Traditional Japanese Culture

Last Monday I went to Kyoto to Kiyomizudera. I got a chance to have a glimpse at a traditional Japanese wedding. I have seen the part where photographer was taking pictures of the bride and groom. There also were wedding planners and before photo was taken they made sure that the couple looked perfect. They paid a lot of attention to every minor detail. The couple was fixated on the presentation of the clothes and their stance. I thought it was a bit too much, it even seemed obsessive. It again proved to me that Japanese people are perfectionists. I also thought that the wedding ceremony was very private with only family and close friends being there.

I went to Kyoto with two of my Japanese friends. And they were just as excited as I was to see the wedding. I asked them what kind of wedding they would like to have and both of them said Western style wedding. I asked them why and they said that kimono dress doesn’t look good on them and that they want to wear a Christian style dress and have their wedding in a Christian church even though they are not Christians.

A few pictures I put up show the Japanese traditional wedding dress the couple was wearing. The bride was wearing a white wedding kimono dress, which I later found out is called shiro-maku (shiro-white and maku-pure). The bride’s hair was styled in the traditional style decorated with beautiful combs and accessories. There is also a picture of the bride and groom standing under an Ai Ai Gasa-the love umbrella.

Japanese Pop Culture

Japanese pop culture is a distinct collection of art, music, fashion and other forms of expression. Cartoons, manga and anything kawaii (可愛い, 'cute') are strong influences of high-tech products and clothes available in the high street.

In Japan, everything (goods and even lifestyle) is kawaii. Examples would be cute cartoon characters, often pink, being embedded onto bags, T-shirts, hair bands, phone charms, pens, etc. “Many adults adore cuteness as much as children and teenagers: for example, bank cards are available with cute cartoon characters printed on them, and though the culture of kawaii is most firmly established among young girls, grown men are prepared to be seen with cute items too.” http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Japanese_popular_culture Cute is anywhere and everywhere in Japan. Also everybody wants to be called cute in Japan.

Japanese people are very keen readers of magazines and newspapers.

Japanese People

''The outward strangeness of things in Japan produces a queer thrill impossible to describe - a feeling of weirdness which comes to us only with the perception of the totally unfamiliar.''

Lafcadio Hearn

Having lived in Japan for almost five weeks, I have noticed that the concept of friendship in Japan is ambiguous. It is as if it doesn’t exist in Japanese society. It seems that it is known and used only because it is an often encountered Western word. In Western concept of friendship you can make friends and lose friends. In the Japanese outer circle, you have no friends.

Japanese people are very kind, friendly and helpful, but at the same time I don’t feel closeness or warmth from them. I never know what they are thinking, what is behind their face… They don’t talk about themselves, their families. It seems that they are too shy and too polite to be your friend.

The first Japanese person I ever met was a girl named Ayaka. She came to Ireland as an exchange student and I was her speaking partner. We quickly became very good friends. VERY close friends. She came to my University with the bunch of other Japanese people. When I first met her I realised how different from other Japanese students she was. She had a different mentality, which appealed very much to me.

My roommate in Japan is also Japanese (Yui). She is a typical Japanese girl; friendly, nice and helpful, but distant. We are sharing the same room, but it seems that we are living in two different worlds. I know her from the outside, but not the inside. She gives very brief answers about herself, her family, and her friends. It is very hard to get through the boundaries that are created by the society and culture.

Above are the two photos of Yui. I also uploaded a photo of a guy sleeping on the floor at the train station:). Public sleeping is a very common thing to see in Japan.

The collage photo was taken from: http://phillips.blogs.com/photos/uncategorized/1111manypeople.jpg
It shows some of the Japanese fashion and crazy hair styles.