A Post in Five Parts

Posted by: annacats | May 1, 2010

A Post in Five Parts

Sakura-lined street in Hirosaki

1. On Going Home

It’s down to my last few days in Japan, for this visit at least. I fly out of Narita airport on Tuesday evening and arrive in the US on (mind-bender!) Tuesday afternoon. My plans are to come back to Japan in July or August, depending on how the summer plays out. It might seem like a big waste of money/excess traveling to keep bouncing between Japan and the United States, and it is. However, when I’m in Japan, I can’t work or really participate in the world at large, and often feel isolated and useless. I need to come back to the United States to be able to keep my life moving. Of course, the catch is that I can’t get a long-term job while living in the United States for only a couple months at a time, but I can see friends and family, volunteer, and have short-term jobs. It’s a frustrating situation, but it sort of works for me. I probably won’t feel completely happy or satisfied until I’m settled with some sort of job or place in the world, but until then it is nice to take a couple years to roam, I suppose. Anyhow, enough of my 20-something angst.

2. Hirosaki

Hirosaki castle

Trevor and I are capping off my trip to Japan with visits to Hirosaki and Tokyo. Today we drove to Hirosaki, a city about two hours away and famous for its castle and extensive grounds. Sakura begin blooming in southern Japan in early April, and throughout the month the blooming spreads north. Now, at the beginning of May, it’s Aomori’s turn for cherry blossoms, and Hirosaki is one of its prime viewing spots. The castle grounds are bursting with sakura – beautiful, cloudy, puffy, cotton-bally sakura. I adore sakura. There is nothing so lovely or magical as walking down a sakura-lined street. The Japanese love sakura, too – it is their unofficial national flower, and they flock to places known for it. Picnicking beneath the trees is one of their favorite pastimes.

Not only were the cherry blossoms at peak bloom today, but the weather was very nice – a relief, as it has rained for the past several days. Trevor and I wandered the castle grounds and took a million, billion pictures of sakura, because they are so fantastic it’s impossible not to. The only downsides of the day were the strong winds and a bitchy old lady at a shop who called us a derogatory name for foreigners.

3. Food

Cakey

Japanese food is very, very cute, so cute that I feel bad eating it. It’s often composed in little portions or bites, partially so it can be picked up by chopsticks, but also for the aesthetic aspect. The Japanese seem to emphasize the visual elements of food much more than Americans – most food and meals are arranged and made to look as pleasing and pretty as possible: think Bento boxes or sushi. Desserts are particularly artistic. They are like little sculptures. Today Trevor and I went to a patisserie in Hirosaki (owned by the brother of an acquaintance of ours from Kodomari) and ate some delectable, individual cakes (or cakey, as they would pronounce it here).

Even the way the Japanese serve their food can be adorable – take, for instance, “conveyor-belt sushi,” restaurants where customers sit in front of a little conveyor belt with small plates of food moving along it. When a plate comes by that you want you grab it, and when you’re done you give all the plates to the waitress and she adds up the cost. I actually can’t believe they haven’t thought of this in America – what’s more perfect for our fat-ass nation than a conveyor-belt of food?

4. Gender

Gender roles are very defined in Japan, and it seems more difficult to break out of these roles here than it is in the Western world. Women here are very “girly-girl,” dressing almost more like little girls than women, in ruffles, knee-high socks, bows, flowers. To me, the whole Lolita-ish, women-as-girls thing is rather demeaning and concerning. There is even an emphasis on girls eating certain foods in public – “cute” foods, like the ones I have mentioned above. Girls are supposed to love sweets, and I have heard that men find it more attractive when girls eat adorable little cakes in public instead of hearty meals. I recently read an article on NPR that mentioned how men are supposed to avoid eating these sweets, too, as they are seen as emasculating.

Of course there is a huge emphasis on the physical appearance of females everywhere, but while the west has tried to somewhat get away from this by sending out messages of body-love and self-esteem to young girls, my observations lead me to believe that Japan keeps its focus on beauty. Trevor and I once saw a poster with Peppermint Patty and Marcy from The Peanuts that said “Let’s Be Beautiful!” There is even a horrible, horrible television show here, Majo-Tachi No 22Ji, that tells the stories of real women who used to be fat/ugly and therefore unloved by their boyfriends and ridiculed by the general public, and who have since lost weight and become beautiful. There is a big reveal at the end, where the women come out and everyone applauds and cheers. And their boyfriends now love them and propose. It’s a horrible, horrible show. The emphasis is not on how these women lost weight for health or decided to take better care of themselves for their own self-esteem, but on how they are now loved and accepted. And usually these women are in their fifties but look thirty, and everyone is so impressed. Let me repeat, this is a horrible, horrible show.

5. Golden Week

Tomorrow morning, Trevor and I fly from Aomori airport to Tokyo. This upcoming week is “Golden Week” in Japan, meaning Monday through Wednesday are national holidays, so Trevor and I are spending several days in Tokyo before I fly out. I haven’t seen Tokyo beyond the airport, so I’m excited to explore it a bit. But I’m also very sad to be leaving Trevor. It will be a bitter-sweet Tokyo visit and Golden Week. And, if my plane ride home is anything like last time, instead of a Golden Week, it will be a vomity week.

And, more pictures…