Globalization, what a concept.

Today I will be brief. Lack of sleep, lack of interest, and lack of energy are all bogging me down. Professor, I'm sorry I skipped class today. It was a difficult choice to make because I do enjoy your lectures. Speaking of lectures, tomorrow I will actually get to see one of my UMASS professors give a presentation on the author Uchida Shungiku, in Kyoto. She is also in the anthropology field, doing research in Tokyo this past academic year. I am more excited about that right now than I am globalization in Japan. One must accept their duties though, whether I like it or not.

So, what the hell happened to the Japan that fit in so well with the western ideal of the Orient? Well, it's still there. It's just trapped inside of an "onion,"; as it was so brilliantly cliched in the film: The Japanese Version, a film we viewed on Monday in class. What this means to me is that the current western concept of Japan is that it has multiple layers; I however feel this has become a stereotype no longer applicable to the culture. Therefore, I feel the true answer to this question is trapped within said "onion". With the idea of Globalization in mind, Japan is progressing just as any other country would. I feel as though Japanese citizens have a slightly better understanding of America (this being an age of the internet) than they did in 1991 when Alvarez and Kolker did their film. This does not mean that I think the Japanese have a great understanding of Occident culture, it just means they know a bit more about it than MacDonald's and Elvis.
Addressing Globalization more specifically, the term itself proposes a unified culture around the world. This means there is as little stereotyping as possible. It can never be accomplished, but much like socialism and communism it works better in theory. Anyways, Japan has been acquiring/borrowing the ideas of other cultures ever since she opened up to the rest of the world and saw how much there was to take in. Thus we are left with (in the interest of keeping this stupid joke alive)"tree", not an "onion" . A ring for every year, retaining scars, accommodating new branches, ultimately growing all the more complex. That is as complex as its history, and culture will allow.
In everyday Japan, one can see examples of this everywhere: English is used in a variety of signs and announcements. Not just this "EGO" boom, but a boom of western companies have invaded the land of the rising sun as well. Visually speaking, what I have for you today is not that profound, just interesting. It made me go "huh". Here I present to you the reader, the Japanese version of "Habitat for Humanity". I snapped this shot outside Kyoto the other weekend; they were campaigning for world peace and love. I just like it because they are Japanese hippies. The guy on the far left has adapted to the current western hippy image perfectly. That's Globalization for you (ba-dum-cha, I guess this post really did get the better of me).

Kids, they're cute. Too cute for their own good?

It's debatable, the extent of which a child is cute. Personally I feel Japanese children glow with a light of cuteness that is so intense; it's as if all the other kids of the world are holding candles on the sun. That sounds pretty messy though. Is A-san's child cuter than B-san's, I have no idea. What I do have "some" idea about is when they stop being cute, and become real people. That's right, they become Japanese people! (Which is today's theme) "Why do kids have to grow up?" I have heard people say a thousand times (myself included); well the truth is that we as a race would not progress. Really? Yes. Why? Well, there is an overwhelming truth for children, they are pretty much inept at the mental and physical skills required to function as a member of society. This shocking truth is why kids are cute. It is also why kids cease to be cute at a point in their life. In Japan, it is schooling, society, and mostly self acknowledgement that rips them from the fluffy cradle into the reality that is life. Once the child is given an inkling of responsibility they are no longer inept, they are completing a function within society.

The general timeframe that I believe a child (more specifically infant) can remain cute in Japan is relative to its academic institutions. That is to say the entire span of one's academic career in Japan. Having recently watched a film portraying a Japanese preschool (Joseph Tobin's Preschool in Three Cultures: Japan, China, and the United States) I can safely say that this institution focuses less on academic merit, and more on child development. Most "preschools" can also be considered as daycare centers where working parents can keep their kids for the day, knowing that their kids are learning something (regardless of what that is).

In Preschool in Three Cultures there is a lack of adult interference with the children's social interactions. It is specifically noted and discussed. The answer given for the lack of interaction was: kids need to interact with each other on a peer level, not an adult's level. Their reason being that kids will learn valuable social skills and behaviors more easily, as well as enjoy just being a kid. Segwaying into my next topic, kids can pretty much do what they want (within their limits). Within any demographic, there is no more leeway given than in that of children. "They don't understand that what they are doing is (insert offensive subject material here)." This seems to be acknowledged by society in general, therefore letting kids be rude or rambunctious more often than in other cultures/countries. Why? I believe this has something to do with Amaeru, something Takie Lebra discusses in her article "Dependency". Amaeru, a Japanese concept of dependency, is what society and parents are doing for the children. Essentially sacrificing other's and their own ego's to better the kids. This is perhaps why Japan's image of childcare is so extreme.
As for my picture, this is a child climbing some stone steps that provided to be quite a challenge for her. She smiled so wide at her accomplishment just before this picture was taken. I was merely one of many taking pictures of her. In my opinion this is one of the cutest kids I have ever seen. Note how her mother is letting her walk rather than carry her. This is only reinforcing the principles of Amaeru; the mother is sacrificing time and energy just to let her child conquer some rather difficult steps.