A Queen of Cute (Janae)

I’ve seen people interact with popular culture by listening to (and singing along with) current popular music, watching popular TV shows (both dramas and anime), and buying merchandise from their favorite elements of popular culture. One of the things that I’ve found to be most prevalent is character merchandise. I’ve seen many little representations of characters from anime and other sources on people’s backpacks and cell phones, especially in chibi form (I’ve even seen chibi Batman.).

Some of the Hello Kitty Merchandise

I wasn’t surprised to see these little characters. After all, I have a character from one of my favorite shows on my backpack as well. I understand the attraction because people build positive associations with a certain character as they watch the show or read the comic book the character is from, but I was surprised to see so much merchandise centered around characters that didn’t have origins in popular TV shows, comics or movies. These characters are adored in Japan, and in many cases loved around the world, simply as a thing in and of themselves. I’m thinking of characters like Rilakkuma, who is an embodiment of cuteness and relaxation, and Hello Kitty, who is the queen of cute.

Kumamon merchandise

Overall though, I think the scale of it is what surprises me the most. There’s an entire section devoted solely to Hello Kitty in the 100 yen shop. This week one of my friends got some Hello Kitty merchandise for their birthday. Heck, I even bought some pairs of Hello Kitty chopsticks and a Hello Kitty pencil bag to give to my friend back home. Everyone knows at least one Hello Kitty devotee. Though in the U.S. it seems like Hello kitty is targeted mostly to little girls, here in Japan I’ve seen a variety of household Hello Kitty items for women too. I think part of the appeal is based on what this characters represent. Maybe people buy Rilakkuma products to make their lives seem just a little bit less hectic, and maybe thirty year old women decorate their bathrooms with Hello Kitty items to both remind them of their childhoods and add some cuteness to their homes.

The Past Within Us (Janae)

Movie Poster (original link here)

It feels like I've been seeing this movie poster (for ‘Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno’) everywhere in the city: at 7-11, in the mall, in the train station.  I feel like there must be even more samurai movies in Japan than there are World War II movies in the U.S., and they've enjoyed popularity since the times of Akira Kurosawa.  This particular movie is based on an anime and is loosely set in Meiji era.  I think cultural appreciation has allowed these films to (generally) have an impressive amount of accuracy too.  Traditions like kimono-wearing and kendo are still practiced and respected, especially in schools, so the creators and viewers both have a great appreciation for the history shown in films like these.  This contrasts to what I've heard from some international students about how many of their traditional practices are being looked down upon in their country as backwards and quickly replaced by the modern by anyone with means.

Taiko drums in Akita City.

I've also noticed many different traditional clubs and practices in Japan.  I've seen martial arts demonstrations in the mall and heard students practicing on taiko drums for the festival club, and I have many friends who have joined tea ceremony, calligraphy, flower arranging, kimono, and kendo clubs.  It’s interesting how much more widespread and popular kendo is in Japan compared to something like fencing in the U.S.  And how many clubs for traditional dress do you see in the U.S.?  People are very enthusiastic about and dedicated to keeping traditions alive here. 

Calligraphy-style writing on a shopping bag.

The above two examples just come from traditions I've seen in everyday life here.  Even though in the present day simple font is much more common than the elegant and precise brush strokes of calligraphy, I still see calligraphy inspired fonts on everything from restaurant signs to shopping bags.  I think this means that using calligraphy still makes customers feel that a product or service or event is old-timey and/or authentic, so it’s useful in the present day as a marketing tool.  Do good memories from calligraphy club in high school really influence a person to go to a ramen shop with calligraphy in its title?  I can’t say for sure, but, in any case, I think there is an enormous amount of nostalgia and respect for the past.

I think these references to the past in Japan, whether through samurai movies or calligraphy on shopping bags, also serve to create and nourish a Japanese identity that is often used to support social norms.  The themes of honor and loyalty in samurai films can inspire salarymen to be completely devoted to their company, and the precision and elegance women are taught to wear a kimono correctly with can teach them a traditional Japanese woman ideal that is actually a modern creation itself, constructed from jumbled elements of the past.  It might just be my imagination, but when I look at a lot of old black and white photographs of women wearing everyday kimono, their kimonos sometimes look a little disheveled, or at least not as impeccably perfect in the way that kimono are worn today.  It makes me wonder if this whole idea that everyday kimono must be worn in a very precise fashion, with not a fold out of place because precision is a Japanese value, isn’t one that has been constructed in more modern times.

