Japanese People

I can't believe it's almost been a month since I got here. Even though the time flies by fast, I feel like I have experience a lot of the Japanese culture and especially with people in Japan. One thing about the people here is how everybody are so nice and polite. I myself am from an Asian family and are aware of the whole respect the elderly culture with some modifications of the Swedish culture of course. Before I got here I had some certain ideas about how polite the japanese people are, but I was still very shocked HOW polite they are. Don't get me wrong, sometimes it does feel very sincere and it does make my day just to be part of the whole culture. But hearing a bus driver saying: arigatoo gozaimasu over and over with a depressing tone does take part of the sincerity away.

The reason I used the picture above is an example of how different it is from rest of the world. The picture is taken at a concert in Namba, Osaka. The band on stage is a band called WatusiZombie. It is not the band I am focusing on, it's the audience. I am a big music fan and I've been to a lot of concert in my life, but never in Japan of course.

The part that was surprised me was how the audience acted. Usually when you are at a concert it's very crowded and when the music starts, it gets really warm and a lot of people pushing and especially to that kind of music. It was pretty hardcore rock music, and where I am from, people are pushing and doing 'moshpits'. The point is: that even when you are at a concert, this is the perfect opportunity to unleash your feelings but there were no crowding or pushing at the concert, everybody was very careful not to touch the one next to you or disturbing anyone. Shouldn't a concert of all places make you go wild?
The other picture I've chosen is a one of the first pictures of me when I got to Japan. As you can see, I am doing a peace sign pose on the picture. Also called 'Japanese pose' among international students. And I have to agree, ever since I've gotten here, I think I do this pose on every picture. What is the meaning of it? The reason I chosen this picture is to demonstrate how some things have become part of the culture so much that it lost it's meaning, or at least part of it. People do it because everybody else is doing it, not because it is something they wants to do, but something that is implied. When they don't do it, they are afraid to insult people.

So it's not about doing something nice for somebody else, it is about not insulting people. After all, the culture is working and it really feels like the most polite and safest country in the world. I wouldn't mind being part of it, even after I return to Sweden.
Arigatoo gozaimasu! Thank you for reading as what they would say in the store.
/Quang

Neighborhood Hirakata

Konbanwa!
Since the last post I've been experience a lot in Japan, it barely feels like I have been in Japan for almost 3 weeks now. This weeks theme is my neighborhood Hirakata. Hirakata is for me very different from what I expected when I got here. I expected a big city with skyscrapers and futuristic buildings and so on. What keep bugging me since I got here, is how everybody complains how cold it is here. Where I'm from (Sweden), this is the beginning of the Swedish spring. What I like about Hirakata is how the whole town feels so small but in the reality it is the same size like the biggest cities in Sweden. I like to bike a lot here, and one thing I notice during the evenings is how everything is so quiet and dark. And this is only when I finish my afternoon class, the house are dark and I bet most of the japanese are working late.

The pictures I've chosen this week is how even though Japan is way ahead of it's time, we can still see a lot of the old japan, the traditional japan. The last picture shows how hard working japanese people are.


These two pictures are from the park right outside the seminarhouses. In the park there are a couple of stations where you can work out, and usually these places are occupied by seniors working out during evenings. No wonder Japan has the highest life-length in the world.

This store is one of the most visited by the exchangestudents. Even though the vendingmachines where you can buy beer is the most affiliated with this store, it's the woman who owns the store that fascinates me. I've been in that store a couple of times now, and it's surprising everytime I see that woman working there. She has to be at least 85 years old, and still, she is working there. How long do japanese people work? This store is open long during the evenings but is closed during the day. Even though Hirakata is bigger than most cities in Sweden, it feels way more smaller. I guess Hirakata is considered to be a small city in Japan if you compare it with rest of Japan.
/Quang

Early Impressions of Japan

Ever since I got here I noticed how Japan like to use english in their adds and in their clothes. It is a well known fact that Japan is very fascinated of the western culture. Even though there are a lot of English words in the language, that been "Japanized" (a word that is english but been adapted to Japanese pronunciation). For an example the word beer becomes birru, or Sweden becomes Sueeden, which is very funny from my point of view (pretty much ever since I got here, I tell people I'm from Sweden, and got the same reaction every time. Shaking their heads and telling me that they don't know where it is. Then I say Suuuuueeeeeden, then everybody response with the word sugoi!). I find it interesting how a lot of japanese people wear clothes with English words without knowing what the real meaning is about. As long as the clothes have some English words that sounds catchy. English is everywhere, especially in the katakana and adds. On the picture above you can see a t-shirt my friend bought in a store.This is a funny example how there's a sentence that makes no sense what so ever. But still, there are more examples.

Here is another example where the sentence gets to confusing. The following sentence can be read under the SALE sign. For the sake of irreplacable persons, we'll dramatize a specially preserved extravagance. I have read that sentence so many times, but I can still not figure out what this sentence actually means. Still, my experience in Japan has just begun, who knows, when I am back in Sweden I will probably going to pronounce Sweden as Suuuudeeen, and bottle as botterru. More updates soon!
To be continued, or should I say, Toru beru contiinuuredu.
/Quang