If there was need for proof that commercialisation of culture has truly gone awry in this day and age, then Japan and Halloween would probably constitute the perfect example. If you think that the commercialisation of christmas was bad, then trust me you need to witness Halloween in Tokyo. I remember about 6 weeks or so ago I was walking along the street and noticed some Halloween decorations in a shop window. To which I thought, ‘hold on a minute it’s mid September… you what?’. I can’t really say I’ve ever cared for Halloween, what with it being a primarily American celebration, but the sight of Halloween decorations 6 weeks or so ahead of the time left me feeling a little weird.

Turns out that was just the beginning. Halloween’s about 10 mins away my time, and I’ve been subjected to more Halloween related merchandise and decorations in 6 weeks than I ever have in 27 years previous to that. Surely that must rank as some sort of record. Even though the overkill commercialisation of something like Halloween is quite ‘normal’ today, it’s still a pretty mental experience. Considering that Japan is as far removed from Halloween as I could have imagined, seeing the place covered in decorations for the best part of 6 weeks and the insane amount of commercial tie-ins has actually left me wondering wtf for the best part of that time. From Halloween flavouring of all sweets and chocolates and drinks and ice creams imaginable (Baskin Robbins takes the crown on that one with something like 10 Halloween related flavourings) to Halloween Kitty, I’ve had the colour orange burned into my retina and sub-conscious, and will be glad to see the back of all these pumpkins.

Ok so there is the logical explanation: American occupation following WW2 has left a massive footprint across parts of Japan, especially the big cities, with the country being pretty much Americanized (see the z there?  :lol: ) in any way possible which makes the Halloween celebrations not so surprising. But still the total overkill is quite a shock to the system the first time round. There is cultural imperialism and then there is this - hyper-imperialism/commercialism which is quite fitting, in a land full where compound names using hyper can be deployed for a lot of things.

According to one of my students today this situation wasn’t always the case, and has only got worst in recent years. What’s more while there is all this Halloween related business for 6 weeks, most of the people don’t actually seem to celebrate it. There’s no massive trick or treat about to happen as far as I know, and by all accounts it’ll all be over as fast as it started come thursday morning, with nothing much to show for it apart from a whole bunch of discarded orange paraphernalia. I’ve spent the last 3 days doing Halloween lessons for kids, most of which know pumpkins, ghosts and the usual related figures, but haven’t really got a clue about the rest of the associated ‘traditions’ (and I use that word loosely).

If Halloween’s that bad I dread to think of what christmas might throw up. Yet another celebration which has really no relation to the country or culture, apart from commercial and imperialistic ties, ready to flood the streets and shelves of shops. Ho ho ho…

Popularity: 4%

written by Laurent \\ tags: halloween, Japan, Random

While the sight of temples and shrines has now firmly lost the exciting appeal it had after first arriving in Japan (after all there is only so much you can take in before going a bit meh, kinda like churches in Europe), there is one thing I still thoroughly enjoy the sight of day in, day out: Japanese architecture. Though that might be a bit of a far reaching term, considering the architectural mish mash that actually consitutes most of Tokyo and the Japanese knack for knocking down old buildings and replacing them with crappy new ones (oh yeah and the earthquakes). Still I’ve always been a sucker for architecture in a way, not in a deep sense but just cos I like the shapes of buildings and just looking at streets and areas that are either old and quaint, or new and nice looking, or just weird looking like say Tokyo, or even Soho in London.

There’s also something about traditional Japanese houses, I don’t know what, but they do it for me. I think it’s the roofs, I really like them. The roofs are actually the only parts of temples I can still look at with any real interest as well. So it was lucky that we went to Kawagoe on our holiday this week, about 40 mins outside of Tokyo and nicknamed Little Edo (Edo is the old name of Tokyo), as it still holds traditional buildings and houses from the Edo period. Most of these seem to be clustered in one part of the town, which has now become a big shopping street (nice tactic there), and they make for a fascinating day out - not just because they’re old and traditional, but because you’ll find them alongside a variety of modern buildings, including red brick walls, fancy architectural nonsense and European buildings. All of which makes for a refreshing sight. And actually the shopping isn’t bad either, and the area is really nice.

