Title: Phasing Through the Reality of What I am Told to Expect While in Japan, to the Reality of What I Will Experience: Looking at the culture in Tokyo's shopping districts through people watching in a way that isn't creepy
-Lisa Khadaran
Of all the things I could write for my final paper, I’ve thought about quite a few ideas that I’d like to write about. Especially since this paper is the foundation for my summer study program, I have two things, at least, that I need to address in this paper. One, the background info on a topic that I’ve researched using the internet, and two, a more in depth look at the topic utilizing my experiences in Japan to fully address my paper. But, still – what do I do my paper? Overall, for the predeparture course, I’ve decided to address the issue of shopping districts in Japan, and while I’ve talked about shopping before in this blog, to address districts is a whole monster on itself, allowing me to discuss instead of how to shop in Japan, where to shop in Japan and a little bit of the history and the people found in these shopping districts. I want to look at the culture that we find in these unique fractions of cities in Japan. Then, using this information, for my final paper after being to Japan, when I have experienced the actual culture of the Japanese shopping districts, I will write about the different people there that we see…yes. I intend to people watch while in Japan, and do a comparison of Japanese people in a shopping district and of American people in their malls.
My inspiration for this topic came when I was Google-ing “things to do in Japan.” Surprisingly, one of the top things that I found was people watching. Please check out http://travelblog.viator.com/top-things-to-do-in-japan/, because people watching is something I do every day already, but it’s such an overlooked source of entertainment in our world filled with electronics, and instant satisfaction, and it’s gotten a negative connotation in American society, which is sad. When people think that someone is a “people watcher”, it’s thought of as creepy, in an, “I don’t want anyone staring at me,” type of way. However, you don’t need to sit in a café and drink a latte and watch people pass by to people watch; there are so many ways to watch people – like, watching your host family interact, or your school mates pass notes, or even watching home movies and viewing photographs of your friends. You don’t have to be a creeper at a café to people watch, because it’s something that everyone does subconsciously without even thinking about it. So, while in Japan, I will be people watching. I want to look at photographs of shoppers, maybe take some of my own of the cos-players, observe the way my peers interact when we visit a shopping district, and then maybe sit down with a latte for an hour at the closest “scramble crossing.” A scramble crossing is just a fancy name for a really, really busy crosswalk. The way it’s been described, I want it to be compared to the crosswalks on 42nd street in New York City. And, Mizenko-sensei, if you think this is creepy, and you think I may frighten people, um…I’ll skip the latte and just stick to watching my peers’ own peer-to-peer interactions.
So, shopping districts. How do they relate? Well, since I’ll be looking at shoppers as my main focus of people watching, I may be able to learn about the types of people I will see in comparison to the type of shopping district they are shopping in. First, Tokyo has a lot of shopping districts, so since the Summer program is just a hop-skip-and-jump away from Tokyo, I feel that it’s imperative that Tokyo’s shopping districts are examined to the best of my ability, using numerous tourists websites. Also, when I use these websites, not only am I seeing what the websites think of the districts in Tokyo, but I will also see pictures of the shoppers. I can make observations of the people I find on these websites, to my own personal people experiences while in Japan. I will essentially be comparing the “reality” of the websites, to the “reality” of my own personal experiences.
In Tokyo, there are numerous shopping districts. Shibuya, Ginza, and Akihabara will be the shopping districts I will be primarily focusing on. Since these shopping districts have their own websites, I thought that the best place to find pictures of people would be on them. Sadly, I was wrong, which is very curious, because you’d expect that the shopping districts would want to have lots of smiling people on their website to encourage shopping. http://www.akiba.or.jp/index.html, Akihabara’s website is sadly devoid of any pictures of people. Akihabara is shopping district where electronic, computer, anime, and otaku goods are found. At first, the district was primarily electronic and computer goods, when the personal computer was introduced, but now it’s a hub for anime and otaku goods. It’s a great place to look if you want that resin bust of a gundam. Interestingly, there is a name for otaku found in Akihabara, and that is Akiba-kie. People who are described by this word are usually middle-aged men who like anime, manga, idols, and videogames. I’m sure not all of the people described by this word are all middle-aged men, however, because they are also described as working around Akihabara, opening shops in the district, and just being historians of the district, so I feel that this term could also be describing an older generation of women, regardless of what Wikipedia defines the word as for me. So, I turned to Google, and looked up images of Akiba-kei (please use safe search when doing this, please. Don’t say I didn’t warn you). I found many pictures, but in particular, I found a video that I think may show the types of people we’ll see if we visit Akihabara.
In this interesting video, a Japanese idol explores the world of Akiba-kei.
Free Video HTML Codes
Shokotan, thinking that she herself was a huge otaku, is surprised by the extremity that the people she meets in Akihabara display. Because of this video, I too expect to see these types of people. Not to say that’s a bad thing, but it’ll be very interesting. And when you consider that it is an idol that is viewing them, is she attracting the many people that cos-play, or are there just normally cos-players everywhere in Akihabara. So, because I am not an idol (…I think, haha) I may not see a man dressed up as Haruhi, or dancing to the Taiko drums. But, I do expect to see some type of fan. Will I see the stereotyped fan? Maybe, and I from what I see now, I can imagine that they will be carrying many packages of fan goods, reading doujin, or even entering a blood bank to have blood taken by nurses in maid costumes (http://www.otaku2.com/articleView.php?item=289).
