AMERICA-MURA, EOROPE STREET

 America-Mura (America village) located in Shinsaibashi, Osaka has been known as one of the biggest towns for youth in Kansai district. I clearly remember the first time I went to this place when I was a junior high student. This small “village” was covered with a special and unique mood and heat and I saw some foreigners for real at first time, then, I thought “this is America!” Off course, now I know it’s totally different from real America, but I didn’t have any idea that what America is, so I completely misunderstood it. Although America-Mura was originally started as an area which had some shops selling cloths and stuffs imported from America, after years, many other shops which do not sell American things, but other exotic things for Japanese appeared. In this way, this unique atmosphere was made up, and people still call this town “America” Mura.

This painting is known as an icon of America-Mura. Is this American?

Statue of liberty in America-Mura

Surprisingly, just a few hundred meters away from America-Mura, there is Europe Street.

   This street has an atmosphere like Europe countries’ one, that’s why people call this street Europe Street. This reason sounds silly for even me, Japanese. I wonder how this street could be European. Actually, this street is filled up with really Japanese things, such as a long row of bikes illegally parked and many Izakaya restaurants and their staffs called “catch”, who try to talk to people to get guests, just as hosts we watched in the movie. I interviewed one of these “catch” guy on Europe Street this time and got some interesting answers from him. I questioned him when he feels the street is like Europe and how the name “Europe Street” effects for people. He said, ” I’ve never felt that street is like European, but the word EUROPE does highly effect for people coming here. In Japan, Western cultures and things have certain status somehow, so people come here attracted by the word “Europe.” Therefore, Izakaya in this street can get much more guests than any Izakaya in other areas.”

the “catch”guy

From field-research this time, I learned two things. First, people in Japan are attracted a lot by other culture, may be especially by Western, but there are actually big gaps between real and image. Second, even if the image is very different from real, once people accept it, it can be a culture there.