In the last post, when I said that there probably is more to the whole cuteness thing, I meant that there HAS to be more. It can't be possible to delude a whole nation, can it?

One thing that I have noticed here is the emphasis that is placed on outward appearance. Not just in terms of dressing up everyday, but the need for everything to be in its place at all times. One time, shortly after we got here, we decided to stay out all night in Tokyo. One of the girls was feeling sick and wanted to lie down on the seat at a restaurant we were at. The waiter came over and looked really uncomfortable and strongly implied that it would be better for her not to do so. We told him that she was feeling really sick and needed to lie down. After a lot of hesitation on his part, he went away looking chagrined and in mild pain--everything in its place.

This is probably untrue and completely off, but I wonder if this adherence to custom has anything to do with the Peace Constitution of Japan. Perhaps conformity is stressed so that conflict is avoided...to maintain peace. Harmony.

Maybe people buy into the cuteness and the masking of enforced social structures because subconsciously, they see the "danger" in challenging status quo and allow themselves to be mollified and subdued.

This is not to say that Japanese people can't think for themselves; they very well can! But at my school, I feel like the students aren't really encouraged to think outside of the box and challenge authority and all that. In my conversations with my friend from Waseda University, it seems to me that the students there are definitely taught to challenge everything they are given and so, within him, there is a strain of rebellion that is refreshing to see and hear.

I worry for the people at my school who don't get an opportunity to challenge things. I worry about the girls who see college as a place to meet their husband so that they can settle down into housewife-ly duties after graduation. I don't want to impose my American values on anyone (I really don't like that imperialist junk), but still, part of me cringes.

Maybe I am mistaken about everything I mentioned above. The language barrier has made it difficult for me to cross the threshold from shallow conversation to deeper stuff. I hope I am mistaken.

I praise God that I have the freedom to write all of this down...that I have the freedom to be wrong and to be corrected.

I took this photo with my camera phone and did all the editing on it too. Haha, isn't that cool? Japanese keitai are so cool.


I took this one with my phone too. These were the clouds I saw as I walked home today. They were much more breathtaking in real life, trust me.

I wonder why the clouds in Japan are so much more dramatic than American clouds. You know how in that one scene in Hayao Miyazaki's Kiki's Delivery Service where she and that nerdy guy are biking and you see these huge white clouds amidst a perfect deep sky blue sky? I've seen that here! Amazing.


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In my Manga class today, we talked about cuteness in Japanese society. We read an article about how cuteness is used to soften power relations and social hierarchy...as if everything is more okay because it's cute. It works though. My friends and I have been suckered into things all the time because of how gosh darn cute they are.

1. Today, I was walking to school and a garbage truck passed me. The garbage truck plays this really nice song and has this recording of a very pleasant, higher-pitched-voiced woman telling you that the truck is approaching. The two things together make the sanitation business a lot less disagreeable and, dare I say, cute, even.

2. My buddy got a really good job at a big insurance firm in Japan. This is good because once you secure a job, it's likely that you're set for life. Anyway, she told me that as part of her training, they taught them how to speak in a high-pitched, pleasant girly voice because they are in sales...and that is more appealing. Image is important.

3. The police and the fire departments have these adorable mascots that represent them. The police mascot smiles sugary-sweet above a sign displaying how many people have died or been injured in the last month.

Being cute is important because to be cute means to indulge or to be indulged; being cute reinforces subservience, perhaps. Being cute is so gosh darn easy here. Everything and everyone is so freaking cute. I buy into all of it.


Haha, that sounds cynical, doesn't it? Part of me is cynical about it. Part of me thinks that there is much more to it than meets the eye.

Mejiro Garden

Whoooo! Kimonos!

Haha, I think they were trying to be ninjas. :)

I wish there wasn't so much lens flare in this one, but it's cool, isn't it?

Haha, this one is fun.

Harajuku girls!