From Shokotan’s video, I immediately Google-d “Superhero Akiba-kei,” and found a result for an interesting drama. Akihabara@Deep is a J-Drama that focuses on the problems of life in Akihabara and of the otaku that live there. In order to collate the information that we see about the people described in this drama, I wondered if the development team observed Akihabara personally, in other words: did they people watch? Can I expect to see the same type of otaku that they have in their drama if I visited Akihabara? Maybe, especially when Shokotan meets A-Man, a self-proclaimed super hero of Akihabara that goes to street dancing and other performances. So, has A-Man based himself on the characters in Akihabara@Deep, or have the characters from Akihabara@Deep based themselves on the characters running around Akihabara, or other A-Men? In my final paper, after Japan, I plan while in Japan to try to examine this, by maybe visiting Akihabara and watching the drama Akihabara@Deep. From there I can draw my own conclusions based on the reality that I have seen, and not the reality that others have seen (and wow, thanks Visual Culture, because that was really profound).
It isn’t all about Otaku culture though, in the shopping districts. While Akihabara is known for their Otaku culture, Ginza is known for its luxury shopping. There are boutiques, cafes, and several department stores. Now, the type of person I’d expect to see here would be someone very fashionable to match the fashionable architecture. Seldorf, and architecture firm, has an Abercrombie and Fitch in Ginza, that they describe as an “elegant addition” to the area, so I’d expect to see a lot of young women and men in Ginza to be wearing the brand (http://www.selldorf.com/current_work/abercrombie_japan.htm). I’d expect that with these fashionable people, I’d see employees go from their store to lunch and back in crisp suits and dress-suits, much like this man here:
(http://www.picturetokyo.com/sitebuilder/images/CIMG5163-250x187.jpg)
Since there is a SONY store located in Ginza, I’d expect that I’d see people in local cafés to be on handheld game systems, and that I wouldn’t see the “Geek Culture” to the extent that I’d see in Akihabara, even if I saw everyone with a handheld. Now, Ginza is much certainly more refined in what people wear, and how they hold themselves, no adapting to character than Akihabara. There are also more traditional arts available in Ginza, like Kabuki, and there are also very expensive host and hostesses clubs.
But what combines the best of both worlds – Ginza and Akihabara, is Shibuya. Shibuya is a cross between Ginza and Akihabara because it not only attracts the younger generation, but because of the great deal of crowds the shopping district draws, it brings advertisers like SONY that try to appeal to the youth culture (http://www.japaneselifestyle.com.au/tokyo/shibuya.htm).
It’s a subtle balance of advertising and youth-culture that allow for great people watching, as affirmed again by this website’s quote about the dog statue, where Hachiko loyally waited for his owner at the train station until the dog’s death: http://www.japaneselifestyle.com.au/tokyo/shibuya.htm. The statue is typically a meeting place outside the Shibuya Station. Here it is possible to see the interactions between the people that meet there, or so the website says. So, I googled “Hachiko Statue Meeting Place.”
Many websites follow the statue’s name with the words meeting place, and I found this picture:
(http://studio360.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/hachiko-statue.jpg)
This picture does affirm for me that this is a meeting place, and it’s something I’d most certainly like to observe while over in Japan. I can see at least four people behind Hachiko’s statue, what with their arms crossed or in their pockets, look to be waiting. One woman, the one with the gray scarf and the brown shoulder bag has her head turned to the right. She is obviously looking for someone in the crowd, or so the picture tells me. However, the men closest to use, the one smoking and the one crossing his arms, are they really waiting for someone? They could be discussing where they’ll be going shopping next, or trying to decide who’s going to start conversation with the girl with the pink bag to see if they can get her phone number. Because I am actually not in this moment the photo was taken, I cannot confirm, nor deny what they are doing. I think that it’d be interesting to actually observe this place in the district to see how people truly interact in this spot, and not just the pictures from a website. Does everyone that visits this statue really go there as a meeting place? Are there any tourists that go there? Are there those that meet there that are tourists?
Overall, this paper is the foundation of my final paper, where I hope that by seeing how people in shopping districts act using resources that tell me what they think the reality is, when I go to Japan, I can confirm that is, or is not, the reality of what I saw. As well as trying to see how the Japanese interact in shopping districts, I am eagerly wanting to see how my peers as well as tourists act. Will I see a tourist press their face against the glass displays that house the epitome of otaku culture, those cute miniature figurines, or will I see a tourist hold themselves with restraint in what has been deemed the Mecca of Otaku culture – Akibahara. Is it more common to see tourists pull out it their shopping purchases in a Ginza café to compare good, but expensive deals with their friends? After gathering this information while abroad, I hope to be able to relate it to how the population in America acts when going in to our own, much smaller shopping districts. How does the shopping avenues in New York City compare. We see shopping districts all over in Japan, but very few in America, except in very large cities. Shopping, as far as I’ve seen, is a large part of Japanese youth-culture, so I expect that I will see young people in the districts. However, unlike in America, where only the youth “hang out,” not shop, it seems that with the development of Akiba-kei, I should expect to see not only youth “hanging out,” but adults as well. Shopping districts aren’t just for throwing down money in Japan, but they are a popular source of entertainment available for all, which I hope to experience firsthand, and be able to separate the reality that tourist websites tell me is true, and the reality I will know through experience.
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