Japan Group Study

So far, I have been settling into Japan quite well. I will say that balancing shortened school work whilst also trying to travel everywhere is not exactly ideal, and I find myself forgetting most of the assignments due in class or just generally running behind. Our newest hurdle to overcome being, the final presentation we have to end off this term (and the test a couple days after it as well). My topic is about comparing the Canadian national animal of the beaver with one of Japan’s more famous animals. Japan does not technically have a national animal so I had to settle for one most local would recognise  or know form hearing the name. With that I picked the Japanese snow monkey. I had never known about this animal before my stay here but now that I have had the time to research everything about it, It’s got to be said that I’m in love with these monkeys and all the cute photos I keep finding of them. I started to talk about the whereabouts of where each animal lives. Beaver’s ...

I have found a fair number of interesting things and discovered some technologies I did not know existed since my last post. I have again travelled to Akihabara among other places and made yet new discoveries. For example, an arcade piano rhythm game that can sense how far your hand is from the keyboard in order to accommodate an extra dimension of movement into the game. This is interesting to me because, in the past I solely believed and found that Japan pursued the advancement of technology as a side effect of their collectivism in that it helped the greater good. A game like this however, while very fun and interesting, is not helping the greater good in any way and would be quite the costly feat of engineering to accomplish. Why then does such a game exist? The answer is in profits, particularly among hikikomori or NEETs as they are more commonly known as. Any arcade I have gone to in the Tokyo area and particularly in the more otaku type places like Akihabara have been filled w...

In my research, I looked into anime/manga culture and how it began to thrive in Japan.  Before, I had visited Akihabara, which was the hotspot for all anime/manga and otaku culture. Since the past 3 weeks of being here, I was able to visit various places and find anime/manga in lots of different places such as convivence stores, train stations, and around Tokyo. Beforehand, I had not visited Ikebukuro. But, in doing so, I found that it is fairly similar to Akihabara and has a vast amount of anime/manga shops that cater to the otaku culture. However, there are some differences between Ikebukuro and Akihabara. Akihabara is the largest anime/manga hotspot in Tokyo in addition to catering to the more male fans. However, Ikebukuro has a lot of anime/manga as well, but while not being as large it also caters more to females. For example, in Akihabara you may find tons of anime girls or ‘bishoujo’ that are catered towards a more male audience. But in Ikebukuro, there will be a lot of ‘...

Blog Post 3: Hey everyone! Lachlan here to once again talk about my research on Ukiyo-e prints and other experiences in Japan, and more specifically in Tokyo. Since last time I have had time to experience some Ukiyo-e prints in the Tokyo National Museum. Unfortunately with the Japanese presentations and other university-related work I have not been able to see all I had planned to see. Although I have been able to see some street art that I believe has been expanded from the Ukiyo-e style from exploring various places in Tokyo. To understand why Ukiyo-e had an interesting and unique style you had to understand how it was made. Ukiyo-e is made much like a multi-layered stamp. Pieces of wood are carved with the desired outline, ink is then applied to that wood and a piece of paper is pressed onto these wooden pieces to create an outline. This process is then repeated multiple times with different colours and wood blocks until the desired piece is created. Hence, why Ukiyo-e is r...

Since the last post, I’ve done some research by going to Akihabara and seeing the different technologies there and also seeing how people in general interact with technology and what differences exist between Japanese technology and western technology. What I’ve mostly found is that the Japanese people have a very different view of technology in that they are more accepting of new technology and focus more on what the technology can do rather than what it does do. This is a very important distinction to make because western culture focusses a lot on what technology does and is very conservative in terms of exploring what the technology can do. Japan however, being a collectivist society, tries to see what can be done in order to better the community and not just in terms of technology but with everything they do. For example, in the dorms here, there exists a collective understanding that everyone is required to help clean up and beyond that, the people are happy to help. This mindset ...

Today, I’ll discuss some of my own findings and semi-research of my research topic. After exploring different areas of Japan and such, I have already witnessed influence of Japanese pop culture all around. For example, I visited Akihabara which is the main source of pop culture in regards to anime/manga culture. Akihabara started as a district that sold mainly computers and electronics as they began to boom into ‘otaku’ culture. Now, it is filled with not only electronics and miscellaneous goods, but also tons of anime merchandise and maid cafes that cater to ‘otaku’. There are literally floors of shops with so many goods that it’ll literally take hours to search every single shop. You’ll even see girls dressed up as maids often communicating with those passing by to hand out pamphlets to advertise their café. Noticeably, there was plenty of foreigners because this is a hot spot for tourists who visit Japan and enjoy anime/manga. But I didn’t only notice it in Akihabara; there is an ...

Blog Post 2: Hello everybody, Lachlan here to talk about my current research findings on my individual topic of Japanese art. Since my topic is quite broad I am narrowing it down even more so I am able to do more specific and in-depth research. Japanese art has a long history that dates back to the period known as the Jōmon period (10 500 BCE - 300 BCE). Japanese art covers many styles and forms from pottery, sculptures, paintings, calligraphy, origami, and ceramics. Some of the earliest Japanese art being ancient pottery from the original settlers of Japan, the Jōmon people. I am going to focus more on the paintings and their history and their change. Starting with paintings popular paintings from the Edo period such as ukiyo-e also known as woodblock prints and then finishing with the current contemporary modern art. Although I have not been able to observe Japanese traditional art in museums yet, I have noticed the use of traditional art for tourism. Things such as “The Gre...