Engrish in Japan

With the freedom that this week allows us, I have decided to investigate...Engrish! I love Engrish. On a very superficial level, it is obviously amusing. However, I was interested to look at the English language from a Japanese perspective. Again, I apologise for the number of photos in this entry - hardly a "Two-Frame Story", but I just can't help myself. There's just too much good Engrish out there.


(A restaurant in near the Aquarium, Osaka)

First of all I had to ask, why use English at all? Why does it hold such popularity? Certainly, it's taught in schools from a very young age until you leave High School, but similarly, in the UK you learn French or German from a very young age and we haven't developed any kind of similar trend.


(A café in Kobe.)

I am so intrigued by this phenomenon. Not only is so much English used in advertising, usually, it's totally incorrect, either in spelling or grammar.


(A restaurant in Osaka.)

This really made me laugh. Much of the time it seems that they've simply put a Japanese phrase into a second-rate online translator and used the output, whatever or however incorrect it may be. This seems so strange to me, when Japan seems to be a country of English learners, that incorrect English is so rife. Maybe I am expecting too much - it's not like I don't make hundreds of mistakes while speaking Japanese every day, but at the same time, I don't think I'd have a Japanese slogan printed on menus and advertising and even the main sign of my shop, if I wasn't 100% sure that it was correct.



I asked one of my Japanese friends, "why are there so many signs in English? Why are so many shop names in English? Why are they not in Japanese?". Her answer was, "because English is cool". I had to ask, though, "Can Japanese people read them? Often the signs come without katakana, so can people read it?". "Not always", she said, though this didn't seem to faze her. I continued "However, if a person, say, bought a really nice shirt from a certain shop which had an English name, and wanted to recommend it to a friend - if that shop didn't have a katakana transcription, and the person couldn't read it, how could they recommend it?". She thought about that for a long time, then said with amusement, "I don't know".

I guess we might never know, but there's no doubt that it's never going to stop, and the Engrish is just going to keep getting funnier.



At what?!

Religion and Tradition in Japan.

The type of comment I hear most often from foreigners living in Japan usually has to do with, in a positive or negative way, "kawaii" - that is, the intrinsic cuteness of Japanese things. I find it very interesting that this same "kawaii"ness echoes not only through time back to Japan's early history, but although though institutions such as religion and cultural tradition. In this post I will specifically be focusing on Japanese religious and traditional statues and figures.

Take the humble tanuki, for instance. Tanuki, as you can see, are mythical, magical raccoon-dogs, typically depicted wearing a hat, carrying a bottle of sake (the Tanuki is a renowned lush!). Moreover, they are almost always shown to have huge testicles. According to this site, this is more as a symbol of good luck, and perhaps that of excess and gluttony, than for overtly sexual reasons. Most often you can see statues of tanuki in or near the entrances of restaurants and izakaya, welcoming you in with their kind of creepy smiles and, well, massive balls. They are kind of like guardian spirits of this kind of establishment. The picture above, however, I took on a trip to Arashiyama, where they were lurking cheerily in the undergrowth.



Another kind of statue or figure you can often see in Japan are the Nio Protectors of Buddhist temples. According to this site these figures were originally adopted from Hindu mythology, at least in appearance. In the pictures I've taken, the green figure is called agyō, and as his mouth is open he is said to be saying "ah" (the first sound in the Japanese hiragana alphabet) which is said to be the sound of the birth of the universe, and the green one is called ungyō, who is saying "un" (the last sound in the Japanese hiragana alphabet), which is said to be the sound of the death of the universe. These cosmic sounds are said to represent "all possible outcomes...in the cosmic dance of existence". According to tradition, Nio Protectors are the guardians of the temple, keeping bad spirits, demons and even thieves out of the temple grounds.

In some temples they are replaced with the Shishi, Chinese lion-dog statues, the premise of which was most definitely imported from China (according to this site), with the same pattern - one mouth open, one mouth closed.



However, what these pictures show is that these statues don't always have to be guarding a temple - they can guard any holy place.



To finish off - a question. I have been looking online to try and find the meaning of these little figures, seen in Arashiyama by the roadside, but as yet I've been unable to find any explanation for them, who or what they're meant to represent. Does anyone know? They're very kawaii!

Gender in Japan.

The role of the woman in Japanese society is highly complex. It is multi-faceted, in that there are different sub-roles as women that women can take. On the one hand, it seems to my foreign eyes that women are viewed superficially as beautiful, delicate creatures who are to be protected and valued at any cost; on the other, it seems that they are viewed as property, to be used, abused or altered to the (usually, male) owner. This can be a confusing dichotomy, but in both ways the female is objectified.



For instance, let's have a look at this image. It was taken at Kyobashi station, and shows a woman in traditional Japanese kimono, waiting for a train. She's texting on her mobile phone here, but shortly after this picture was taken, she made a phone call to her husband, apologising for her late running, and promising to be home soon. As a woman who seemed as if she was happy to be returning from a nice day out in traditional dress, I was surprised at her subservient way of speaking.



