Changing Impressions

Looking back trough my blog posts, remembering my first impressions when I arrived in Japan and the Impressions I have gotten throughout my semester here there are things that have changed and things I have realized along the way.

One of my main impressions now is not an early impression that has changed as much as it is something I was not really aware of before. This is how there in Japan and it's culture seem to be a lot of contradictions. In class we have talked about the "Shy Japan/Sexy Japan" and how many Japanese are non-religious but still take part in, and practice different Shintoist and Buddhist ceremonies.

An impression that has changed is how I, in the beginning of my stay in Japan, felt somewhat distanced from the Japanese because I felt bad for not speaking the language and because of that, I found it hard to talk to people who did not know a lot of English (most people outside the University) and I also was not sure how to approach people outside of school. One of the many things I had heard before I came here is that many Japanese  is reserved and the last thing I wanted  to do was to come of as impolite. 

But as time went by and I started to learn some Japanese I realized that a smile and putting some effort into trying to talk Japanese often will make things easier than I thought. Even though I am just a Level 1 student of Japanese, people would appreciate my trying and this has many times lead to relatively long, and very rewarding conversations. 

I think that realizing this is the big reason (besides the fact that I really enjoy learning the language) I have decided to keep studying Japanese In Sweden. I do not know when I will be back in Japan the next time but I know that I will be better prepared, and talk to a lot more people.

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Saru, one of the many interesting people I have met and talked to in Japan.

I also think about all the things I expected Japan to be before I got here, because Japan really is one of those countries that you have a certain picture of before you get here. And I think that Japan is a lot of the things I expected, but different. Therefore I want to sum up my experiences with a picture I took in Shibuya.

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I think Shibuya Square is one of the things that really comes to peoples minds when they think about Japan, and it was one of the places I knew I wanted to see before I got here. From movies and pictures we all recognize it as a crowded place with a lot of people in motion. It was what I had expected, but it was raining, all the people had umbrellas which made it look very different from the mental image I had in my head. It was what I had expected, but different.

Nankinmachi

Nankinmachi, The Chinatown of Kobe is, after the one in Yokohama, the second largest Chinatown in all of Japan. Originally, it was a residential area for Chinese who arrived after the port of Kobe opened for foreign trade, and today, more than 10 000 people of Chinese origin lives here.


As you walk the lively streets of Nankinmachi, you see some things that seem somewhat authentic. There are small stores for herbal medicine, countless small wagons where different kinds of Chinese food and snacks are sold and small grocery stores where everything needed for Chinese cuisine can be found.

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Termites and Ginseng at a Chinese pharmacy, genuinely Chinese or not?

But there are even more things that makes the place look like a tourist trap, souvenir shops where everything from yellow jumpsuits like the one worn by Bruce Lee to dumpling keyrings and plastic Buddhas. There were also stereotypical symbols for China everywhere, pandas, dragons and Bruce Lees are looking at you from everywhere.

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Coca-Cola: The Chinese version

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Bruce Lee sourrounded by all kinds of not very authentic looking things.

For me it was very interesting to see this representation of another culture in Japan, with things that actually seemed, and in many ways might have been, authentic right next to the cheap looking things part of the constructed image that might give people what they are expecting when they go sightseeing in Chinatown.


This constructed image of China made me think about "The Japanese Version" which we watched in class. But instead of the "longing" for things American described in the movie, I think that the constructed China in Nankinmachi is something that let's the Japanese (or citizens of whatever country a Chinatown might be located in) tourist in their own country.


I think that since there are people who are ethnically Chinese living here, it is bound to be at least some amount of "genuine" Chinese culture to be found. At the same time, if the constructed image of China is what sells, you will see a lot of things like that around.

Trash

One of the first thing I, and probably other foreigners arriving in Japan as well, found fascinating was how the separation and handling of trash here seems to be an entire science. Even if trash in Sweden (where I come from) is also in  large extent separated, it is not done with the same carefulness  as here.

