Japan

Japan is culturally very far from mainland Asia, it has a lot more in common with Europe. Lots of little specialty stores compete along side big chains and traditional culture mixes with an ultra-modern techno fascination. Japan is very clean, very polite and very orderly. Everyday objects are small and efficient. The flora is similar to that I grew up with in New England. Giant crows were everywhere, their wings make a tremendous swooshing noise every time they flap.

For such a modern society there’s a surprising amount of traditional dress. Women wear kimono and wooden sandals. Older guys will wear kimono, happi overcoat and the skirtlike horseman’s pants. Younger guys sometimes will don a happi coat, pantaloons, and two toed boots.

Japan is incredibly safe, they have no crime. All right, no blue collar crime. Honestly, its no blue collar crime against men. Gender relations are still right out of the nineteenth century and sex crimes go largely unreported. The scope of the problem is evident in the “Ladies Only” train cars that are necessary to prevent molestation. That these cars even exist is heralded as a sign of progress!

The Japanese have toked on the confucian pipe a little too long. The desire to constantly improve (kaizen!) and impose order has led to everything natural being tied up. Nothing can be just left alone. Every tree is bound and sculpted with ropes, sometimes just to change a branch angle a couple degrees. Stone animals guarding buildings are leashed as if they might run away.

Novel sized weekly serial comics (manga) are hugely popular. Schoolgirls in the train station read tangled romances with all the brakes off. I couldn’t read the words, but slice and dice samurai, gangster rape and giant-penis-destroys-Tokyo all seemed to be popular themes. Illustrated expression is not limited to narratives. Lots of instructional books are published this way and little drawn people figured into many forms of public communication. There were lots of public notices narrated by illustrated policemen with big heads and small mouths.

Japanese TV is hilarious. One one station you have a quiz show where an automated crotch smashing machine punishes wrong answers, on another there’s animated drama and on yet another we were able to catch the beginning of the Sumo season. Sumo kicks ass. What could be better than a ten second duel between dumptrucks? We watched highlights every night on TV and wanted to go see it live, but Mandy was too sick.
My favorite TV show was a “reality” obstacle show featuring small children. Mom asks the kids to perform a big task all on their own while they are filmed by concealed cameras. In one scenario a five and three year old had to climb up a hill, get on a train and then transfer to a bus to bring their father a helmet at his job. In another episode, two three year old girls had to go buy diapers from the store in the city. These are huge tasks for such little people and the kids get quite stressed out. This show might freak out Americans.