Changing impression of Japan

 When I came back to Japan from the United States, after finishing studying abroad, I had culture shock towards Japan. I felt strange about many things. First thing I noticed was that how close Japanese housings are next to its neighbors. Even though I had lived Japan for a long time, I felt uneasy about it, because the place where I stayed in America had more nature and it made me feel relaxed. I also thought it is strange to say "Sumimasen(I am sorry or Excuse me.)" all the time, even they are not doing anything bad or wrong to other people. I understood that they said so, because they would like to be polite and show respect to others, but it was still strange to me. I had a difficult time  adapting to Japanese style's of living again after coming back from the United States.

 During those time I had been straggled with my problem, I sometimes thought I would like to go back to America and I even thought that I dislike Japan. What I did not like the most about Japan was that, people are always working, including weekends. In America, people seemed like they work really hard on week days and play hard on weekends. I really liked the atmosphere of the U.S. On the contrary, Japanese people seemed like they are always working including weekends. I had school on Saturday and  salalymen look always tired on a train.

 After I graduated high school and entered to Kansai Gaidai University, however, I begun to like Japan a lot. I think it is due to an interactions with new friends who came from all over Japan and other countries. As I communicate with them, I discovered that Japan has a lot of interesting things that should be introduced to people who are not familiar with Japan. Since exchange students have different perspectives from me, they think Japanese culture, which is very normal to me, is very unique.

Tower in Kyoto



My home town's cherry blossom tree

 I really enjoyed the Visual Anthropology of Japan class, even I did not have enough knowledge about blogging or photography. Through this class, I learned what kind of things foreign people are interested about Japan. I knew that they think Japanese traditional and modern pop culture are interesting. I, however, was surprised when classmate told me that she is interested in a people's lives in rural part of Japan. I was very happy to hear that, because I am from rural part of Japan.

 I am going to study abroad from this fall and have chance to introduce about Japan to people outside of Japan. I will introduce "basic things" about Japan, but at the same time, I decided to introduce Japanese culture which has not shown to people so much, such as rural lives in Japan, host clubs, diversities of fashion style and school lives.

River in Kyoto

Japanese gals mecca, 109

 Shibuya 109 is very popular among Japanese young women, so called gals who like to wear clothes or to put make up on that are introduced in magazines like popteen, ageha or nuts. They tend to have bright hair and heavy make ups on their face.

 A first 109 in Kansai area, which is Abeno 109 opened in April 26th. According to a msn news, manager said that a company which runs 109 has not avoided opening it in Kansai area. He says that they could not find good place or building for it. The company chose abeno area, because many young people come there nowadays to do shopping at Abeno hoop or Tennoji Mio. Abeno 109 are getting a lot of attention whether they can beat Umeda or Shinsaibashi area where many young people go to.

  



Entrance of Abeno 109

 Abeno 109 is in a second floor of Q's Mall. Q's Mall itself seemed like good shopping mall for family to visit to me, but once I entered in 109 space, there were many young women and couples. Hip-hop or R&B musics were played at all of shops.

 When I was walking around there, I found an interesting shop. The shop is called SBY. At first, I was attracted by this big sign of the shop.

  Unfortunately, I do not know who they are, but I think they are models for fashion magazines for gals. I found several unique things about this store. It sells colorful key-chains, accessories, cosmetic and so on. It also sells food, such as tapioca drinks, crepe and parfait. Customers even fix their make-ups or hair style in one space at this store. Please look at this SBY website, if you are interested what this store is like. I have never seen this sort of "useful" shops where customers can do many things at one place. I think this shop will be liked many young people, because they can try new makeups and fix hair by using hair curler. Since they can get the newest information about beauty products there, they might stop by to check it out, even though they do not need to buy something.

Food menu



Eating or relaxing space and makeup space

 To me, gal culture is very important aspect of Japanese culture. Since shibuya 109 is a little far away from Osaka, if you are interested in Japanese gal culture, I really recommend abeno 109.

Love Hotel = Entertainment Hotel?!

 I watched the film called The Japanese Version (Alvarez and Kolker, 1991) in a visual anthropology of Japan class. It included the scenes in a love hotel. When I watched it, I was very shocked, because the love hotel was very old-fashioned. Therefore, I decided to report the current love hotel to people who are not familiar with it.

 Love hotel is where couples go to to have private time. It is everywhere in Japan. Customers can do many things there, such as karaoke, costume play and so on. Please look at this site, A Brief Guide to Love Hotel, for further information about it.

 I went to one love hotel called Chapel Coconuts to observe. It is located Hirakata-shi, close to Keihan Miyanosaka station.



Chapel Coconuts



Entrance

  As you can see in the picture, Chapel Coconuts is a tropical themed love hotel. There were many plastic tropical birds and fake tropical flowers. Customers pick their favorite room by touching a board in a entrance. There were few rooms left when I went there. It seemed like Chapel Coconuts is very popular love hotel around Hirakata city.



Room I picked

 The room I picked was medium size. One hotel room is composed of bed room and bath room.



 Unique thing about this hotel is that customers can get welcome parfait for free. There are many kinds of parfait, including a parfait which has natto (fermented soybeans) or tonkatsu (deep fried pork cutlet).

Free parfait menu

 I was also surprised at how many different kinds of things hotel offers to customers. Customers can choose their favorite shampoo and they can borrow it for 300 yen. If they are interested in costume play, they can borrow it too. Interesting thing was that there were only costumes for women. 

Above: costume list , Bottom: Shampoo and body soap list

  According to the film, The Japanese Version, Love Hotel owner said love hotel is popular in Japan, because Japanese people usually live in a small apartment and do not have much privacy. I also think that many young Japanese people live with their parents until they graduate universities or get married, therefore, they go to love hotel to spend private time with their lovers. Not only love hotel is a place where people are able to have private time, but also they can have fun by doing many kinds of activities.

 Even though, Japanese love hotel has been changed, it seems like one point about it has never changed. It is the idea of "お客様は家庭にないものを求めてる。"(Customers are seeking for something they cannot find at home). That is what the love hotel owner said in the film I mentioned above. I think that is why there are many varieties of love hotel in Japan to provide customers fantastic time.