I am currently sitting in my room listening to a Japanese jazz CD my Japanese friend Arina made me and I feel so incredibly thankful and grateful and wow, I don't know, glad to be me?

How amazing is it really that I have an awesome family who supports me to come study in a beautiful country so far from home? How amazing is it that I have been given the ability to pick up the language and learn to communicate anew? How amazing is it that I have the opportunity to learn something marvelously new everyday from really cool people? How amazing that I have people that I can call friends here? How amazing is it that I have a place to sleep in a shelter away from the howling typhoon just outside my door? How amazing is it that my friend Kathy and I could walk down the street at 10pm to get ice cream from 7 and i holdings (what 7-11 is called here)? How amazing is it that I get to wake up early tomorrow morning and go attend a cultural day where I will learn how to wear a kimono, all about the tea ceremony, ikebana, and Japanese calligraphy? It's pretty amazing!

Yesterday I was feeling a bit down and my wise friend Daniel told me that one time when he felt that way, he just began to thank God for everything that came to mind. With each utterance of thankfulness, he realized that he was so lucky and so blessed to just be. I couldn't sleep last night and I just spent doing that and...man, I have so much to be thankful for. So very much.

I miss being home where everybody knows my name (I feel a Cheers song coming on). But at the same time, I love this adventure I'm on. I am prone to wanderlust (like your planner, Allie!) and I feel like this is right. I wish you could be here with me, because it's a beautiful thing.

p.s. My cute umbrella that I posted on my last post broke on me twice today. It was very tragic and I got very wet. :(
p.p.s. My newly decorated shoes also got very wet and are now partaking in a drying party with the other shoes in this dorm building. They are by far the whitest shoes of the bunch.

Today was just one of those rainy, gray, gloomy, emo days. I must have been a sight, standing at the railroad crossing for 30 minutes with a broken umbrella and a hole in my shoe. I guess people around me couldn't see the hole in my shoe, but everytime I walked, my foot would make a squishy sound. (Squishy is a cute word.)

As you all must know, though, I adore those rainy, gray, gloomy, emo days so I did not mind any of this one bit. Music and rain make a very happy Jen.

So, after waiting at the RR X-ing, I walked to the post office and mailed a package. Usually on the crosswalk just preceding the post office, a dirge-like song plays to inform you that it is okay to cross. It is so sad though, that everytime I walk across the zebra-striped road, I want to stop in the middle and just die. Okay, that is a tad dramatic, but it's sort of true. My iPod kept me from having to hear it today, though. Anyway, after 3 times at the counter and two mistakenly filled out forms, I managed to leave just a little bit wiser about the whole post office...thing.

Then, I ambled on over to the hyaku-yen (100 yen) shop to buy a nice new umbrella. It's cute!

See? (I took this with the camera on my new keitai [cell], which really, is so much cooler than anything you can get in the States.)

After that, I made my inaugural trip to Mister Donut and bought two donuts (the custard-filled ones are delicious!). After a little bit of confusion and mild embarassment at the counter, I left with general good feeling all around.

Since I was basically on an adventure already, I decided to take some back alleyways, just to explore and all that. It was cool, but it took me much longer to get home. Since my jeans were soaked up to mid-calf by now and my shoes squishier than ever, I decided that I should probably just go back the normal way and stop wandering around.

Er, yes, and now I am typing on the computer after finishing the two donuts in a single sitting (I'm sure the audience is disgusted). Now I shall go decorate my shoes (not the squishy ones--I got new ones that are more waterproof) because I like to be different sometimes!

[Addition] Whooo, I finished decorating my shoes. I'm kind of proud of them. :D JACQUELINE! You should be proud of me too!



This shows what it looked like before and after I did one shoe. I drew the subway station map on them because these are my two main forms of transportation in Japan: walking and taking the train.




And so with those and this new book bag I bought, I'll basically be the coolest kid in school! Just kidding, with all this stuff, I'll be like, 5% as trendy as the other kids on the block. :T