This picture was taken of the side of a Purikura machine (go here to read about what Purikura is) in Kyoto. The text means "your beauty to God-level!". I can't help but look at the photograph of the girl attached, with her "kawaii!" clothing, pale skin and HUGE eyes. I have to wonder how this is affecting young girls' judgement of what the "ideal" woman looks like, with this unattainable image. I also have to wonder who designed it that way - and what gender THEY were.



Similar, but less damaging (in my opinion) is this picture on the side of a beauty salon in Miyanosaka. Again, we see this beautiful image of a Japanese woman, pale skin, large eyes. At least the image shown in this picture is attainable. And again, I have to wonder, how are these images formed? Is it as a reaction to what women want for themselves, or to what they believe men to want, or is it quite simply what men want?



In a different way, this is a more blatant example of the exploitation and objectifcation of women in Japanese society. The text reads:

"Don't look away. Don't pretend. Let your voice be heard. Don't allow perverts. Big courage."

I feel this to be quite telling. Perverts are a nuisance and a danger on trains, on train platforms and more generally. It has become so much of an issue that Japan's trains often have a "women-only" carriage running at peak times to avoid that thing. Also, for some time now, you cannot take a photograph on a Japanese mobile phone without it making some kind of loud sound effect. This is mainly to deter perverts who could take pictures of girls on trains without their knowing about it. In a society that relies so much on its women, they sure are objectified, sometimes to the point of perversion.



Staying on that end of this unfair scale, we have a sign for "Erotic Teacher XXX Yuka" in Kyoto. Again, I find that suspicious. Did Yuka decide to become this person out of a want to liberate her own self and her beliefs and values, or has she been somewhat forced into doing it by the many demands, both social and (apparently) sexual, made by the dominating Japanese man?

Globalisation in Japan

This week's topic is "Globalisation", and since my everyday adventures in Japan this week included a (free) trip to Universal Studios Japan, in thinking about this topic I was really struck by how popular Halloween is here in Japan. There are few people in "the West" (for example, America, Canada, Europe, or Australia) who have not heard of Halloween as the institutionalised festival it has become or indeed otherwise; however, I had no idea that it was so "big" in Japan!

This week at Kansai Gaidai there has been a large-scale celebration for Halloween including all kinds of parades and parties and a costume contest. It strikes me as a little odd that this Pagan festival from Britain, commercialised by America has shipped to Japan as a kind of Western oddity of a festival with such strange traditions as carving pumpkins and bobbing for apples. Not only that, but that it receives a better turn-out than the celebration of the laying of the foundation stone of the university - an event celebrated by no-one coming to university that day.



Here we have Rilakkuma (a popular Japanese media character) saying 「はろうぃんですね」 - "it's Halloween!". So, similar to the US and Britain, Halloween is being imported as a generally commercial "holiday".

When I went to Universal Studios Japan, the whole place was covered in Halloween-style decorations, with pumpkins and skeletons everywhere. For some reason it gave me a funny kind of feeling, which reminded me of jet-lag, only it felt a bit more like culture-lag.



There's no real reason I should have felt this way, anyway. I am well-aware that the Japanese love to dress up - simply look at the variety of fashions on show at any given time, or Cosplay for an extreme example. Not to mention that last year back in Leeds, at the Japanese Society Halloween party, they really went all-out!

According to this blog, however, whose owner has been living in Japan for 10 years, he's watched Halloween permeate public consciousness from nearly nothing to now being a phenomenon. Just goes to show that with the advent of the internet and with more, well, American media being imported, what kind of effect it has on Japanese culture.

Sports and Recreation in Japan

This first bit isn't about sports and recreation to Japan, this is really more of an echo to last week, my post about Takarazuka. I just wanted to put on here that I found a video-trailer for the performance I went to see, and I was so pleased I wanted to show it to you all:



In all honesty, I enjoy sparkly, fabulous drag kings much more than sports - but this post is about sports and recreation, so that's what I'll write about now. Although I have to admit, although this is technically irrelevant to this post and to this assignment, I really don't like sports that much: I don't like watching them; I don't like participating in them. Not in the UK, not in Japan. What this has meant is that I think my eye avoids sport - that is to say, although sport is obviously going on all the time, I kind of miss it, or block it out, because I'm not too bothered about it. That said...I ganbaru'd a little bit, in order to actually notice some sport happening, and I've come up with a couple of pictures. I don't pretend that this is a "Two-Frame Story" as it should be...



I took this picture in one of my first weeks here at Kansai Gaidai. I was on my way to get my bike from the bike parking lot, and I heard this enthusiastic screaming. Coming upon the tennis courts, there was a crowd of Japanese guys crowded round the net. I couldn't see the action (nor did I particularly care to) but it was clear that each time someone scored a point there was celebratory chaos, with much back-slapping and whooping. It was very interesting, like watching a group mentality in action. There was a lot of support there, and a lot of passion, even though it looked like it was just a casual game of tennis.



This picture was taken at Osaka-jo park, where there was some kind of sports meeting going on - baseball, it seemed. I couldn't see any banners proclaiming what was going on, and although I attempted to find out (from the people in the photo) what exactly was going on, my Japanese isn't such that I understood.

