90's Socks

In the 1990s, a very interesting fashion trend occurred in Japan. This trend was super popular among teenagers, especially those in high school. This trend included socks. In Japan, students wear a uniform and they are required to wear it a certain way. This means they can’t have their skirt be too short or wear their shirts or vests in an incorrect way. However, many students find ways to work around that and wear their uniform in their own unique way. Students in the 90s decided to use their socks in a creative way.

In Japan, girls would take thigh-high socks and push them down so it created folds all the way down. Then, they would glue or sew the socks so they stayed that way. This was a very popular form of wearing socks, however, it’s odd. The sock trend was seen as very cute in Japan.

Below are five Japanese high schoolers wearing these trendy socks:

[source]

Karaoke

Karaoke originated in Japan. The creator of karaoke, Daisuke Inoue, never patented it, and so he lost millions and millions of dollars (or I guess yen) that he could’ve made if he had a share of the profits. However, instead of having any hard feelings about this, he was just content that karaoke could be enjoyed by so many people, and that it could be a source of happiness and fun. Karaoke is pronounced kah-rah-oh-keh (instead of carry-oh-key like Americans usually pronounce it).

Karaoke was very popular in America in the 2000s, but it has recently declined in popularity. Many people usually know what Karaoke is, but if you don’t, then here’s an explanation. Karaoke allows you to sing to songs. The words (lyrics) of the songs roll across the screen, or they just appear and a color flows over them as you’re supposed to read them and as they are supposed to be sung. In America, karaoke bars aren’t that common, but they do exist. Usually in America there are normal bars that feature karaoke. Karaoke is usually in bars in America because nervous people will lose their inhibitions with a few drinks. These people will sing more freely (even if it’s off pitch or sounds bad) and the bar will make more money.

Also available in America are portable Karaoke machines. Portable karaoke machines are rectangle devices with a TV screen in front and a microphone attached that you sing into. Once the microphone picks up sound, it sends signals to the karaoke machine to make it seem louder. I had one as a kid, and I sung all the High School Musical songs at full volume. I loved to pretend I was on stage. I even forced my neighbor to sing with me. We’d always sing duets with him being Troy and me singing as Gabriella. My parents humored us, although I’m sure we sounded terrible.

In Japan, Karaoke is very common. Karaoke bars in Japan are very different than ones in America. For example, they cater much more to high schoolers and college students, although adults are found in karaoke bars very often as well.

The front of a big or popular karaoke bar usually has Karaoke written in katakana (カラオケ) in neon lights at the front. When you want to do some karaoke, you go into the karaoke bar. The person waiting there will help you. Tell them how many people you have with you, and how long you want to be there. You pay by the hour in some places, and in other places you pay one set fee for unlimited time. By the hour, it’s usually 500-700 yen (5 to 7 dollars) for a cheap karaoke place. The standard is usually around 1,000 yen (or 10 dollars). The price for one unlimited karaoke place I saw was 3,500 yen (or 35 dollars) per person.

Karaoke bars in Japan don’t center around alcohol. Instead, karaoke bars are set in private rooms. The private rooms are usually dark with comfortable couches all around a big TV. There is a small square touch-screen device that lets you choose songs and put them in order. There are also usually two microphones for duets or many friends to share at once. Lots of food and many drinks are available from menus (if you want them). To order, all you do is type in your order and send it in, and it will be brought to you.

Since karaoke is such an important part of Japanese culture, we did karaoke on our Japan trip. We each paid the fee, and were led to a dimly lit room with super comfortable chairs and a large flatscreen TV in front of us. There was a large table in front of us as well, and it resembled a huge booth from a restaurant in America, because the seats wrapped around the walls. We sang Bohemian Rhapsody and other songs we all knew, as well as songs only a few of us knew. It was really fun after a long day of walking around Japan. We didn’t buy any food there, but the food on the menu looked delicious. The touch screen device was fun to use as well, although for some reason it was difficult to stop certain songs once they played. For example, our teacher wanted to hear a teenage pop song, and someone chose Nicki Minaj’s Anaconda. None of us remembered many of the lyrics and thought they were slightly risque, but not too bad. We were wrong; they were incredibly explicit and our teacher actually blushed from hearing them. Try as we might, we couldn’t get the song to stop until it was almost done. So, that was fun.

Here’s a picture of people in a karaoke room. It’s not our Japan trip group, but it seems like there are foreign exchange students there, or at least people who moved to Japan from another country.[source]

Kabuki

Kabuki (歌舞伎) is a classical type of Japanese theater. Kabuki traditionally features only men for all the characters, whatever the gender of the character may be. Originally, kabuki was created with all women performers, but throughout the years it has transitioned to all men. These men are usually dressed in kimono and have lots of makeup on. Their hair is gelled and styled to look like traditional styles from feudal Japan.

