Stifling—Japan in a word
Coming from Portland Oregon, it seems like the end of the world.
By Nedroj
Japan can be a scary place for an optimist, especially one who's optimism is rooted in creative environments and community efforts. The absence of such there was a vacuum that sucked the color of my soul every day until I became an undead consumer just like them.
School, cram school, conversation school, TV, sleep, repeat. The life of the Japanese teenager is nearly as empty and shallow as that of their parents. Husband—work, more work, TV, bar, sleep, repeat. Wife—TV, shopping, TV, house work, TV, sleep, repeat. Watching too much television is a serious problem in America. It isn't a problem in Japan, it is their lifestyle. As an optimist I thought humans needed creativity. Japan proved me wrong. There television satisfies the needs of their soul like nothing else.
Hostess not stripper, manga not book, karaoke not open mike.
A much touted statistic about Portland is that there are more strippers per capita here then any other city in the States. This, among other things, creates difficulties in developing family oriented relationships. The population of strippers in Portland is a weakness, but after Japan I am more aware of the strength they bring to the city. The English word “hostess” in Japan does not mean a woman who shows you to your seat at a restaurant. It really means the Japanese version of a stripper. The hostess doesn't strip though. She just sits next to you, and talks to you while you buy her overpriced drinks from which she makes her money. It could be considered therapeutic, but I couldn't get past the lack of dancing. I dance in Portland like a maniac. It is freedom. It is creative. And it is therapeutic. At what passes for clubs in Japan when dancing does occur it resembles something I can only describe as line dancing hip-hop.
Manga has been exploding around the world. It's popularity has caused wave after wave of interest to break upon Japan's shores. Manga is the Japanese version of the comic book, but it is more. It replaces books for all ages and both sexes. My favorite library in the world is fifteen blocks from where I type this now. And it more then any single other place in Portland shows the point of this article. There, at the Albina community library, I can borrow everything, from the latest movie to the thickest book. In the back corner on the top shelf is the comic book/graphic novel section. Manga is there, find it, look at it. The manga seen in Japan is artistically plain and generally without color, but it is popular and loved. True books are seldom seen in hand, and it is no wonder after visiting their library—it was not a welcoming place. The Albina library, my library, reaches out to you. It wants you to grow. It nourishes you, and tries to find out what you want. It is a community builder, and in its quiet way more effectively battles the music/movie/publishing industry then even the great new god Internet. Though it should be noted that one of the many services provided free by the library is the Internet itself, one hour a day. The Japanese version just can't compete.
Karaoke has become quite popular in the States, but in Japan it is the only choice for self expression. This isn't absolute, but this article isn't about absolutes, its about what the mass does. And the only place for the mass that is Japan to express themselves lets them do it only with other people's songs. The idea of “open mike” is as foreign to them as freestyle dancing. Open mike is an artistic core of Portland. My favorite one is at Mojo's coffee shop weekly and allows anyone to say or sing anything they want for seven minutes—free. Such opening of the soul is just not done in Japan, the land that inspired the Vulcans.
Since returning to Portland I have become a volunteer at the Community Energy Project—a neighbor helping neighbor kind of organization, Alberta Street Food Cooperative—a very alive and aware place to shop for groceries, and the Community Cycling Center—a bicycle shop on the surface a bicycle revolution below. All three of which are located within blocks of each other on the same street. I would have never become so involved in my community if I hadn't been so starved of one in Japan. They have trouble understanding the concept of such things there, and they certainly don't understand how life doesn't have to completely revolve around money.
Ah but this slice is so thin. There are so many more facets to my awful evaluation. But there is no more time now, nor space here to explore them. I must just summarize with this declaration. Japan made me a patriot, something I thought I couldn't become. But after living abroad I see that the States may be the only place where freedom has the potential to exist for both the body and soul, and where this freedom can be applied to a progress of humanity to something ever greater, rather then the absolute stagnation of hope and soul I perceived so vividly in the former Empire of the Sun.