As this is my third time in Japan, I can't remember very well what my first impression of Japan was 3 years ago. The thing I do remember though, was the overwhelming feeling of being an total alien in Japan, and how Japan in itself was Alien to me.
This picture was taken in Tokyo, the day after surviving the jetlag and the big shock.
This sight was for me amazing, as in Norway you hardly have tall buildings.
I found the endless shopping malls in the undergrounds.
I saw fruit which looked as it was handmade.
Too perfect, and no bad fruit wherever you looked.
I saw a man which actually were a fake doll.
I found it terrifying how people were staring at me. I couldn't read their face expressions either. So was I hated or was I fascinating for the Japanese people?
Of course, after a while I understood that to see people with white skin and blue eyes in Japan was a rare sight. As I found my self having a hard time finding them as well.
How to describe a country which is total alien for you?
Where the girls wear so much make-up and dress so nice that the girls called "Bimbo" back home,
are never considered "bimbo" ever again?
And where the boys are so feminine that you believe they are gay,
but they really aren't?
Where they have one of the fastest trains in the world,
but the bus seems to be pulled out of a 80's movie?
I bet you think this is a girl's gym? What if I say I've only seen boys here?
And what if I even tell you that these machines don't have weights,
but air pressure, where the highest level feels like 25 kg's?
Japan is Alien, and indescribable.
It must be experienced.
You have some interesting photos here that help to illustrate your initial culture shock. Japan strikes us as different when we first encounter it. But these first encounters are surface level observations - we are thrust into a cultural system we don't easily understand and we feel that either we or them must be alien. Many might feel that anthropology stresses cultural differences. But I feel that in the end anthropology stresses the similarities between peoples of different cultures. Seemingly alien or not, we are all sisters and brothers. I look forward to your future posts where you will have opportunities to dig deeper in your exploration and understanding of Japan.
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