Continue reading »

Popularity: 5%

written by Laurent \\ tags: Japan, pictures, Random, travelling

In what seems to be a week of people and things going down, I’ve just found out that it seems Nova has declared bankruptcy, as of this morning. Nova is the McDonald’s of the English Conversation industry in Japan - the biggest of the big dogs, and pretty soon it may well be something of the past. Nova’s problems have been ongoing for quite a while, but this year it seems to have all come to a head with teachers and staff being unpaid, the government ruling against them in a case dealing with students and fees, and work places being repossessed after rent has gone unpaid (as well as teachers’ accommodation). This has led to teachers walking out, strikes, and school closures in recent months. More recently some senior members resigned, and the president went into hiding.

Most of which is pretty dark for the people involved - staff and students. And I guess some management. But by and large those at the top have probably known it was gonna go pear shape for a while, and they’re the ones who really have to answer for the collapse of what seemed to be an unmovable corporate giant for a long time. Thing is the business world is a cruel one. The president hasn’t made things easier, having been trying to worm his way out of any responbility since it all kicked off this year. Though that seems to have finally stopped if the claims of bankruptcy filed this morning are correct.

Continue reading »

Popularity: 5%

written by Laurent \\ tags: Japan, Teaching

I’ve just found out that Oink, a website offering torrents of music releases in high quality formats, has just been shut down. As is the norm in today’s media free for all there is a grossly uninformed piece about it on the BBC website, and there is a well written and brilliant piece on the death of this music lovers’ haven on DJ Rupture’s website. The piece highlights the inconsistencies and dilemnas surrounding the whole music piracy debate that has been raging since people who make a lot of money from music realised they’d missed the boat to make more money 8 years ago.

Which made me think about the stuff I wrote earlier on this month regarding internet TV and free TV/movie content available online. Turns out in the guy who ran tv-links was also nabbed recently and the site shut down (though why still puzzles me considering that site was merely a recipient for links to copyrighted material held on other sites - the coporate machine obviously has intricate workings). UPDATE - found this amusing but also on point comment piece on the guardian site about tv-links being shut down.

Continue reading »

Popularity: 4%

written by Laurent \\ tags: Music, Random

Let me start this with an aside: if you ask a Tokyo resident about the Imperial Palace you’re likely to be met with a blank look and an answer along the lines of ‘what is that?’. Turns out it seems most Tokyoites don’t know that’s the name for the Kokyo, more likely if their English isn’t so good as well. I’ve tried it with about twenty people so far, and only one didn’t return a look of consternation at me.

Anyways we went to the Imperial Palace the other day. Located near Tokyo station (that always gets tourists too it seems), it’s the proverbial jewel in the Imperial family’s crown. I’ve got to admit though, it’s pretty average as far as jewels go. Don’t get your hopes up too high should you come to visit, and I’d even say you shouldn’t make it too high a priority on your list either. Kyoto has a lot more to offer on that front.

Imperial, royal and other -al ending adjectives related to god like classes and associated with a building generally mean something pretty imposing and interesting. Thing is with Tokyo’s Imperial Palace is that you can’t actually see the Palace itself - it’s off bounds, apart from two days a year. Bit of a bugger that really. Not that I wanted to see every angle of it, but it’d be nice, what with the name and everything. What you can see is a bit of the building from far off, the moats and some of the gardens. Which is nice, but again a bit of a downer. I’ve seen a few royal lodgings in my time (ho hi hon [pronounced in a snotty French accent]) and this one is by far the most uninteresting. Hell even Buckingham Palace was more interesting.

The moats and gardens are nice, but pretty quickly seen and taken in really. I actually found the surrounding skylines and streets more interesting than most of the Imperial Palace. Ah well. On the plus side we did stumble upon what seemed to be a huge gathering of Goth fans on our way out of the area - and I mean huge, with thousands of black clad, boots wearing, pasty faced teens meandering down the street towards a concert arena. Actually the stereotypical Goth image doesn’t really do these guys justice. There was enough of them to provide us with a veritable kadeiloscope of variations on the whole Goth theme. Which was interesting, culturally I mean  :lol: Seriously though walking through the hordes of fans was a pretty surreal experience, which more than made up for my missing the cosplay days at the Tokyo Game Show.

