東京の市区町村 Madi

Living here is honestly becoming something I would like to do all the time. I hope in the future I will be able to live in a Japanese city because I genuinely feel at home here.
So far in Tokyo I have been to several different districts. Today I'm going to talk about them and also the fact I'm pretty intrigued there are such distinct districts in Tokyo and they all seem to have different cultures and feelings surrounding them.

The first place I had the pleasure to explore was Harajuku. Harajuku is known for fashion, and not just your run of the mill fashion. It's known for the extreme styles you can find in Tokyo and the different cultures surrounding them. Even upon walking out of the train station we saw someone decked out in Decora and also a Gyaru. Decora is the fashion of decoration and takes accessories and the like to an extreme. It was really amazing to see so close, it was honestly so cute and fun. The gyaru was exactly what I would have expected. Gyaru's are a slang for the word Gal and usually includes tanning, intense makeup, blonde hair, and the such. They clothes are usually both sexy and colorful and some people tend to compare gal's to the ditzy blonde american stereotype. While we were in Harajuku we went into many shops to see the different styles that exists as well as having crepes which is also a famous activity there. There were an unbelievable amount of people there but in the end it was super fun. The energy in Harajuku was fun and excitable which was special to experience.

Takeshita Street in Harajuku - Taken by me

The next district I was able to visit was Shinjuku. Shinjuku was the district I think that truly had the feeling of a city. It was filled with tall buildings, big shopping centres, and more along those lines. The train station is among the busiest in the world so it is a bit hectic walking around but once you get out into the street it's amazing. What was truly breathtaking and special to me was just walking around at night. The lights from signs and buildings created an interesting atmosphere but in a way it made me feel lively and comfortable. Unlike Calgary I felt safe walking around at night and enjoyed my afternoon and night exploring Shinjuku and the shops around there. Shinjuku is also the closest Tokyo district to us so we pass by a lot. I think it has an atmosphere of sophistication and liveliness, and I'd love to return again and again.

Shinjuku at Night - Taken by me

The last district I'm going to talk about is Ikebukuro. This has been my favorite palce to visit in Tokyo I think. It was again a very energetic, lively place but in a slightly different way. It has become a place for female fans of idols and anime. Being one myself it was pretty ideal to go and visit. There were shops lining the streets as well as game centers. There is also a large aquarium near the station. It was amazing to me so many things like this existed so close to each other. I could probably go their for days and not get bored.I  loved it so much, that a place for fun and enjoyment existed inside the city. Even if it existed for fun it still had the feeling of an organized and functional city. It was so special to me.

A cafe truck in Ikebukuro - Taken by Me

Besides these places I have been to Asakusa and Roppongi but did not have a chance to fully experience it.

Mori Tower view in Roppongi - Taken by me

The shrine at Asakusa - Taken by me

I also have plans to go to other places like Shibuya and Akihabara which will also be lively experiences. It's our last couple weeks in Japan so I hope I can continue to make lots of fun memories!
Madi
ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ

多文化主義 (その一)

After a rough 11 hour flight, we arrived safely at Narita airport on Thursday, May 09, 2019. I have been on many airplane rides, since I was three years old, and I could say that plane ride was the worst I’ve ever been in. The lift off was a little shaky, turbulence a few times over the span of 11 hours and the landing was something out of the TV documentary series called Mayday.
The first thing I realized after landing was that a majority of the people lining up for customs were tourists from China or Hong Kong. Majority of the travellers were speaking either Mandarin or Cantonese loudly and only a few were speaking other languages. Another thing I noticed during my wait in customs were that most of the Japanese workers were quite fluent in either English or Chinese. It seems that being fluent in either Chinese or English is a very important asset when it comes to getting a job in the airport.
I have lived here for almost a week now and have travelled to a few places around Tokyo. During my adventures around Tokyo, I’ve seen a lot of restaurants selling food from different cultures. There is an Indian curry restaurant on Senshu Ikuta campus, a Chinese restaurant near Mukōgaoka-Yūen Station, an Italian-Japanese fusion udon restaurant in Shibuya and many American fast food places like McDonald and KFC. If the interview done by The Japanese Man Yuta stands true with the general consensus of Japanese people, it is very interesting to see so many different cultures representing their food. The restaurants aren’t even unpopular, which is very surprising. A lot of the Senshu students recommend going to the Indian curry restaurant as it is delicious and cheap. It is interesting how so many cultures are exposed to the Japanese people via their food and restaurants.
Another interesting information I found through speaking to the Senshu students were how excited they are when it comes to speaking to foreigners and how most of them would like to travel abroad for school to experience a different culture. I am not yet sure if this is because the students at Senshu University have the opportunity to interact with foreigners, thus being more open to accepting different cultures or if it’s because they are of a younger generation than the people in The Japanese Man Yuta’s video. Another interesting thing is that a lot of the students are very eager to learn English while in The Japanese Man Yuta’s video, all of the interviewees were unwilling to learn English and felt that it was too hard of a task.
To summarize my findings thus far: the Japanese people are exposed to many different cultures because of the amount of different restaurants opening in busy areas of Tokyo and, majority of the Japanese students are eager to learn about different cultures and would like to study abroad to experience that culture first-hand. Because I’ve only been in Japan for about a week, I haven’t had much time to gather more information. I hope to further experience the different cultures Japan has to offer.

