Monday 5/3: My Venture in Japanese Teen Culture

On Monday, I went with Sirocco, Siroccos host sister, and a friend of the host sisters to the downtown "Korinbo" area. Since Were in the middle of Golden Week, a huge vacation season, there were a bunch of teens around. Up until this point, I had only seen high schoolers in uniforms with their only means of expression being the random stuffed animal keychains on their backpacks. However, yesterday I got to see the teen fashion that Cosplayers are constantly trying to imitate in the US. My favorite was someone dressed up as a panda, with their face even painted white with black around the eyes. The more girly girls would wear short lacey dresses, high heels, and carry lace parasols with them. There was also the more traditional "rebel" look with random piercings, strange-colored hair, and black boots or high heels. I would also like to note that while almost every girl was wearing high heels, I could still easily see over everyones heads :D

First we went to a "purikura" area on the second floor of an arcade. This 2nd floor was completely full of large photo booths, and there were people EVERYWHERE. 80% girls, though there were a few poor boyfriends dragged along. In the purikura you step into an area with a green screen, choose the backgrounds you want, and pose for the pictures like in a normal photo booth. Then we ran to another room in the booth where we could add stuff to the pictures: hearts, words, sparkles, etc. Finally, you print out the pictures as tiny stickers, which you can attach to whatever you wish.

After that we went to the Art Museum, which was pretty cool. Sirocco the Art Major had a blast :). They had an open-air market outside the museum, where i bought some origami crane earrings. We then went to a "Mister Donut" where once again Japan outdid the US at fast food. The donut and vanilla shake were both very delicious, though I feel like with Japanese food it kinda loses a bit of its soul. Its like they used computers to create the perfect food- it seems a bit... sterile I guess, like too beautiful to actually be eaten.

Finally, we went to a place that looked like a hotel, but instead of bedrooms it was full of karaoke boxes. After paying the $12 fee for an hour, we were assigned a room. The room had a couch, a tv and microphones, a song-requester-machine, food menus, and a phone where you could call for the food and where the head desk would call when your time was up. I stuck with the normal english karaoke songs- "Dont Stop Believing" is always a big hit, and Billy Joel and Frank Sinatra. Sirocco knew some Japanese songs so she did that- I wish i knew some japanese songs!

Oh, on a random note on Sunday religion came up as a topic of conversation between me and my host mom. I told her that I was Lutheran, and she said that she had gone to a Christian elementary school (I dont think she does anything religious now) and that the grandmother living in the house is Buddhist and has a big altar(?) in a part of the house that I have yet to say. I wonder if I would be allowed to see it... anyhow, before I left for Siroccos the host mom gave me a rosary, which I think she had made herself. Lutherans dont use rosaries, but it was very nice of her to give me one, and its the thought that counts, right? Its also kind of an interesting commentary on how people view religion. From what I can tell, for most Japanese religion is a somewhat secular thing, and generally only paid attention to for weddings and funerals. This would be something Id like to get to know more about.