While we didn’t stop to immortalise the moment when we were amidst said hordes, we did decide to stop and snap some of them on their way out of the nearby station. So as usual there’s a bunch of pics on Flickr you can check out, as well as some pics from that Imperial thingymajig.

Imperial Palace Flickr set 

Popularity: 4%

written by Laurent \\ tags: Japan, pictures, Tokyo

Following on from my quick blurb about Alex Case’s recent post on the mysteries of Japanese motivation in the classroom, I’ve got round to formulating some thoughts on the issue. While it’s definitely not something I can claim to have much experience of, having worked in Japanese classrooms (or the pretence of depending on how you view Eikaiwas) for the last 10 months has definitely given me a whole new insight into what the motivations for learning a language can be for Japanese people. In contrast to my short but intensive time training for a CELTA degree last year, and during which I dealt with learners from a variety of countries and levels, dealing with the motivation of certain Japanese learners on a daily basis can be a totally mind boggling experience, and one that definitely forces you to also reconsider your own reasons, and motivation.

The issues with motivation in a Japanese classroom can be varied - some people come it seems just to tell you how great Japan is, others are obviously after a chat and will seemingly do anything they can to delay any sort of teaching, others yet will take any form of trying to teach them pretty badly, some will want your opinion on anything and everything and yet more come because it seems that learning English is their current hobby. The last one is probably the one that winds me up the most. Don’t get me wrong we all need, and have, hobbie especially in this day and age of over consumption and capitalism, but personally I’ve never once considered learning a language as a hobby. I don’t know, I learnt languages because I needed to, and I practice them because I want to, or need to for work (my current employment being a strong case in point). I can understand why someone might want to learn a language as a hobby, especially if they’re older. It passes time, it can be stimulating and it brings a certain amount of cultural learning with it too.

Continue reading »

Popularity: 4%

written by Laurent \\ tags: Japan, motivation, school, Teaching

Now that the summer heat is firmly behind us I’m starting to enjoy one of the things I discovered I love most about Tokyo… the quality of light during cold days. It’s hard to explain but when we arrived here in winter and I started snapping pictures left, right and centre I noticed after a while that there was a certain something about the light in the pictures which was really attractive.

I don’t really know how to describe that certain something, but I noticed how it wasn’t there anymore during the spring and summer months, when the temperature went up. The pictures I was taking, and just the quality of the light in general, seemed to be very different - and during August when it got stupidly hot it felt like there was a kind of mist in the air, which made things look less attractive. In comparison during the winter months, and again for the last few weeks, it seems like the air is a lot clearer and in turn the quality of the light is a lot nicer, and attractive again.

It just makes things look nicer, I don’t know. It probably sounds stupid and it’s really obvious, but it’s something I can definitely feel even if I can’t explain it.  Looking back at the pictures I took during my bike trips earlier on in the year, the light just seems so different. And it’s starting to happen again. Bad timing though as I broke my digital camera again last month and it seems I’ve now lost it for good as I sent it back for repairs and it never arrived.

Popularity: 3%

written by Laurent \\ tags: Japan, pictures, Random

No matter how prepared you are, how trained or how keen, one thing you won’t be ready for when teaching in an Eikaiwa in Japan for the first time is how quickly your motivation can be sapped. And how many people you’ll deal with who have no seeming motivation to learn. I know I sound miserable and it’s likely not the case for everyone out there, though I’d really like to hear of someone teaching in an Eikaiwa who has never dealt with either problems, even just once.

Alex Case put it better than I could over on his blog, having solved the mystery of Japanese motivation. Which got me thinking… but right now my brain is totally shattered from exhaustion and so I’m gonna leave my own thoughts on this until a little later, when I can actually string an argument and some thoughts together. I swear though, one hour private lessons are the work of the devil.

Popularity: 4%

written by Laurent \\ tags: Japan, motivation, Teaching

What follows is an observation/rant/idle ramble about one of the most commonly observed oddities of Japan… packaging. Which may not be quite what you expected. And neither was it when I first arrived here either, though it’s something you notice soon enough, even if you’re just visiting. The Japanese have turned packaging into an obsessive, compulsive disorder, or if you want to be nicer, an art. Or if you want to be realistic, a pain in the backside.

