Toji Temple Market and Kimono

During Spring Break, I also went to the Toji Temple Market. It’s a famous flea market that has been going on for a very long time and it is huge. I arrived at 7:30am (yes, on a Friday; I hate crowds) and it took me until 10:00am to walk the entire thing. All sorts of goods are sold there from food (try the dried strawberries, they’re fantastic) to arts and crafts sold by artisans to antiques to cheap kimono and yukata to “junk” (Friday’s theme seemed to be broken cameras and dust-catching figurines).

Toji Temple at 7:30 in the morning, as seen from the outside. The area was relatively peaceful when I arrived, but I have no other pictures to show for my outing because shortly after entry I’d already bought a wooden box and a birthday present for a friend. Not that it would have mattered because the place was soon so packed with people that you could hardly stand still for two seconds without someone bumping into you…

This is my prized buy of the day and why I recommend that you go to Toji temple. For the set (kimono, haori, obi, and obi-jime), I paid 4,000 yen. But that brings me to my “traditional culture” topic, so we’ll end my experience here and start talking about something a little more anthropological...

Kimono are (of course) the traditional Japanese clothing. Kimono are best seen in Kyoto or in large train stations along the Keihan line. They come in many different forms, patterns, and colors, but no matter what kind of kimono you are wearing, you should never, ever wear your kimono right side over left. Always wear it left over right. Reason? The only time that a kimono is put on with the right side over the left is when dressing a corpse. Thus, to dress that way conveys death.

All of these are types of kimono, though I'm aware you can't see them very well, but this is the only photo I have that does not show the individual's faces clearly. The photo was taken at the international festival last semester. From left to right, the first three are yukata, which is the more casual form of kimono which is usually made of a light-weight material to be worn on casual outings. You generally see these in the summer. The next two are kimono that are usually worn by young men and women, in particular those who are not yet married. For the girl’s kimono, you can tell that it is this type because the sleeves are almost as long as the kimono itself and it is also brightly colored. The last two are a style of formal kimono generally worn to parties and (in the girl‘s case) by older or married women. My kimono is of this third style.

Though the fanciest of kimono are usually made with silk, there is no specific fabric that all kimono are made of. Like I said earlier, yukata are generally made of light, sturdy, breathable fabric (i.e. cotton). I’m not sure what fabric my particular kimono is made of, but at such a cheap price, I’m positive it wasn’t silk. Kimono fabric are generally decorated in patterns that vary from incredibly simple, such as a geometric pattern with little variation in color, to incredibly intricate, such as a pattern that depicts an elaborate scene. Naturally, the more elaborate and colorful the pattern, the more expensive the kimono will usually be.

In modern fashion, the kimono has made a reappearance. In Japan, this new kimono fashion usually looks just like the traditional version (example: kimono seen in Kyoto) and the only modern thing about it is the date in which the kimono was made. But in fashion centers in the west, the kimono is taking new forms. Any shirt that has two panels on the front that cross is now considered “asian inspired,” though the panels may be crossed the wrong way, the neckline is usually lower than the traditional kimono, and the shirt bears little other resemblance to what inspired it. Though these are not “kimono,” they are worth note because they are indeed inspired on the traditional Japanese garment and are bought by westerners as something different, exotic, and perhaps even “oriental.” They re-enforce the West’s stereotypes of the East, and though the stereotypes might seem as harmless as how people dress, they are still shaping how we think…

Ocean, You Meet Engrish

Now that we’re back from Spring Break, it’s time to address a less than pleasant topic--midterms… So, I’ve included an extra post in which I can reminisce my spring break, discuss an aspect of Japanese culture, and avoid studying for those Japanese exams all in one go (yes, I know I’m horrible). It’s too late to count this as my “spring break post” but I thought I’d throw it in anyway to have a temporary (and fun!) distraction.

Found on the front page of the English version of the Kaiyukan aquarium information pamphlet. I ended up staying in the Kansai region over the break, so one of the things I did was go to the aquarium. The entire pamphlet features absolutely fantastic engrish, including “Please enjoy playful sea otters being popular among children,” and “Since large amount of plankton arise, schools of fish swim in this area to look for their foods.”

