are consciously or unconsciously getting what is shrine, why there are shrines and what is "kami" by feeling solemn atmosphere, and being familiar with the idea of Shinto.

Second, legends that parents often tell to their children make children be close to religion. The famous legend, the story of gods of rice is often told to children. The story is that in every each grain of rice, there are seven rice gods, and if we leave even a grain of rice on a rice bowl, rice gods'll curse us. ( The number of god is different depending on region, but in my home town, the number was 7.) This story tells children the basic idea of religion, which is that everything we do is watched by kami.

Finally, Japanese children's stories are often related to kami. In kindergarten or preschool, kids read many such stories and naturally get the idea of religion. In my case, the most impressive one was "kumono-ito"( the string of spider). It is totally story of god and I remember I felt really scary to do bad things.

Like these example, even if we get old and our lifes are not related to religion, religious childhood experiences stay in our mind even when we get adult. And I believe Japanese fundamental parts are still religious.

If you wan to know the story of kumono-ito, click here!

http://www.ntv.co.jp/sekaju/student/20060520/01_0101.html

Are Japanese being Western?

When we look at magazines, especially fashion magazines, and even though they are selled only in Japan, often Models are Western or half Western. For example, almost all fashion models of Men's non-no, which is one of the majour men's fashion magazines in Japan, are Western or Western mixed and they show up many pages. Same as girl's fashion magazines. Look at picture above. This is the picture of girl's fashion magazine names "mini". Most models of mini are half - Western. Japanese young people look at them and refer to their fashion.

But why publishers use weatern models?

Why not Japanese?

(Of course there are many Japanese models, but western models are incresing recently.) Japanese figure and western figure are really different. And also, face and hair are different. But why Japanese young people imitate them or refer to their fashion?

Also, when we look at young adult girl's fashion magazines, like "ViVi', we'll find makeup pages teaching " how to be western face" or " how to be craggy face". They teach how to show our noses taller and eyes bigger and more clear.

These examples of mogazine models and make up show the fact that " Japanese wants to be Western". I'm sure that these thinking came from "akogare"(= means yearning) for western countries or cultures. Now, the westernization in Japan is too big to write in this my tiny blog, but the big part of the root of westernization is Akogare.

this is 'VIVI's page! http://www.joseishi.net/vivi/

this is men's non-no's page!

http://mensnonno.shueisha.co.jp/home.html

Daido Moriyama, his work about Osaka

In 1938, Daido Moriyama was born in OSAKA. After the experience of free graphic desiner, he became assistant to photographer TAKESHI Iwamiya. In 1964, he became independent. In 1972, he published photographic collection named 「写真よさようなら」, and it shocked the photograph world, but after this, he stoped taking photo temporarily. In 1982 he came back to the world of photograph. Then he published a lot of fresh works one after another, for example "Daido-Hysteric"etc.

Firstly, to do this bog, I used Mr.Moriyama's book, named "Osaka plus"and my writting 'll be based on this book. Osaka plus is a photographic collection of Osaka people and town. Pictures in Osaka plus are all balck and white. His picture shows daily life in Osaka including people's beautiful points and dirty points, without any decoration.

This Osaka puls represents real Osaka very well. He photographed many kinds of people, for example, young hostess ladies,homeless people, young ladies, couples,and so on. For instance, Osaka is very famous for homeless people,and the number of homeless people is the most in Japan. Osaka plus has many homeless pictures which are same as what we see on street. I guess he photographed homeless people because homeless people are one of big part of Osaka. Also, he took many photos of sex industry, but he makes fun of them. Through these pictures, I could see how Mr. Moriyama think aboput people.

Osaka plus seems to haven't any particular theme, and it just looks like taking photo at random.

I think this is his successful point because thanks to no theme, he can take photo from many aspects, and many kinds of people. Some times we can see more Osaka when there is no themes.