- サミー

日本の仕事の影響（その一）

After a ten hours flight, our group had finally arrived Japan. After we got to the airport, the weather of Japan is completely different from the weather in Calgary. The temperature is like more than twenty degrees and kind of wet. By the way, Calgary was still snowing a few days ago before we left. The Senshu University is far away from the airport so we had to take a two and halt hours bus for getting to school. And I discovered something according to the bus tour.

First, the roads in Japan are really narrow and the cars are pretty small. Japan is a country has huge population and small area; therefore, Japanese people organize their land their detailed as they can. On one hand, small cars have low carbon dioxide output which is good for the environment. On another hand, the small cars and roads make build a highway inside city possible. When we drove though Tokyo, the highway is inside the city and have several levels for different transition, such that the train and cars can move at the same time in different level. However, the small cars still unable to prevent the moth during the rush hours. If there is a car accident taking place somewhere on the road, the traffic will be stopped. So that’s why a lot of Japanese people never drive their car for going to work, instead of taking train.

My research topic is how Japanese career and workers influence the whole Japanese society and people’s lifestyle, after a week of observation in Japan, I discovered something. First, Japanese people are always serious for everything in their daily life and they are always focus on their uniform, so, many people with their suit stand on the train is the most common view I saw in my daily life. During the rush hours, Japanese people are pretty organized and following the rule when they are taking the train. And thing that make me shocked is that even around the midnight at about eleven o’clock at night, the train is still packed by people who just finish their works. Japanese people are really earnest so that they are always finish the work at the same day of the working ‘deadline’, that one of reason that why Japanese people always work overtime to finish their jobs. Second, the Japanese people, especially for the young people, are usually getting food from convenient store, such as Seven-eleven, or Lawson. Their lifestyle has been changed strongly that they always do not have time to make their lunch or dinner. When I go to convenient store for some snacks, I always see something people with suite are buying bento box or people who is carrying a plastic bag with their food and going back home. For those young workers, making dinner is hard for them and is kind of ‘waste’ their time for taking rest. And last, when I was buying novels in a anime store, I saw a lot of people with suite are also hanging around in that store. Since anime is so common in Japan, it is not wired for Japanese people buy some manga or novels to read when they are taking the train which will never happen in other country like China and Canada.

Since I only live in Japan for a week, I am unable to make more research because the time limit. But, in the future, I will go to more place to discover more about how jobs change Japanese people.

Foreign Tourism #2 Joshua Schultz

Blog Post 2: Electric Boogaloo 

Alright, so first week in Japan is done. Research on foreign tourism has proven pretty fruitful here and a lot of fun stuff has happened. I’ve already made a trip to Akihabara to examine the Moe culture movement there and the Gaijin influence in the region. As I had expected, there were many gaijin in the area and some interesting interactions occurred there: surprisingly to me, most of the Gaijin otaku kept to themselves and didn’t cause any problems. However, I realize as I write this that those were the experienced Gaijin otaku who had already learned from their mistakes. The newer, ill adapted and henceforth titled “fresh off the boat” Gaijin otaku were the ones to cause issues. For example, one attempting to bargain at an anime shop to buy more “waifu worship statues” (anime figurines) for his collection. The shopkeeper, as you can imagine, was not thrilled to have to deal with this obnoxious Gaijin and tried to remove him from the establishment when his obstinance became insufferable. 