The way trash is handled, the garbage trucks you see in the streets of the neighborhood almost every time you set foot outside the seminar house, and the fact that Japan, even with the lack of trash bins, seems to be extremely clean, gave me the notion that Japan is like that, clean and without littering. The strict regulations is also something that strikes me as different, during the orientation at Kansai Gaidai we were told that since the trash has to be packed in transparent bags, it will be noticed if the trash is not separated correctly, and if that is the case, the bag will not be picked up by the garbage trucks. We also learned that incorrect sorting of garbage is one of the main reasons for tension between neighbors in Japan.

The other day I took a long walk with my camera towards the small mountain range south of the University and I ended up walking along not too heavy trafficked road running along a small river. Along this road I found dumped trash in all forms and sizes.
I found bicycles, motorbikes, kitchen appliances, a creepy-looking heap of toys, and pretty much everything imaginable in the ditches and clusters of vegetation close to the road.

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Smashed TV.

The reason for at least many of this things being dumped like this is probably the Japanese recycling law, which means that consumers have to bring their used products to certain take-back sites and pay collection and recycling fees to the retailers who on their part has the responsibility to recycle these objects. Since there are fees for these services, some people might just find it a better idea to dump their garbage in a place they figure they will not be caught.

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One of several motorbikes I found on my walk.

When I did my research for this post, I came upon this article about a very creative way to make people think a second time before the throw their things out in the nature, an interesting idea but not a solution to the problem.

Leafs in Japan

After spending some time in Japan, I started to find is strange that imagery of suspicious looking leafs seemed to be found everywhere. I saw them In logotypes, as decoration in shopwindows and even in the prepackaged food at the local supermarket.

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The main reason I found this strange was because of the information about Japanese drug laws i got from Kansai Gaidai and the Japanese embassy in Sweden before i came here, which suggested that drugs are not looked light upon in Japan, arrests like this one also shows how serious drug use is looked upon here, if someone would even be arrested for such a small quantity in USA or Europe, it would most likely not lead to an article in the newspapers. 

The Cannabis leaf is, besides somewhat of an icon to stoners worldwide, also strongly connected to Reggae music, I think that for some people the leaf might even be more of a symbol for reggae than for drugs, even if there also is a strong connection between all three. I have seen several small stores here that among the souvenirs and knick-knacks they are selling have Reggae/Cannabis themed lighters, T-shirts and many other things. 

On one of my train rides from Hirakata to Osaka, I saw a very professional looking middle-aged woman, wearing a business dress and overall giving a very serious impression. I happened to notice that the wallpaper on her cellphone was a green, yellow and red colored flag with a big Cannabis leaf on it.

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Apartment building in Hirakata

It was not until I saw this sign that I realized that the leafs in some cases  might be much more innocent than the look. At first I just thought that there had been some kind of mistake, that the Cannabis leaf had been mistaken for a maple leaf.

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After some research, I found out that, in some cases the leaf is in fact that of the Japanese maple, which looks very different from the maple found in Europe. I have yet to see the actual tree and leafs in real life, but as you can see on the picture below, the different leafs are very similar, and In simplified images like the one above there might be no way to see what kind of leaf it is.

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Images originally found here and here

I think this is a good example of how things might not always be what they seem to be at a first glance, how things might be interpreted differently depending on who you are, where you are from and what you know. 

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I might be better of not using this coincase I bought in Miyajima once i get back home, as stated above, maple leafs look different where I come from and I am afraid that people might do the same assumptions I first did, which might make me look bad.

Essay on Leibowitz and Nachtwey

In this blog post I will compare two photographers and the way that they work. I will also try to draw parallels between their work and what we have been discussing in class.


Annie Leibowitz is an American photographer who is most famous for her  portraits of people. She has worked for several magazines, such as Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair, but has also had a lot of other assignments. For example, she took the Obama family portrait and also works with photographs for advertisements.


James Nachtwey is an American war photographer who has covered events in Rwanda, Bosnia and Indonesia as well as many other places. He has also received numerous awards for his work and for his photographs.


