Changing impressions

おもしろい日本（funny Japan）

When I first come to here, what we were introduced are rules, rules and rules. What we cannot do in Seminar House, what we have to do at school, what procedures we have to follow in the orientation period. And also, you can see sign and warning everywhere. In the kitchen, in the toilet, or on the road. Everything is telling you about rules you should follow. Japan is serious. Japanese are serious. It is the first impressions of Japan.

The first time when you meet Japanese, you will feel that they are very polite. They keep smiling and listening. Sometime, you will feel boring and hard to continue a conversation with Japanese. They are good listener but they won’t talk about themselves. They will always build a wall between themselves and others. You can hardly break the wall and see the real personality of Japanese. 建前(tatemae) is a word to describe behaviors and opinions one displays in public. And it might not be the real feelings of that person. Japanese are always covering themselves.

But there is a change of my impressions of Japan. Japanese also have many funny faces.

When they are get use to one, they will start talking more and acting more funny! They will only show their 本音（honne）in front of the people they believe and really want to make friends with. They don’t talk about rules anymore but about their daily life. They don’t only listen to your story but also tell you about their boyfriends. These, is the face of Japanese which was hide behind a mask for a long time.

The scalp

Coming to Kaisai Gaidai, one of the things that impressed me so much is that we can take courses about traditional Japanese arts culture. Not only learning it from the book but experience it by our hands. There are ceramic and sumie(Japanese style painting) courses offered to exchange student. By really participate in it, we can also learn about the cultures and attitude of Japan which was integrated with the arts activities. Now I choose ceramic to introduce the Japanese culture hide inside it.

One of the characteristic of ceramic was concentration. Walking in the ceramic lab, it is very funny that you probably can only see the scalps of students and our teacher in a very quite environment.

No one speaking and everyone are only focusing on their work. Ceramic is a difficult work. There are many steps for making a bowl. And every step can be messed up easily. For example, in this picture, I made a hole on the bottom of the bowl.

From the beginning of this class until now, I think I have been broken more than 20 pieces. And the number will increase, I believed. You can frequently hear the screaming from students, or from me that we have spent 5 hours for one bowl but in the last step, we break it. “Ah~~~~~~~~~~!!!!!!!” “I know that sound. Don’t mind. ” We know the feeling of destroying our own pieces which we have put great effort on it. In order not to make any mistake, we are focusing. Everyone looks like having mental sickness. Every little thing can make them nervous.

Japanese arts need great concentration. All the exchange students are experiencing this environment by participating in it. It is a awesome experience for us.

 

Culture of Purikura

  When you live in Japan with a group of teenagers, what you should know is the “print club” machine which was called Purikura among Japanese. It is an indispensable part of visual anthropology, especially in Japan. I have been Japan for 3 months and I think I have already taken Purikura for more than 30 times. It cost only 400yen per time and you can have a fun memory with your friends. I would like to find out more about the popularity of Purikura. Why and what made it everywhere.

  Because of the theme I chose, I interviewed a Japanese girl Eriko with a “puricyou”(notes of purikura). She just took Purikura very often and she will tidy up all of them and write something like diary beside it. It is time consuming. She just treat Purikura as a treasury .

  According to Eriko, Purikura machine is a secret place where you can take pictures with your friends secretly. No one disturb and no one looking at you. You can do anything that was bashful to do in front of others.

(for example, it is year of rabbit, and we just do a rabbit face inside the purikura. )

(both of us want to have a boyfriend but it is hard to said it outside. So we just find it in the purikura.)

You can do many things inside the secret place. For example there are couples kissing inside the machine and someone doing funning face.

  And, it is fun to take picture with a group of people. Because it is so narrow inside the machine, everyone just stick together and try their best not to block other and not to be block by other. Everyone screaming inside the machine. It is a very nice memory with friends. And more, Purikura is a machine with magic. It makes your skin white and smooth, it makes your eyes big and twinkling. Everyone become “Kawaii” in the picture. It is the cheapest way to become beauty, for a moment.

  After photo taking, it is the time Eriko most enjoying. You can draw picture and write something in the magic photos. It is so fun to write a daily n the photos and write something crazy on it. You can make it as the way you like. The newest version is that you can even change your hair color, your size and color of eyes.

(In this photo, we just write down: we love the one older than us! With

the number means the ideal age of boyfriend)

  As Purikura is cheap and easy to find, it become the popular activities in younger’s generation. At least, I would like to end this post with a Purikura. Could you find anything wrong in this picture?

Spirit of Osaka

Starting from the first day I came to Japan, what I cannot forget is the smiling face of people in Osaka. From homestay children, to university student, to middle-age people to elderly.

Their smiles are so warm and friendly. In Hong Kong, it is hardly to find someone being such enthusiastic as people in Osaka. People in Hong Kong are cold. What they care is only about their own things but others, “it is out of my business.” And people in Osaka are hot. They always care about other, especially foreigners. When I am confusing about the train system in Osaka, people in Osaka just come and ask if I need help even I didn’t ask anything. I was touched beyond words.

The second thing I found out about Osaka is collectivism.

