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Japan obviously has a very different culture from ours, and we think that cultural differences should be celebrated. Please find below a few distinctly Japanese things that rocked in a big way... |
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Mount Fuji
After an uncomfortable twelve hours on the plane during which neither
of us have more than an hours sleep we were greeted by one of the most
awesome sights we had ever seen. As the plane banked towards
Narita airport, Mount Fuji swept into view silhouetted against a
stunning sunset. Absolutely unforgettable. Meiji Shrine
Believe it or not, we did actually take a break from the huge amount
of shopping and spending and one afternoon soaked up some relaxing
Japanese heritage. And we are glad that we did. Packaging
Everything is wrapped in Japan. Whatever you buy, from clothes
to fast food, and they will wrap and sellotape it at the counter.
Even if it's already wrapped. They did it with Pork Buns.
They did it with Tom's Nausicaä boxset (despite the fact that everything
in it was already individually boxed and packed inside a larger box).
If you said an item was a gift they'd give you extra packaging too.
The service you got was exemplary, in the Hello Kitty shop they even
offered you a choice of gift tags at no extra cost. Excellent! Crap TV
Apart from most of the anime , Japanese Telly was rubbish. This
came as a shock. After seeing the likes of Takeshi's Castle on
Challenge TV we expected madness, we expected serious injury, but no!
What we got was basically mid-morning UK television all of the time.
Panel chat shows, Japanese equivalents of Richard & Judy, abysmally
acted soap operas that makes Eastenders look like Shakespeare,
disturbing kids presenters, lifestyle shows...it was terrible.
Plus it seemed to be a law that there would be a chef making Okonomiyaki
on television at all times, every time you flicked through the
channels there was a guy making it on one channel or other. Even
on CNN. Probably. Japanese Adverts
Extremely disturbing. If it wasn't grown men in lycra bodysuits
gurning at the camera and brandishing jelly sweets, it was that bloody
bread advert. Everything had a jingle too - cars, office
furniture, cosmetics, insurance, shops - the list goes on. Much
animation was used, which rocks, but it was still disturbing. We
did see one of the adverts Hayao Miyazaki did on telly there which
assumes this Rocking status. Plus there were the David Beckham
ads... Katakana English
Katakana is one of three Japanese alphabets, it consists of symbols
representing syllabic sounds and is mostly used for spelling words
imported from other languages. However, Katakana English refers to
the use of English words (spelled in English) for effect rather than
meaning. This means we end up with the likes of CowPoo clothing
and Kent cigarettes as well as signs that proclaim 'Sale' in English
whilst all of the other text on the sign is in Japanese. A strange
oddity of Japanese culture, but often useful to the visitor... |