It is tough for me (Japanese) to find things which represent what Japanese is or Japanese culture is, because I was born and grew up in Japan. All things and stuff seem just normal, even people from other culture think it’s really Japanese. So this time, I decided to go to a typical Japanese place where foreigners often visit to get some clues for this article.
I went to Arashiyama, Kyoto, the one of the most beautiful autumn color place in Japan. I pictured many beautiful scenes there, but I wonder these represent Japan or not. So I focused other “small” things rather than the place itself people usually focus on.
I finally found a thing I wanted, and pictured it.
This “NINJA” dog was on the street near the famous temple in Arashiyama. This street boasts many shops and restaurants, and people usually crowd there. But this time, the biggest crowd were just in front of this dog. Surprisingly, many foreigners eagerly took photos of “him”.
Few minutes later, I looked another dog who was taken picture from many people again.
These clothed pets are not rare in Japan recently, we can find in our daily life. People put costumes on their pet, and it seems normal any more. But for people from other culture, it is not still normal, I think. That scene foreigners were taking pictures of clothed dogs reminded me my foreign friend’s saying, “Japan is always extreme.”, and I think, this costumed pet is one good example of it.
Dog costumes
means "mother"
"father"
"oldest daughter"
it sais "Danger! Don't touch me!"
HOT DOG
In addition to these dogs, you can see one extreme example on a Japanese TV show “Shimura Doubutsuen” (Shimura Zoo), which is a quite popular TV program broadcasted at 7:00 pm on every Saturday. In this show, a chimp named Pan-kun is one of main casts just like other human guests. He has tried many activities which are usually done by human, for example, dog-walking, shopping, photographing, eating with chopsticks, etc...
This is really extreme cases, but most Japanese poeple never know how extreme this is.
I'm glad if readers of this post understand extreme of Japan.
I like this post a lot. It is difficult to be a native anthropologist and study your own culture when you take so much for granted and/or see your surroundings as being normal. I like your methods and what you came up with here. The Ninja Dog photo is excellent.
ReplyDelete