I like this photograph. A simple scene. A father and son, enjoying a game of catch. Is there really any simpler, deeper pleasure? It transcends country and culture.

Japanese Pop Culture and Entertainment

Haha. Just my little joke, gentle readers. When thinking about what on Earth I was going to include in my "Japanese pop culture and entertainment", the first thing that popped into my brain was "well, it's really bloody expensive". But it's okay, they're "hammering down the prices"! No, really what I want to speak about in this post is 宝塚歌劇団 - that is, Takarazuka Revue. Takarazuka Revue is an all-female troupe of actresses who produce the most wonderful, sparkling shows. From what I have researched, and from the experience of seeing one of their performances recently, they are a veritable phenomenon in Japan, mainly among women. According to this article from the Japan Times, the Takarazuka Revue theatres sell two million tickets per year, with an astounding 95% attendance rate. This drives home to me the point that Takarazuka Revue really is something special in Japan. As you can see in the picture below...



...the theatre is amazing in itself. Walking from the front gate to your seat can take 10-15 minutes, such is the theatre's size. It's all a part of the Takarazuka Revue experience! People crowd for pictures against the most iconic features - the self-playing piano, the photos on the wall of the stars of each troupe (there are five: Flower, Moon, Snow, Star and Cosmos), and of course the grand, red-carpeted staircase.



I was glad I could capture this moment. This girl was looking up to her idol (Sei Matobu, the provocative, sexy otokoyaku - that is, she was playing a male character) while her mother took a picture on her cellphone. I did ask for permission after I took the picture. There does seem to be a lot of idolisation amongst Takarazuka fans - who themselves are many and passionate. There have been discussions (here, for instance) in which it's mused that Takarazuka Revue is, for many woman, an escape from the male-dominated society of Japan; that it's a place and a time where they can be who they want to be and in way, through the characters on stage, explore their own sexuality more than is allowed within the boundaries of Japanese gender relations.

Reading this blog, it's interesting that when Takarazuka exploded into the Japanese cultural mind in the early 19th-century, it wasn't originally intended to be such a blatant and flagrant sexually-charged and gender-role-challenging group, but anti-homosexual propaganda was rife at this time, and "Takarazuka became a huge site for female-female desire, both onstage and off".

However, as the site notes, "the shows are threatening in many ways, and this seems to be the tension that has kept Takarazuka a live wire for over 90 years". So maybe it's this frivolous frisson of taboo (amid all the fabulous, glitsy, cross-dressing showbiz that I so immensely enjoyed) that gives Takarazuka Revue the popularity it enjoys today.

Neighbourhood Kuzuha

This week's theme is "Neighbourhood", and the aim was to produce photos relating to the area in which we now live, here in Japan. I, myself, live in a homestay situation very near Kuzuha station, so I guess my neighbourhood is Kuzuha. However, a problem that I've found with Kuzuha is that…whenever I'm out and about, either on my way to university, or on my way out to meet friends, or whatever…nothing really seems to be happening. More often than not, the little area of Kuzuha in which I live (Nishifunabashi) is entirely deserted. Therefore, this week, despite my best efforts, I feel this is going to come off a little weakly. Nevertheless, here are my observations.

One morning I got up very early to go to university, and as I was walking to the railway station, I came across these confusing blue things at every intersection in Nishifunabashi.



Confounded by the early hour, I had to get a lot closer to ascertain that they were not egg sacs dropped by an immense blue alien during the night, but in fact blue nets full of rubbish. This was quite interesting to me. In the UK, there is no such community cooperation. The bin-men come round once a week and the most people will do (if they do anything at all) is to put their bin bags by the front door or front gate. However, here in Japan there is this common banding-together of rubbish. Additionally, although I didn't get close enough to the refuse to say for sure, I'd bet my bottom dollar that most of that rubbish in there was either plastic, or paper, or burnable rubbish – that is, separated. I was (and still am) quite surprised at how much of an effort Japan seems to be making to recycle as much rubbish as it possibly can. I found an interesting article while researching about Japan's "rubbish culture", behold: How Do Japanese Dump Trash? Let Us Count the Myriad Ways

Another thing I've observed while wandering Kuzuha – and indeed, anywhere in Japan, really:



Wires. Wires everywhere. I have to say, it took me a while to notice them. I mean, I saw them, but I didn't really appreciate their absolute ubiquity until a few days after I arrived. Once I did, I couldn't help but start to think of them as an eyesore. Everywhere I've gone, they've spoiled views of fabulous temples and marred beautiful countryside vistas. However, as I'm now noticing them all the time, I accept them as a kind of natural part of Japan, and in some ways even a part of its essential beauty. Sure, they wouldn't have been here in the time of the samurai, but now they're a part of everyday adventure in Japan, and as such they no longer present as an eyesore to me in my photography.



While researching I found here, looks like they're wanting to put high-speed internet into Japanese homes over these lines. Maybe I'll stay in Japan a little longer…