Another example was a large group of fresh off the boat Gaijin tourists in Shinjuku: they blocked off the entrance to the station as a large swarm while attempted to gather their bearings. One of the station attendants took notice of this and attempted to send them on their way, but due to the language barrier they simply sat there dumbstruck. He attempted further to scatter them and, in his frustration began to yell, to which the largest of the men in the group began to yell back and the exchange nearly came to blows. The result of this was thankfully anticlimactic as the girls pulled him back and they moved on to harass other unsuspecting locals. The culture of systemic passivity in Nihonjin does not, as I’ve learned, mix well with the typical quick temper and high aggression of many Western men and women.  

I’ve also done some more preliminary research into issues involving gaijin in Japan and discovered that the crime rates involving gaijin, as opposed to local Nihonjin, were typically much higher per capita. Gaijin have been found to both cause and be victims of crimes on a much higher average than Nihonjin, likely due to the lack of cultural understanding. In particular, theft related crimes rank as one of the most frequent due to the cliché gullibility and lack of caution on the part of the tourists visiting the country. Purse snatching is a big issue as women tend not to watch their bags as carefully as they should in such a seemingly benign country. It’s very important that Gaijin remember to exercise caution here too, as despite the structure of Japanese society people are still human and some will choose to operate maliciously. 

To briefly wrap up the findings so far: things don’t look good for the newly introduced Gaijin in Japan. They tend to try to operate by their own cultures and social devices and ultimately cause harm, frustration and criminal activity to occur. There are many experienced Gaijin that do not contribute to this problem, however. That said, if people do their research and homework Japan could rest easy knowing that Gaijin won’t destroy the country. 

東京での最初の経験 - Madi

We arrived in Japan around 6 days ago and I’m going to talk about the first things I’ve noticed about Japanese city life. So the first parts of my research will be in the field looking at different places in the city of Tokyo and how people act and live their lives. The first full day we were in Japan we went on a bus tour of Tokyo with the stops being the Mori Tower at Roppongi Hills, Asakusa, and The Hilton on Tokyo Bay. We passed by the Rainbow Bridge among other landmarks. It was an amazing way to drive through the city and be able to see lots of different sights. I can’t imagine what seeing all of Tokyo is like, since seeing just this bit was incredible to me. The city seems to have a lot of structure which is needed since so many populate the city. With the amount of people it was surprising that it didn’t feel crowded or uncomfortable. Sometimes the trains and stations are a bit messy but everyone knows where they need to go and how the walking should flow so even as a foreigner it was easy to fall into place. The city is built in such a way that every space seems to have a purpose. I’ve seen rooftop gardens and different styles of building made to fit in between gaps of others. It’s a new concept to me to see all the space being used as it isn’t seen a lot in Calgary where I’m from.

For Tokyo at least the newer city is mixed with the old city seamlessly and it’s unique to be able to go and experience a historical place like shrines right in the heart of such a busy and modern city. Being able to go somewhere like Asakusa or the Meiji Shrine so easily was mind-blowing in a way to me. The people who live here can go places like that almost anytime and we saw a lot of locals while we were there as well. It’s interesting I was able to see that people took time out of their busy schedule to go to these places and either remember their ancestors or gods or ask for help from them. Where I’m from I don’t think people would do that or even think of doing something like that, so it’s really nice to see something so different here.

So far the Japanese city life seems to be very busy but in a organized way and also there are opportunities for people to relax and go back to their roots. It may be fast paced and exhausting lifestyle here but they make sure that everyone has a place and there are ways to escape from it from time to time. The city seems to be well thought out in a way people can live comfortably.

I will continue to explore and experience the city while also beginning to do research online on Japanese city life in other cities among other things.
Madi

(●≧ω≦)9 - マディ

スティーブンの自己紹介

　　Hello, everyone. My name is Quanzhi Zhang and my English name is Steven. This is my third year in University of Calgary, and my major is computer science. Although I am taking computer science for my major, I am very interested in Japanese culture so that why I am also thinking Japanese courses from university. I was born in China and I have been Canada for seven years, so actually my first language is Chinese, and Japanese should be my third language. I start learning Japanese from the winter term in 2017 so I have been learning Japanese in university for 2 years. My interests of Japanese culture are almost from the videos and books I read about Japan when I was young. When I was in high school, I spend a huge amount of time watching anime and manga and light novel and for learning about Japan deeply, I began to do some research about Japanese culture from books and internet  because I know the topic of anime and manga are from the opinion and idea of the author and their thought are influenced by Japanese culture and society.