Kimono Club (Janae)

Women dressed in kimono for a festival

I got my first kimono on a family splurge trip to Tokyo in high school.  I remember being fascinated by its silky texture and woven design that had seemed simple at first, but was actually so intricate once I looked more closely.  Once I got back to the U.S., though, I have to admit that it spent quite a while almost untouched, sealed in a plastic bag.   It wasn’t until college that I decided to tackle learning how to wear it. 

I quickly found out just how complicated the process was, and about all of the hidden-but-necessary little accessories I needed to find.  I’d only half way learned how to wear it by the time I started my study abroad program in Japan, so I was pretty excited to hear that the university had a kimono-wearing club.  I’ve been going to this club, and so far it’s been fairly relaxed and accepting.  The teachers can only speak Japanese, which can be a little intimidating.  By the second meeting my friend and I were the only foreigners left.  I haven’t gotten much chance to communicate with my Japanese club mates, but they’ve helped me out when they could.  The club president was kind enough to translate to me how the club fees worked.

Each meeting we first sit down in the proper way and bow to the teachers, and then everyone learns how to put on kimono with the help of two teachers, who luckily both have the patience of saints.  Once the meetings end, we bow again to the teachers.  Even if the teacher-student relationship seems pretty lax most of the time, showing respect at the beginning and end of each session is a must. 

One thing I’ve noticed as the teachers try to show me how to wear kimono is how regimented the club likes the whole process to be.  They have rules for every little step.  During the first meeting, I think my friend and I must have taken ten or fifteen minutes trying to learn from our teacher how to properly put our arms into our kimono.  

Wearing a kimono on the first day

We even fold the koshihimo (ties) that hold up the kimono in a very specific pattern.  This is kind of surprising to me, since the koshihimo are tucked away out of sight once everything is in place.  No one would be able to tell if they were wrinkled, so I thought we would just loosely wrap them up any-which-way once we were done with them, like I’d one with mine at home.  Instead we must carefully fold them into little pentagon shapes, which, while they look pretty cool, are a bit time consuming to make. 

I’m sure there are methods to most of this madness that are hard for me to see right now, but it is a little frustrating because at the beginning of meetings part of me always just wants to (gently) throw the kimono over my shoulders and get on with learning the rest of the process.  Everyone in the club has been very welcoming to me, and I don’t want to seem ungrateful, so I’ve been trying (and maybe succeeding?) to go with the flow as much as possible.  

Possibilities (Janae)

As I set out on this journey, I feel that life is full of possibilities.  Right now unfortunately I can’t seem to stop focusing on the bad ones.  What if I forgot to pack something?  What if I miss a flight connection?  What if I have trouble using the ATMs?  What if my new roommate wants to cut out my spleen for a cult ritual?

I just know that something(s) bad has to happen and that I’m going to inevitably make mistakes and do stupid things no matter how much I might try not to.  Understanding this and accepting the challenges and learning from the mistakes when they come are part of growing as a human being, but recognizing that doesn’t always come easy.  I know too that it’s almost certain that I’ll want to return to the security of home when the culture-shock gets bad and I made a fool of myself for the unknownth time with some cultural blunder that got missed in my research.  But, I’m going to have to learn how to adapt to a new environment, even if at times it’s going to test what I’m made of.

A new road.

I also feel really wet behind the ears in an I-don’t-know-what-to-do-where-the-heck-am-I-going-how-does-everyone-else-look-so-much-like-they-know-what-they’re-doing-all-the-time kind of way.  I have the hope that this experience will get rid of some of that feeling, and that I can gain some more confidence in my abilities.  It’s a little ironic how doing something that makes you really uncomfortable, like studying abroad, by doing something could make you feel more comfortable in your own skin in the end.

Underneath the anxiety though, I am really excited for the good possibilities.  I’ve been interested in Japan for so long, and I’ve taken classes relating to Japanese language and culture, so I’m grateful for the opportunity to live and study in Akita for a semester.  I look forward to getting to try so many things that I’ve so far only read about, and to seeing how reality contrasts with my expectations. (Hopefully there won’t be too many unpleasant surprises.)  I’m sure I’ll get the chance to meet so many new people who will broaden my perspectives too.