I want a tasty life. This store has branches all around the Kansai region and they sell all sorts of trendy stuff, from clothing to plants to dishes, to objects that would be in the “home” department of most US department stores. They have a pretty good advertising campaign going, I mean, who wouldn't want a tasty life?

A typical engrish shirt. Engrish is fashionable in Japan, much like kanji is fashionable in the US. I’d like to note that I’m not here to make fun of Japan for their bad English; after all, English is a very hard language to learn and I really have no right to talk since my own English grammar can be just as bad and my Japanese could use some work. The point is that in Japan, English is fashionable to the point where it’s not so much the meaning of the words that matters but the fact that English is on the item in question at all. And in all honesty, our kanji-fied clothing is usually just a whole bunch of pretty kanji slapped together with no consideration to the kanji's real meaning anyway, and what the Japanese are doing with English is no different. The only difference is that in Japan, english as fashion has expanded outside of clothing and onto other objects as well, such as information pamphlets, home decor, and store mottos.

Hello Kitty!

When I was very little, I used to love going to the mall to visit the Sanrio store. They had all sorts of wonderful things to catch the interest of a very little girl. They had cute and colorful pencils that captured the mind of a kid who was just learning to read and write, school supply sets that matched and were decorated with a cute little kitty-cat with a red bow, and stickers. I remember the stickers the most because they were only 15 cents for twenty of them and they were shiny and they were decorative and they were of ponies, and oh goodness how much I loved them. And all the time, I had no idea that I was visiting a store that had it’s origins in Japan. Quite honestly, at that time I had no idea that there even was a country called Japan.

I guess Sanrio wasn’t getting enough business in Eastern Tennessee (everything but the stickers seemed overly expensive, but that might just be the impression of a little girl just learning how to count money) and they eventually shut down all their shops. As far as I know, Sanrio stores don’t exist in America anymore (at least not in the cities I’ve been to). Now, Hello Kitty is best found in a cutesy store that sells Breyer horse figurines, collectable dolls, beanie babies, angel figurines and those collectable miniature buildings that most people just display around Christmas, or in garage sales and flea markets, if you don’t mind your Hello Kitty second-hand. But in Japan…

Hello Kitty occupies a much wider market in Japan. Go to any city in Japan and there will be a Hello Kitty keitai strap to commemorate your visit to that city. Some are easier to understand, such as the Osaka Hello Kitty, while others require a little more thought, for instance, Hiroshima Hello Kitty is riding on a dove. But this isn’t just any dove, this dove has a green plant sticking out of its mouth. So, to me, the Hiroshima Hello Kitty seems more like a Noah’s Ark Hello Kitty than anything else, but when you visit Hiroshima Peace Park, the dove suddenly makes sense. Hello Kitty keitai straps aren’t limited to cities though; there are plenty of other varieties…

I bought this the day I arrived in Japan and I had no idea what it was except that it had Hello Kitty on it. But, I liked how it looked. I’m sure someone will give me the correct Japanese name for this thing, but this is basically the instrument used at temples and shrines in Japan to give you your fortune. Whenever I shake it, it always gives me the “best” fortune so I thought it was rigged until someone else tried it and got a different fortune. Maybe it just likes me.

Your local Sanrio Store, found in Shinsaibashi. This picture is a bit old (it's decked out for Halloween) but it illustrates my point. I have never seen a sanrio store on this sort of scale before. The Shinsaibashi branch has three stories of Hello Kitty stamped on everything imaginable. I’m pretty sure I saw the kitchen sink in there too.

I bring Hello Kitty up in relation to Japanese culture for a two reasons. First, Hello Kitty is obviously from Japan and has been exported all over the world (globalization!). But secondly (and perhaps more importantly), after exportation, Hello Kitty takes on a slightly different meaning (at least in America). For instance, after Sanrio decreased their number of stores in America in the early 1990s, there was a period of time in which Hello Kitty or any Sanrio products could be found. When Hello Kitty resurfaced, most Americans remembered her from their childhood and thus think of Hello Kitty as a child’s product. Though adults in America still buy some Hello Kitty products, this is mainly done out of nostalgia for our childhood and having too many Hello Kitty products is generally seen as being really childish and almost immature. Several other items from our childhood suffer the same fate (I’ll cite My Little Pony, Littlest Pet Shop, Polly Pockets, and several other toys as my examples); most have been revived because the generation that played with them as kids are beginning to have children of their own and want to pass on the joys of their own childhood to their children.

