They say you can only ever have one first impression, but in this blog entry I am going to debate this fact by arguing the fact that I have been able to get two different “first impressions” of Japan and Japanese culture.
Currently I am a second semester international student at Kansai Gaidai University in Osaka prefecture Japan (this blog is actually part of one of my classes) but this isn’t my first time coming to and experiencing Japan, when I was 18 years old I made my first trip to Japan through a youth exchange program, and upon landing in Narita airport in Tokyo I was itching to get out there and experience Japan. No matter what time it was, what the weather was like or even how tired I was.
But instead my first experience in Japan was locked up in a hotel room (that we weren’t allowed to leave) and waking up to this view.
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| not exactly a wonderful sight |
But I managed to cope with this negative first impression and more than lack lustre sight, because I was going to catch another plane to Osaka then a train to Fukui, a small country prefecture in Japan that I had honestly never heard of before.
The plane trip itself was rather uneventful apart from seeing Mount Fuji and watching a fellow Australian shamelessly flirt with the flight attendants.
But it was on the train ride from Osaka to Fukui that I saw what will always remain one of my strongest memories of Japan.
Before going under a short tunnel the view around me looked like this
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| pretty nice, green and normal right? |
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| so much snow, I was stunned |
To this day I look back on that moment in wonder, not only was it the first time that I had even seen snow in my life (because I am Australian) but also the first time I had witnessed just how flawlessly and suddenly things in Japan could change
The rest of my time in Fukui I literally and honestly had a wonderful time, I meet so many wonderful and kind people, as well as a few people who were much less than pleasant, and because Fukui is a smaller country prefecture I got to experience many different things.
My impression remains today, that the Japan I experienced in Fukui was filled (mostly) of great people, I got to experience many things that people would associate more with the western idea of “traditional Japan” where I spent time either looking after and playing with children or talking to the older adults because there was really no youth culture (in the area of Fukui I was living in for a majority of the time) that I could inject myself into, but still managed to have a wonderful time.
But moving to the present day.
Well let’s not quite say the present day, more so around seven months ago when I arrived in Japan to start my year study abroad in Kansai Gaidai.
I think this is really an example that the impression of where you are, and in one context you are entering a culture can change the perspective and impressions.
Because literally as soon as I entered Japan this time, and even more so when I entered Kansai Gaidai I realized the “cool young” Japan that I had previously missed out on.
Where smoking is cool, because all the cool kids do it (plus there are even special flavours!!!!)
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| dont follow my lead kiddies, its a bad thing, even if all the cool kids are doing it! |
Everyone takes fashion very seriously, every aspect of it, but somehow everyone’s fashion styles seem to somehow stand out but fit together all at the same time
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| who ever said a girl could own too many pairs of earings~ |
Where people are one moment loud and crazy, then relaxed and chilled the next
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| after a hard day of classes (the ones that actually were attened anyway) and probably more than a healthy amount of smokes! |
But with all of this being said, even though the I had many different experiences due to the youth culture that I was surrounded in this time around, I was still able to see many of the more traditional aspects of Japan, and much like Japan I once again realized I was surrounded by many amazing and kind people (along with a hand full of less than pleasant people)
But after all of this, what I am trying to say with all of this is that I think you can have two first impressions of the same country depending on in which context you enter it and what sub culture you enter it in.
But if I needed to make one general first impression on Japan, I would need to go back to my first memory of Japan with the tunnel and the snow.
Japan is a country that can change/shift in the blink of the eye, even the way it moves between the old and the new so seamlessly can be considered part of this amazing skill.
And I shall leave this blog entry with this last picture
(sorry if this was a long and drawn out read, next one will be shorter ne~~~)
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| expect anything in japan, and always carry a camera, never did I expect to see a chicken standing ontop of the roof of the car in one of downtown Osaka's busiest area's |