One of the obvious differences between the two is the fact that while Leibowitz can plan, direct, and experiment with her photographs, Nachtwey only has the possibility to get out there, and try to capture as much as possible in the best way possible. Most of the time there won't be any possibility for re-shots in Nachtwey's work. While Leibowitz most of the time will have nearly complete control over the situation, Nachtwey finds himself in situations where anything could happen at any time. There is also a major difference between the subjects of their photographs. While the ones being photographed by Leibowitz are there for the one reason of being photographed, the people Nachtwey is photographing are just doing what they are doing whether he would be present or not.
Leibowitz will also, at least to some extent, get to know the people she works with. Nachtwey, on the other hand, will in most cases find himself taking photographs among strangers who probably will not be working with him to the same extent as Leibowitz.
While Nachtwey is limited to using the equipment he can carry with him without being encumbered, Leibowitz has the possibility to experiment with different types of cameras and other equipment. However, she claims that she prefers portable equipment and that mobility is something very important to the way she photographs, so this could actually be seen as somewhat of a similarity.
Leibowitz also has some experience of photographing in situations similar to those of Nachtwey. For example, she has taken photos of anti-war protesters violently clashing with police in the US and she also went to Bosnia during the war to take photographs.


Other similarities are the fact that in order to take a good portrait, Leibowitz has to get to know the person she is portraying the same way that Nachtwey has to know about the situation he is covering, in order to know where to be and to know what is important to show.
Many the people photographed by Leibowitz state that the thing that makes her a great photographer is that she stays around and becomes a natural part of the surroundings, she will become such a natural part of their life that they don't even thinks about her being there. This gives her the opportunity to take very natural pictures that are close to the reality.

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This is a very good example of how Leibowitz works in the background and how this result in very natural photographs.

In a similar way, Nachtwey becomes a part of the situations he is in. One of his colleagues states that "James Nachtwey is always in the middle of the situations and always a part of them." For example, a man in the Philippines was being followed and assaulted by a mob of political opponents. Nachtwey begged them several times to spare the mans life, but the mob proceeded and the man was killed. Several other photographers covered the same event but Nachtwey was the only one who was at the center of the event and the only one who at least tried to help the man. The colleague who told this story also defines Nachtwey as "up close and personal." The story is also an example of how Nachtwey is said to be one of few war photographers that will put his camera down to help people in need.

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James Nachtwey - Up Close and Personal

Another similarity is the way in which they define themselves as good photographers. Leibowitz talks about how as a child, since her father was in the military, she spent a lot of time in the family's car as they moved around a lot. According to her, hours of seeing USA through the windows of the car made her view the world as frames or snapshots. In a similar way, Nachtwey talks about that the most important qualities of a photographer is knowledge and instincts, things that only can be acquired through experience.


The most important similarity is how they both talk about the importance of mutual understanding. Leibowitz says that if she has an idea for a portrait she will talk this through with the subject to find out how they feel about it, and see if they have other ideas and how they together can make the portrait as good as possible. People being photographed by her also agrees that she in some way gets you to want to work for her. 
Nachtwey says that no good photographs can be taken without the complicity of the people in them. By this he means that if the people do not want to be photographed, they will not let him take the photographs. He also says that most people will understand that he can help them to show their story to the rest of the world and in that way make the world recognize the horrible things that has happened . 

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A photo which probably could not have been taken without mutual understanding or without John and Yoko being willing to work together with Annie Leibowitz.

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Could this image been taken unless the people in it agreeing to being photographed?

A difference can be that while Leibowitz's most important mission is to incorporate personal characteristics in the photos, the most important thing for Nachtwey is to make the photographs show emotion, show how bad things really are and why something needs to be done.


