EXTREME JAPAN

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...

http://www.ntv.co.jp/zoo/

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.

Japanese Western Culture

In most western countries, people greatly celebrate Christmas. Christmas is the biggest holiday for them, and it means much for them due to religious reasons. But, in Japan, people recognize this special day in different way. Most people in Japan are not Christian, so it seems that they don’t have to celebrate it. They, however, do celebrate it. This is one interesting example.

Colonel Sanders put on red Santa Claus costume in front of all of the Kentucky Fried Chicken shop in whole Japan. Surprisingly, this costume party for Christmas starts from the end of October, before the genuine Christmas mood comes up in Western.

Santa costume sold in LOFT store at Tennoji.

I took this photo on the next day of Halloween. Needless to say, Halloween costumes were sold there until the previous day. Halloween is, off course, irrelevant to Japanese as well.

This is Christmas illumination at Tennoji HOOP.

In western culture, people basically have Christmas with their family. In contrast, people tend to have time with their lover in Japan. Christmas seems to Japanese people as just like festival of love.

These facts really represent Japanese mind. People in Japan tend to be easily influenced by other things. This characteristic could be both good and bad. After World War Ⅱ, Japanese greatly influenced by better country, and absorbed technology and learned a lot. But nowadays, the situation of influence from other has been changing. Among young Japanese people, western things have particular status somehow, so they often imitate western ways.

This Japanese Christmas imply that Japanese are getting lose own identity gradually.