China is basically collectivism. But because Hong Kong is colonial of England, the individualism of England came into Hong Kong. So it is quite surprised to find out that everyone in Japan to participant event with a bunch of people. They think corporation is very important. From children, they are trained to collaborate with others. Unity is strength. It is a very important concept in Osaka.

For foreigner, the first month is hard. We cannot speak, we don’t know any friend, and days were very hard. Thanks to the Japanese I met here, I can get with the life here very easily. Their smiles give me confident and power every day. It is not telling that there are not bad guys in Japan, but the percentage of them is much more lower that bad people in China and Hong Kong. People in here is so nice and willing to help. Sometime they will speak a bit fast and loud, but it is the characteristic of Osaka, enthusiastic and invigorative.

Funny shots of Osaka spirit!

TAKOYAKI!!!!SPIRIT OF OSAKA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kyobashi eki

The topic this time is research about a station. I chose the station which I go often other than the Hirakatashi station. Kyobashi is well known by people live in Osaka, because there are keihan line, JR and subway there. People can go to the Kyoto said, the Osaka side from there.

(subway)

(JR)

(keihan)

Kyobashi, I believe it is one of the busiest station in kansai because there are everything. The first time I go at about 11am on Saturday and I though there should not be so many people because it is still early. But surprisingly, there are so many people and just like the rush hour.

 When I try talking with people standing outside the keihai line kyobashi station, all of them said they are waiting for someone. Kyobashi is probably becoming a place for meeting and gathering.

In order to attract people, there is a shopping mall called keihan mall there. There are shops for cloth and also restaurant. Some people will look around there when they are waiting for someone.

And the second times I go at night kyobashi become a totally different world. There is some people look likeホスト to ask you for dinner. It is a bit scary when you are chasing by them and showing you the menu of their bar. I am so scare and I didn’t able to take pictures at that time.

There is hotel there, and even the procedures of using the machinery to buy ticket have a English version. As a foreigner, I really feel like kyobashi is really ready for being a tourist spot.

Japanese

There are about 10 Japanese living in my dormitory. Life in the dormitory helps me get closer to their culture and daily life. Luckily, I have a Japanese roommate. We are always said to be twins because we wear similar glasses, we always stick together and we think in the same way.

 

(We accidently bought the same drinks and wear the same pattern of clothes!)

She is my best friend in Japan. We go to school together, cook together, eat together, shower together and study together. She fills up my life in Japan and I really cannot imagine life without her. These are the reasons why I would like to introduce her to everyone.

  She is a traditional Japanese girl. She is shy and she is somehow afraid of cameras. Thank you for letting me posts her photos on my blog. It is very funny when we met in the first day in the dormitory. Speaking English is somehow difficult to Japanese and they are shy with strangers. I remember when we first met, she just said “Hello, nice to meet you.” And then she left, leaving me alone in the room. But when I try asking her questions, she is very helpful. I think it is kind of Japanese culture. They are friendly to others and willing to help foreigners. She doesn’t talk much about herself, but she used to listen to me and give me useful response. Not so enthusiastic and a bit bashful. It is the early impression of Japanese for me.

She knows the manner and food in Japan. She likes cooking. There is one thing I know from her. Doing everything seriously is the characteristic of Japanese. She will follow all the instruction from the recipe, she cannot endure putting 1ml more water, 1g of sugar. She will measure all the ingredients before. Japanese are serious.

I look forward to finding out more about Japanese culture from Mai.

Neighborhood

According to the lecture, neighborhood means the social community of a specific place. And the definition of that specific place can be designed by yourself. For me, I am now living in the Seminar House 2. This place, is a small and warm sweet home for me. My definition of neighborhood is not such big, but the people I met in the seminar house. In this blog, I would like to focus on the daily life of my neighborhood and our daily interaction inside the seminar house.

(our seminar house)

(お父さんin the seminar house)

  

(my neighbor)

 (あいさつis needed in this community)

Room 2041 is my room. And these photos are the people live next to my room. We meet every day. おはよう！元気？is the most common conversation between us. あいさつ(greeting) is needed in living in this dormitory community. But we don’t have much serious conversation in this corridor, we just passed by and smile. The relationship of my neighborhood is not build in the corridor.

 

(the right one is my room)

Here is the dining room, people usually gather here and dining together. We cook, share food and chatting. This is the place I build up relationship with my neighborhood. Because there are many people from different countries in this community, we usually need to switch channel from Japanese, English and Chinese. These are the most common language I use when talking with my neighbor.

 

(あいさつagain)

Other than the dining room, lounge on the ground floor is also a venue where we spends most of the time there. We do homework to together. We can share knowledge and exchange opinions there. It is the place I like most in this community. We play, having fun and laughing with my neighbor.

  

The relationship here in this community is very close. Rather than neighbor, people here is more like a family. They are so friendly and helpful for letting me taking this photos. Compare to the neighborhood outside the seminar house. I think the relationship of the small-scale neighborhood inside the seminar house become very strong. Maybe it is because we like hanging out. We don’t like keep staying at room. Or maybe it is because in this community, all of us are similar age. So although we have different cultural background, we can enjoy the time with our neighbor in seminar house.