Pop Culture

The most prevalent form of pop culture, especially among girls, is music. Many music artists in Japan are with a group of people rather than singing alone. These bands are also often referred to as idols. The groups are usually very large and they seem to be created by larger figures such as label companies than the singers themselves. For example, for the boy groups, many stem from a group of boy idols called “Johnny and Associates.” When the boys become older their music groups are formed out of these groups. While at first I found this to be a rigid process, I realized that it can be seen as a natural product of Japanese culture. Through this process of being the “Johnny and Associates” back up dancers to the idols, you learn through experience where you are expected to look up toward the older and experienced people who have come before you. While to outsiders of Japanese culture, the job of these idols is to produce music, their real job seems to be popular and to entertain rather than to sing. For example, my host mother told me that when she was young non of the idol groups could sing very well, but they were still very popular. Physical appearance, of course, has a lot to do with this. The idols of Japan are unavoidable. You see them on television shows, television commercials, vending machines, collectable merchandise (as seen above in the picture), and you hear them while walking on the streets or through the hall ways of a karaoke business. There is one drink that you can buy at a conbini that comes with a collectable keychain of a band member. One of my students at my middle school had a huge collection on her backpack.



PURIKURA! Japan is very good at making things I wouldn’t want to do very fun. I learned about purikura when I was very young and it was the first aspect of Japanese pop culture that I learned. Simply put, purikura is just a photobooth that you go to with friends and take pictures. However, these are highly sophisticated photobooths compared to the ones in the United States and you have to be very fast to operate them. Purikura machines have amazing photoshop capabilities. You can change the tone of your skin, add very fun backgrounds, and write whatever you want on top of them. Purikura seems to be an easy icebreaker of sorts for meeting new friends. I’ve met people for the first time only hours or minutes before doing purikura with them and the first day my host sister and I were free together we went off to take purikura. This seems to be the equivalent of going out for coffee in the US. The pictures come out as stickers, which are sometimes put into books, or can be sent to a cell phone. The picture above is of the SICErs favorite purikura location. Purikura areas seem to be usually located near game centers.

Theme: People

We're all people.

Most of the time, Japan seems like a foreign world, it is a society that works very differently than I am used to and the language is not Latin based. However, I need to keep in mind that the Japanese people are people. We are all people and we have more similarities than differences. The first place that this struck me was when I visited a look out point over the city of Morioka. My host mother explained to me that young couples usually come here together. It stuck me how similar this sounded to the western culture. Especially in the US. This could possibly be the result of the western world effecting Japan, however this time it didn’t feel like it. The area was old and look out points are natural. I think the common wish to date in all people and the romantic, remote location created this in both cultures. We go about it in different ways but we all cry during dramas, try to help others out when they’re lost, and gossip. No matter the goal or the result, we all make friend groups and hold the family as a significant social group in our lives. The picture above is of the lookout point.



A people embedded with history

The people here in Japan are the result of a web of history. The culture in the United States stems from historical events, but the “American” culture only began during the western settlement of the Americas. Here, recognizable Japanese culture is much longer. And this is not even a passive historical influence. Many times when my host parents, mostly my host father, is explaining something about Japanese culture he will refer to a time period that is far older than the United States. At the same time it is obvious to anyone studying Japan that the culture is still evolving and there are many modern components that originate both from foreign countries, like the United States or South Korea, and from the culture its self as it uses its new technology to solve old problems. The picture above was taken at a temple, looking outward toward the surrounding neighbhorhood. As you can see, there is little to separate the traditional gate from the surrounding modern city. When I walk around Morioka I am surprised at the sudden transitions from modernity to a more conservative or traditional style. For example next to a normal Japanese suburban house you may find a modern preschool, or a small temple or old-fashioned shop. Everything is very interwoven and I believe this is a result of the history that makes up the people here and is expressed in the surrounding city.

Theme: Neighborhood

Neighborhood home layout - The neighborhood that I live in seems to be a typical urban neighborhood in Morioka. The neighborhoods all have their own names and inside the neighborhood there are different sections. While in the states the neighborhoods generally have little importance while the streets carry much more importance, here it is opposite. Another difference is the shape of the streets. Everywhere I have lived in the US, it seems as if one goal when building a neighborhood is to make sure that all of the streets are generally straight and either parallel or perpendicular to each other. In Japan the streets seem to strive to be generally to be in a firm grid, however the streets are much smaller and tend to wind around. However, as my host-family lives in a more mountainous part of the city, it could be a result of their location rather than of Japanese culture. In the picture above you can see a picture of a section of my neighborhood including my house. The homes are almost all a square with two floors and a balcony used for drying clothing. There are no garages (however, some homes have covers), instead there are places for either one or two cars to park around the house. Besides the area to park there is little land that each homes has outside the house. Around the house there is usually a two-three foot long area where the owners plant bushes or other plants (or just rocks), there is no grass.



Trash Disposal - The neighborhood is organized into different sections, each having a center to throw away trash, which is displayed in the picture. Each month one house is in charge of unlocking the trash area on the correct day of the week. The key is then passed to the next family on the next month. In a previous post on my first impressions of Japan, I mentioned the trash separation in public areas. In the homes, trash is also separated. In the picture, you can see the bottom right poster. This poster describes the different groups of trash and recyclables and the dates that they are picked up. When a household is wanting to dispose of their garbage, they simply put it in the right bin inside of this structure on the appointed day. Otherwise, this shed is kept locked. On of the reasons I can tell for using this shed is to keep the trash from the crows. Around the neighborhood, I haven’t seen any stray cats or dogs, but the crows are massive and are frequent visitors. In my neighborhood, these trash areas are located in the middle of the neighborhood next two a playground, which you can see slightly in the picture, and a cemetery, which is to the right and on a higher level of land than the surrounding homes.