In Japan, there wasn’t a temporary disappearance of Hello Kitty, so Hello Kitty doesn’t strictly occupy the childhood niche she holds in America. It is perfectly acceptable in Japan to be collecting the Hello Kitty City Keitai straps even as an adult, to have a Hello Kitty eyeglass case (such as the eldest of my two host sisters), to proudly carry a Hello Kitty handbag (as I saw someone doing this morning) or to own other Hello Kitty products.

When in Doubt, Just ask... in Japanese

(edit: completed April 15th)

So, I’m a little behind on this post because I had so much trouble trying to make a huge statement about Japanese people in general. I just couldn’t think of any true statement for all forms of Japanese people. Hence, for this post I’m not trying to make some all-encompassing statement about all Japanese people (I feel that’s impossible). Instead I’d like to just talk about how really helpful most Japanese people have been to me during my travels.

Now I’m sure that most of us have the same basic horror story. You’re lost, trying to find your way to Kyoto station from Gojo station on the Keihan line, and you stop to ask for directions in Japanese. The nearest person is an old lady but when you speak to her, her automatic response is “I don’to supeeku engrish!” You tell her a few times (in Japanese) that Japanese is okay. She repeats her remark in English and finally runs away so you feel bad because you scared some poor obaasan because you spoke to her. It’s not pleasant and it’s certainly not helpful. Though it would be interesting to find out why she reacted like that. Unfortunately, we can’t ask her because “she doesn’t speak English.”

Fortunately, most of the people I run into while exploring Japan are not at all like this woman. Most of my interactions with Japanese people outside of Kansai Gaidai have been positive.

For instance, whenever I go somewhere with a friend and start taking photos, inevitably a complete stranger will come up and ask if we would like them to take a photo for us. This never happens in the US. That’s not to say that people in the US are mean and wouldn’t take a photo for you, it’s just that I have never had a person come up to me in the US and offer to take a photo for me. Instead, you usually have to ask someone yourself. But in Japan, almost anywhere I go and start taking photos, someone will ask me if I’d like their help. And the photos usually turn out pretty good too.

On top of that, if you know how to ask in Japanese, a Japanese person will usually be more than willing to take a photo with you. Maybe that’s because I sometimes go to some touristy places (What? Kyoto and Osaka Castle? Touristy? Of course not!) where people are used to being asked if they’ll take a photo with you. I’d rather think it’s because in general, most Japanese are just really friendly people.

I hate to say it, but not sure why these girls are dressed this way. Heather and I were too busy being excited about the fact that the one girl is wearing a top hat with her kimono that it was only ten minutes after leaving that I thought we should have asked why they were dressed as such. But they were most gracious to give us a photo anyway. Told us (like most Japanese people will if you speak in Japanese, even if you just say thank you) that our Japanese was good. We of course denied it.

And then there are these experiences that make me truly love Japanese people. This man and his wife met us (Heather and I) during our Saturday trip to Kyoto, where they asked us to take a photo of them together with Kyoto in the background. By the way, we were seated on the observatory deck at Shorennin Shogun-zuka, which is a temple located at the top of a mountain in Kyoto, near Kiyomizudera. After Heather took a photo for them, they came over and talked to us (complete strangers) for at least an hour telling us all sorts of interesting sights in Kyoto by pointing them out below and telling us the best way to get there, explaining some of the history of the temple, when the light-up would be at each place, including Shorennin, and at the very end even offered us a ride back down the mountain (we respectfully declined). I thought it was very kind of them to talk to the foreign strangers sitting in a little-known temple taking photos. Though the husband spoke some English, most of the conversation was in simple Japanese. They were very kind and helpful, and told us all sorts of interesting things without us even really asking.

I guess the point is that though we are often afraid to ask Japanese people for anything because we might be too shy or don’t have enough Japanese vocabulary, Japanese people (at least those I have met) are generally more than willing to help us. It surprised me a lot when I first came here because they seem even more willing to help than most people I’ve met in the US. Of course, you might still meet the little old lady that tells you that she doesn’t speak English even when you tell her in Japanese that you can understand Japanese and Japanese is okay for her to use, but more often than not, you’ll meet people like the couple we met in Shorennin. When in doubt, just ask. In Japanese.