For a country so obsessed with recycling and various other ‘green’ activities (to an extent anyways), their ability to undo any good the recycling may produce by over packaging goods never ceases to amaze. Whether you’re buying a single, small item or shopping for the week, you’ll find yourself with more plastic bags (of various sizes) than you could possibly ever need.

Wanna buy a can or milk from the conbini? Best grab it before the overeager staff put it in a bag. Even better - go to the conbini to buy some recycling bags (which are already pre-packaged in their own plastic cover), and they’ll be put into another plastic bag for you to carry home. Which surely must be causing some sort of space-time continuum tear somewhere, somehow.

Continue reading »

Popularity: 4%

written by Laurent \\ tags: food, Japan, packaging, plastic

I love a good story. But in this day and age of multimedia consumption, of here today, gone tomorrow, a good story can be hard to come by. And I’m not talking about books, I’m talking about audio-visual: movies, tv shows, anime, cartoons etc… It’s nothing new, you only have to look around yourself, at the latest movies or shows, to realise that the emphasis shifted a long time ago - from telling a story to selling you an idea, neatly packaged in special effects, famous people and whatever else is popular at the time. Which also isn’t to say there aren’t any good stories around anymore, they’re just harder to find.

My gripe though isn’t just with the celebrity cult western societies have been afflicted with for a while or the rise and predominance of the blockbuster movies and tv series. Rather it’s with the fact that a good story, especially in serial format, is just not something you can find easily anymore. Back in the days, things were simpler and while we had our fair share of crap we also had our fair share of good. Taking TV series as the main focus here, things have only got worse as the years have gone on.

While for the last ten years or so TV series have definitely moved towards a template that resembles more the Hollywood blockbuster prototype than anything else, one thing that has always been a constant is that if the series isn’t pulling in the viewing numbers it won’t last long, regardless of its artistic merit, especially the story. Examples of this are ripe, and it’s a given of the game, which is I guess fair enough. But today things have got more extreme - ratings are still a factor, but it seems that the story, the magic of telling a story over a long period of time is definitely getting lost. Series not only resemble movies, or try to, they also a lot of the time seem like they’re not really going anywhere. There isn’t a definite beginning, middle and end to a story anymore. Only the factors of ratings and popularity. And so the few series that do at times appear with a strong story, often end up never being told in full, due to low ratings or popularity.

Continue reading »

Popularity: 4%

written by Laurent \\ tags: anime, movies, storytelling, Television, TV series

The advent of web 2.0 has supposedly been a boon on both the internet and its users. Personally I’m still standing on the fence. Yes it has some very definite and enjoyable benefits, hell I’m using one of them right now by blogging this, but it’s also brought about a whole host of painful things, most notably in my opinion a giant free for all of user created content with no benchmark or quality control whatsoever, meaning we’re not only flooded with information, but we’re also flooded with a shit lot more crap information and data than before. Oh and it’s now never been easier for everyone and their dog to voice opinions on anything and everything. Maybe I’m getting old or maybe it’s democracy, I’m not sure.

A web 2.0 moan isn’t my purpose this time round though. Rather I’ve got thinking about one of the many promises the advent of the internet has made since its prominent rise in the late 90s. And that’s the promise of online, on-demand TV. Having been in Japan for over 9 months I must say I’m starting to suffer from slight withdrawal symptoms, not because I don’t watch TV anymore (that ticks a good box in my book) but because I don’t watch anything in English anymore. Japanese TV has its uses, but so far they’re pretty limited. As my mate put it, Japanese TV is the equivalent of having Channel 5 on every channel :lol: . Which ain’t that great is it? Ask the Italians if you don’t believe me, Berlusconi has ruined Italian TV forever with the same, cheap tactics.

So the other day I decided I wanted to start watching some TV programs again - partly because I’d been given some bits to watch by my friend (the first series of Heroes amongst other things) and partly because Ella had been hinting that TV links is a good way to watch some TV online. The downside of being given things to watch, is that once you’re hooked you want more, and yes TV Links is quite good, but it suffers from some problems like many other streaming sites out there. Links are often broken, copyrighted content is hunted down and withdrawn and streaming quality varies greatly, all of which don’t make for great pleasure. Unless you’re a technology freak.

Continue reading »

Popularity: 3%

written by Laurent \\ tags: internet, Television, web 2.0