Thoughts from Kyoto - April 20

This is going to be a compilation of various things, mostly because I've gotten from a friend who enjoyed the blog, which inadverdently guilt-tripped me into writing something about Japan, at least one more time before I go home. So... I suppose the last time I wrote was before Spring Break. Dang!

I went to Tokyo from Spring Break with several other KCJS program friends, and felt woefully unprepared. See, Kyoto is the sort of city where you can sort of get around and find interesting places to go with most standard tour books, but Tokyo is a completely different ball game. Firstly, the public transportation system is quite daunting and confusing for probably even Japanese people, if they haven't lived in Tokyo for a while. Taiwan's MRT line looks almost amateur by comparison, when considering both scale and size of the stations, and number of stops. That said, there are quite a few similarities, down to the colors used for maps at each stop - definitely a lot of imitation going on.

In fact, you could say that this has been one of the most interesting things that I've observed this semester - how many things in Taiwan actually had their start in Japan. FamilyMart is nearly exactly the same. Rather, the entire convenience-store model is basically copied from Japan, as is the MRT system, and baseball games. (Oh yeah, I went to a baseball game recently at the FREAKING KOSHIEN. It was badass)

Anyway, partly due to my lack of preparation... I didn't like Tokyo all that much. It was certainly a fun experience and I saw a lot of cool things, but I like Kyoto a lot more. It's partly the slower pace, but also because I don't get any feeling of personality from Tokyo. It seems to be a mishmash of almost anything, which itself is undeniably a sort of culture too, but it's not one that I can really keep up with or relate to. It's kind of like Taipei for me, but even worse, as far as me feeling a bit out of place. In addition, the privatization process for railways and subways arguably made travelling around the city convenient, but quite confusing, as you'd have several different stations at one geographical location, all run by different companies that may or may not service the same destination.

There were definitely high points though, such as the Studio Ghibli museum. That was really cute.

Random thought. Something that has really struck me throughout my nearly 4 months here in Japan is how *normal* the country feels. Now, the internet stereotype is that Japan produces 85% of the world's weird shit, and I can see why, as the typical "Japanese" thing that people get exposed to are otaku, anime, narutards, J-drama, and odd celebrity game shows. Oh yeah, speaking of J-drama. Like all media, it helps to convince you that everyone in said country is either ridiculously handsome or astonishingly beautiful. THIS IS NOT THE CASE.

Of course, only a dumbass would really shape their perceptions of a country based solely on what they've read in the media, but despite knowing this, I was still affected a bit by the media stereotypes. Now certainly, there are things that you see in Japan which would be quite rare otherwise, such as someone standing on a bench near the river practicing the Suzumiya Haruhi dance without a care in the world, or people snacking on dango and sake while on a picnic watching the sakura trees bloom (and the season is indeed REALLY short. Like a week or something). But overall, it feels like your average East Asian country, not all that different from Taiwan, for better or for worse.

This doesn't mean that if you're from an East Asian country you wouldn't be getting much if you come to Japan. Perhaps it wouldn't be quite as fascinating or disorientating an experience as it might be if you came from a completely different country, but either way, it's only after you can look past the popular symbols and stereotypes that you can get to know a country.

The busy, hectic Tokyo is Japan, but the same holds true for Kyoto's quiet streets, or Miyajima's deer just chilling by the path. It's like when someone asks me, "So what's America like?"

That's almost impossible to answer. It's just so rich and different and diverse depending on what state you're in, and the season... Japan's the same.