As my personal opinion to Mr.Moriyama's work, it was really good to chose Osaka. I think Osaka is the place where we can see more human nature than like Tokyo.When we look Osaka plus, we might feel that Mr.Moriyama likes Osaka people.Mr. Moriyama took picture of some parts of people that we can't hate. I'm sure he likes Osaka town and people!

My information came from...http://www.bbb-inc.co.jp/daido/about.html　and

大阪 plus (2007, published by 月曜社, written by Daido Moriyama）

Japanese Fashion is being Global

Fashion, which is one of the biggest Japanese culture, is now being global and more close to common citizen. We can see this change in fashion magazines. The most important "key" of this change is "SNAP". 'SNAP' means snapshots of people's fashion. And this "people" doesn't means fashion models, but citizens in town. SNAP is now very thriving in Japan. Almost all fashion

magazines have SNAP.

For example, look at first picture. This is one of the mainstream men's fashion magazine named "POPEYE"( the January 1 number, published by　マガジンハウス). The main feature of this number is SNAP, using 38 pages for SNAP. AS you can see in second, third, and forth pictures above, POPEYE's SNAP features have not only Japanese people, but also New yorker, Parisian, and Londoner. If we compare Japanese people's fashion and foreighner's fashion, their styles are a little different, but many points are similar. For example, when we look at men's snap both in Japan and other countries, many people are wearing "skinny jeans'.

Japanese readers study fashion not only from Japanese, but also foreigners. SNAP is playing big

role for globalized fashion. In addition to these magazines, there are magazines which consist of only snaps. Look at last photograph. FRUiTS, right side magazine, is all about Japanese girl's snap especially in Harajyuku. And STREET , left side magazine, is all about Londoner's snap.These magazines are really popular among people who like fashion. If we read them, we can see Japanese fashion and foreigh fashion affect each other.

How much and how far fashion will develop in the future?

link→http://www.fashionsnap.com/streetsnap/country/uk/london/ you can see many snaps in this site!

link2 http://www.fashion-j.com/r/magazine.html this site shows almost all fashion magazines in japan!

What are Japanese people like?

I am Japanese.

I was born in Japan and have been living for 21 years in Japan. But I don't think I understand Japanese people well because I often can't read other's mind and sometimes feel difficult and reluctant to communicate with Japanese. At the same time however, I love Japanese people, and I'm happy being Japanese people.

So, this time, let me write one good point of Japanese people and one Bad point of Japanese people as one of Japanese people.

One of the good points of Japanese people is, I think, to try to assimilate to others. Of course, every Japanese people have different thinking, but when people gather, even if they don't know each other, first thing they do is to make atmosphere peaceful, enjoyable and sociable. To do so, for example, at drinking party, sometimes people work very hard as moriageyaku.

I think, thanks to this custom, people take care of what are other thinking, wants, or how should I behave at this situation. So we can avoid vain fightings.

One of the bad points of Japanese people is "tatemae". I personally really hate tatemae. ( this is my understanding of tatemae; temae is to say some thing safe or noncommittal to varnish over this situation) Japanese people often say tatemae. As the example of tatemae, when you bought new clothes you really like it, and go to class wearing them, I'm sure 99% of Japanese people say "kawaii~~~'' or "niatteru~~". Even if they don't think these clothes good, but they would say so (especially girls!)

I experienced these kind of tatemae a lot, and every time, I got hurt because I know they are saying tatemae, and think if it is tatemae, I don't want to hear any more. I think at this situation, people need honest opinions.

These are my thinking for Japanese people. I am Japanese. So, living in and communicationg with Japanese are very natural thing. If foreigners experience Japan, they may have many different but unteresting opinions!

let me know~!

The drinking party picture came from http://photozou.jp/photo/show/1/10191

The jyosi kousei picture came from http://www.sanspo.com/geino/news/080608/gnj0806080336001-n1.htm



If you go following web site, you can know more about Japanese honnne to tatemae

http://search.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/search/search.php?flg=3&p=%

Hirakata lover

Do you like living in Hirakata city?