Given the kinds of photographs the two are taking one could easily think that Nachtwey's photographs can be considered more "truthful" than those of Leibowitz. But whether photographs are "truthful" or not is a very complex question. 
The way Leibowitz incorporates the personalities of people, and the way she becomes almost as unapparent as a fly on the wall allows her to take photographs which can be seen as very close to the truth. Also, theoretically, war photographers such as Nachtwey could easily put things out of context and chose to only show certain things while ignoring other. So the following words of a reporter in the movie War Photographer is of great importance:

Your work defines the world's image of what is happening.

So you better do it right.

I think that something both photographers have in common with visual anthropologists is the opinion that mutual understanding and respect is very important when you are working with people and photography.
Nachtwey also talks about the importance of showing yourself and approach people with respect when you are photographing. Sometimes a "hello" and a handshake can be very helpful in our work.


Sources:
War Photographer (2001)
Annie Leibowitz: Life through a lens (2008)

Portrait of a Japanese person

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This is Masaya, 19 years old and a Japanese student here at Kansai Gaidai. I first met him when he approached me at the university and told me that he was planning to go to Sweden this summer and that he wanted to know more about my country and about places to go and things to see.

I would describe him as a very energetic, outgoing and social person. He have a lot of friends and seems to feel most comfortable with people around him. This is the main reason I wanted to take a picture of him where he is around other people, interacting with them and in this way really show the very social and friendly side of him. I also decided to crop the picture so that Masaya is the only person who is entirely in the picture, to emphasize that he is the person being portrayed. I experimented in Photoshop with different filters and for a while I considered making it black and white but I felt that it would go a bit cold, sad and not as quite as alive without the (already few) colors in the picture so I ended up using the original palette. 

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Before taking the first picture I took a few pictures of Masaya by himself. He would do these different crazy poses in every single picture, and I think that this really shows the playful and energetic side of his personality. 

He really seemed to have a great time in front of the camera and enjoyed both watching the pictures and showing them to his other friends. Him being so satisfied with them is also a reason why I wanted to use one of these "posing"-pictures, if he thinks that they turned out good I also feel good about the portrait.

Neighborhood Hirakata

For this post I chose to narrow "my neighborhood" down to the level of cho/machi, just like Bestor did in his movie Neighborhood Tokyo as well as his chapter in the course readings*.

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In most ways, Katahokohigashimachi can pass for a typical Japanese neighborhood. I am am not certain of the actual size of the area, since I do not know how the "neighborhood-borders" are drawn, yet you can get an idea of the size when looking at a map of this and the surrounding neighborhoods. But even though our neighborhood has a lot in common with typical Japanese ones there is one major difference: 

Us.

Three of the four seminar houses of Kansai Gaidai are located in Katahokohigashimachi, which means that several hundreds of us foreign exchange students live in this fairly small neighborhood, making it highly untypical as far as neighborhoods in the area go.

According to CIA's World Factbook, 98.5% of the people in Japan are ethnically Japanese. With these numbers in mind it is easy to see how our neighborhood contrasts against "typical" neighborhoods. Of course such a big population of foreign youths will lead to some kinds of consequences for the neighborhood. We are of a multitude of different cultures, look different, and behave in different ways. There is also the risk that some of us not always will behave in the best of ways. This is something that can result in a negative picture of foreigners in Japan and we should all do our best to prove such a picture false and at the same time contribute to an even better atmosphere in our neighborhood.

As stated above, I am not really sure of what is actually considered a part of our specific machi but that put aside, I have chosen to show some of the more characteristic elements in our nearby surroundings. 

Kurumazuka Park is possibly the most central part of the neighborhood. People jog here, walk their dogs, families and groups of children play, and I have heard (but not yet seen for myself) that on some early mornings people get together for some sort of choreographed group exercise.

Right across the street from the park is a liquor store, a few restaurants and other businesses located. There are also the regular vending machines for drinks, but also for beer and cigarettes. During orientation, Prof. Tracy told us that drinking alcohol in public is considered poor manners, and the beer vending machine located right at the park near the seminar houses provides ample opportunity for foreign students to look bad.






*Theodore C. Bestor: Inquisitive Observation: Following Networks in Urban Fieldwork