　　This is my first time traveling to Japan, so I feel very excited about it. Although I learn a lot of things from the internet about Japanese society and culture, it still cannot compare with going into the country and see everything by my own eyes. When I was watching anime and read novels, and I am keeping imaging what is Japan looks like in the real world. And I am also really interested in Japanese food because all the videos I watch about the food all around the world strongly recommend the Japanese cuisine. The Japanese food combines many different countries’ cuisine and add their own local understanding and tradition of the food to create delicious Japanese foods. However, the imagination is usually different from the reality, so I cannot have the same feeling until I taste true Japanese food by myself. By the way, I have a little goal for this trip is that I want to try all the convenient store food in Tokyo. I have many motivations before I go to Japan and those goals had been created for very long time, so I am really looking forward to travelling to Japan. On one hand, I can experience the Japanese culture in Tokyo. On another hand, this experience can help me plan if I want to work or study in Japan after I graduate from University of Calgary.

　　Since I am interested in Japanese life, my topic for the project will mainly focus on the impact of Japanese different career to individuals in Japan. I want to discover that how Japanese jobs influence individuals’ lifestyle. From this research, I might find out am I able to work or study in Japan or not in the future and which kind of person will perfectly fit into Japanese society environment.

I am excited for this program and I believe I will find much more new things than I thought in Japan.

初めまして、私はスティーブンともします、よろしくお願いいたします。私はカルガリー大学の三年生て、専攻はコンピューター科学です。趣味は日本のアニメと漫画と小説と料理ですから、今回の旅がすごく期待しています。私が日本語を勉強し始めたのは二年前のことでした。日本語は素晴らしい言語と思って、今はも勉強しています。私のプロジェクトのテーマは「日本の仕事は人々の生活にとって、何の影響がります」ということですから、たくさんの調査をするつもりです。よろしくお願いします。

サマンサの自己紹介

Hello! My name is Samantha Hau and I am a fourth year East Asian Studies student at the University of Calgary. Ever since I was little, I have always had an interest in Japanese culture and entertainment. I grew up watching anime and enjoying Japanese music as a child. I remember coming home from school and immediately turning on my computer to binge watch anime until it was time to sleep. Although I had stopped watching anime in recent years, I instead have moved on to appreciate the mannerisms of Japanese people and enjoyed researching the history of Japanese people. I also have taken great interest in Japanese games like Final Fantasy series, Samurai Warrior series and other MMORPG games.

I traveled to Japan for the first time back in 2008 with my family. It was an enjoyable time but also a stressful one as my mother and brother both lack directional skills so I was assigned to look out for them. Because I had to spend a lot of my time searching for my brother and mother, I regrettably did not have much fun or time to take in the scenery and culture around me. This time around, I am determined to enjoy myself and make lots of happy memories! I am fortunate enough to be able to stay an extra three weeks after the Senshu program so I hope to travel across Japan to experience the different aspects of Japanese culture. I will be traveling up north towards Sendai and Miyagi prefecture to stay with my cousin who is currently teaching English there to experience the countryside lifestyle. Afterwards, I plan to travel to Kyoto and Osaka to tour the amazing historic sites there. I hope to in the future find a job in Japan or teach English so I can enjoy the culture to the fullest for an extended period.

My topic for this Senshu trip will mainly focus on multicultural societies in Japan. Being an East Asian Studies student, multiculturalism fascinates me. I enjoy seeing how different cultures integrate themselves into a foreign country and how they thrive in a country away from home.

はじめまして！　私は、カルガリー大学美術学部東アジア研究４年のサマンサとお申します。専修大学で日本語と日本文化を勉強するのを楽しみにしています。たくさん美味しい食べ物を食べたり、新しい友達を作ったりしたいです。日本にデザートとラーメンはとても美味しそうです。たくさん楽しみにをしましょう！よろしくお願いします。