I have been living in Hirakata for about 3 years , and still don't know much about hirakata yet.What is like hirakata peole? How hirakata people think about their town? why are they living in hirakata/ etc,etc,etc,etc,....... !

To know about hirakata more,this time, I interviwed one guy who runs the bar near kansai gaidai, you can see above, about living in Hirakata. (I guess some of you know him !)

I ; What your name and how old are you?

Mr ; My name is Jean, and I forgot my age! ha ha ha.... ( "jean" is the assumed name, just to make sure)

I ; Alright, how long have you been living in Hirakata?

Mr ; um...about 25 years may be.

I ; o.k, do you like Hirakata? And why or why not?

Mr ; I LOVE Hirakata ! I had been lived "Neyagawa" city before, and I was wishful for living in Hirakata.

I ; Oh, really? why?

Mr ; That's because Hirakata has kyoto mood rather than Osaka one. Although Neyagawa is near Hirakata, Neyagawa doesn't have this graceful mood.

I ; I didn't know that. I have never thought about hirakata's mood and also never thought that hirakata's mood is resemble to kyoto. How do you think about hirakata people?

Mr ; Hirakata people are , I think , decent. They are more like kyoto people than osaka.

I ; next, What are the good points and bad points of Hirakata?

Mr ; I think one of the good points is that Hirakata is academic city, because 6 universities are in here. I really like talking to students.

I ; why do you like students?

Mr ; Because I can feel young gushing energy and bright future. And also, good point is I can meet foreigh students. Hirakata is international city because of Kansasi Gaidai. I'm enjoying hirakata life.

I ; How about bad points?

Mr ; I think, hirakata hasn't the industry of the district. There are komatu and kubota, but no other. So, hirakata can get less tax revenue. For example, parking is very expensive !

I ; Last question, what do you hope hirakata to be in the future?

Mr ; I hope hirakata will be educational - industrial complex, I mean, more academic city.

I ; Alright, all questions are done ! Thank you very very much. Finally, if you have a message for my blogreaders, please.

Mr ; To Japanese students, don't be shy~! Talk more to more people~! And to all students, drink more and more and more and more!

I really enjoyed this interview, because I have rare chance to talk to native Hirakatan. To be honest, for me, hirakata was not the city I want to live long because of too many people, too many buildings, and less nature. But as I talked to hirakata people more including bar master , workers and customers, my view for hirakata opened more.

am I "kansaijin"?

Look at these two pictures.

Upper one is the weekday's time schedule of Keihan rail line connecting center of the OSAKA

and KYOTO. Lower one is Etumihoku line's time schedule which is one of the line in Fukui

prefecture connecting central city of Fukui and my home town; Ono city.

Keihan line is one of the biggest rail line in Kansai area, and loved by many people. I

heard many friends says that "Keihan line is more comfortable compare to other lines like JR

or Kintetu line. Also, Etumihoku line is loved by people. We use this from when we were small

to when we become worker. When I was in Ono city, I often used it.

As you can see in this two pictures, the servise numbers are really different. Keihan line runs at least every 10 minutes, and in average, we can get in 5 minutes. However, on etumihoku line, if we miss one train, we have to wait at least 1 hours!! The worst, we have to wait more than 3 hours.

When I came OSAKA the first time, I was surprised at Friend's saying who was born in OSAKA.

She said ; " we have to run to get train"

I ;" why? Trains come one after another. we don't need to run."

Friend ; "No, we have to.　If we miss the the next train, we have to wait 7 minutes!! I don't want to do"

"How OSaka people are impatient !! " At this time, I thought so.

However, now, 3 years after it, I am saying same thing. I am now a excellent "kansai-jin".

(※） This blog is a class project for my "Visual Anthropology" class; as such it is for educational purposes only. All photos posted here are taken by the blog auther unless otherwise noted. If any problem with the posting of a particular photois brought to my attention, I will earnestly review the problem and remove the photo if necessary.

http://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/

If you are interested in Fukui, Ono city, visit here

http://www.geocities.jp/fphatabo/ono.html