changing impressions of Japan

Through the class, Visual Anthropology of Japan, the changes which happened to me was that I’ve got to see the stuffs around myself critically having wonder. Around the time that I started this kind of activity, I didn’t have any habit to take a picture constantly and any idea how to deal with that unfamiliar subject, so I guess the things that I tried to capture at the beginning was the major representative Japanese culture, like this photo, or the scenery apparently recognized as Japan, but I just realized I could find something that really represent Japan easier by getting some ideas to compare Japan with others and objectively seeing something Japanese thinking how “Gaizins” would feel about it because, for native Japanese me, it takes a long way to have a wonder in my life. 

I ran into it at Hirakata station. It is the umbrellas for someone who doesn’t carry it when it rains from lovely consideration. I thought it represented kindness of Japanese.

Another thing that I learned through the blog activity was the importance and respect for neighbors. Before I start blogging, neighbors were just neighbors, and I was thinking I would not get anything from them. When I had research for blog post 2 and 7, I had the chances well enough to talk with the neighbors who were so familiar with the area. They always gave me some direction or deep ideas that could be helpful to get familiar with the place more than I research by myself, and, to be honest, I was getting to find the interaction with the neighbor fun these days. When they tell the histories or background behind the blog topic, I could know how they felt then and the notion which included others’ who live around there also at the meantime. That made my understanding for my topic deeper and reasonable, and I felt like I was watching a short documentary movie and thought to collect information through a neighbor is the only thing Japanese can do, but one thing I regret is that I was short of the ability to write it down on the blog. I feel sorry for that. Anyway, it was good to get the opportunity to face and think of my own culture and find the method to reach, abstract subject, Culture.