Another aspect of kabuki is Nagauta (長唄). The first kanji is the kanji for long (nagai) and the word “uta” means song. Literally Nagauta translates to “long song.” Nagauta uses the shamisen, a traditional Japanese instrument. Usually someone also sings in the background as well. Nagauta is used primarily to set the story or create a certain mood. Nagauta tells a story that gives background information to the characters or moves from one scene to the next.

Contemporary, or more current kabuki, is often comedy. These shows are set on small stages with props and sets, just like an American play. When I went to Japan, I saw a kabuki show in an onsen, or hot spring (in this case it was a resort developed around a hot spring), I went to. Many people in the audience were laughing and having a great time. I took lots of pictures, but I couldn’t understand very much of what they were saying. My host sister translated some of it for me in English, and it was really funny. A lot of the jokes were comical misunderstandings or language puns. My love for puns is very fierce, so I enjoyed the show greatly.

Below is a picture of Kabuki actors:

source

MMD

MMD stands for Miku Miku Dance. It goes hand in hand with Vocaloid, but can stand alone as its own software. Miku Miku dance is named after Vocaloid’s Hatsune Miku. It is a software used to animate the characters from Vocaloid. This animation software is very popular, and it’s used to make some music videos for Vocaloid songs. It’s also used to animate the characters in Vocaloid for concerts.

Miku Miku Dance has a few major components to it. It acts as a 3D rendering software, and everything is editable. Basically, the Vocaloid characters are puppets that you move. Similar to a traditional animation software or stop motion films, each movement makes up a frame. If you combine many frames of movement together, it creates an animation. These animations are usually set to music, and they are the dance portion for Vocaloid music videos.

You can also edit the background, import music for your dancers, and change the camera angles. Because of how versatile this software is (and how popular the characters are, along with the fact that you can get MMD for free) there are also many memes and spoof videos created with MMD and posted on YouTube. Here is an example of an MMD meme. The video is of three guys lip syncing to Backstreet’s Back by the Backstreet Boys. They animated three characters to follow their movements, and I think it’s hilarious. It takes a long time to animate each frame, similar to real animation software.

Here is a picture of the actual Miku Miku Dance software itself in use.

[source]

Vocaloid

Vocaloid, or boukaroido (ボーカロイド) in Japanese, is a hugely popular music software originating in Japan. Vocaloid is basically artificial voices. This is achieved by creating each sound in the Japanese language with artificial “voice” software. When you choose a certain sound in Japanese, and choose the pitch, it will sound like a slightly robotic-sounding Japanese person is singing that sound. With this, any word in the Japanese language can be created, so it’s highly versatile. The software lets you change pitch, speed, duration of the notes and lets you add your own background music (such as piano). You can upload background music, or create your own on the software. You do the same steps to create the background tracks that you would to make the voices themselves. You can mix your music, change volumes, edit tracks.

The Control parameter screen (shown below) is there to show expressiveness in the voices: if you want a song to have more passion, you can edit the voice to make it louder or give it more vibrato. The original version of Vocaloid is nearly impossible to use if you’re not fluent in Japanese (all the buttons, commands, and explanations are in Japanese). However, I think there’s a fan-made translated version of Vocaloid available, because the software has become so popular.

Here is a screenshot of Vocaloid. The different sections are labeled to show how they work.

[source]

If you’re at all familiar with Vocaloid, I’m sure that software is the last thing you’re thinking. Each of the “voice” sounds are given in a few different starting pitches, which makes it seem like a different person is singing them. These different voices have names and even backstories. The most popular of these is Hatsune Miku, who has long teal hair in pigtails, and dresses in a gray stylized Japanese school uniform, thigh highs and black shoes. She is the face of Vocaloid because of her popularity, and many people all over the world recognize her.

These Vocaloid voices have become characters and even have their own appearances. Each of the characters have a specific color attributed to them. Hatsune Miku is known for her school uniform contrasting with her teal hair, but there are other characters as well. A character named Kaito always wears blue and has blue hair, while another character has red hair and wears only red. Two twin characters are blonde and always wear yellow.

The reason Vocaloid became viral so quickly is because of the songs created with it. It became popular in America through colorful music videos on Youtube, which people then translated and put subtitles on. In Japan, however, Vocaloid has become so popular that there are Vocaloid concerts.

If you’re familiar with the American band Gorillaz, you might know what a hologram concert is. Basically, they are concerts where music is played, and a huge screen is in front of a large audience. The screen displays an image that looks 3D, and the image is animated. The animation is matched to the music, so that it looks like the hologram is playing or singing the music. Here is a Gorillaz holographic concert.

Many Volcaloid songs have gone viral, such as “World is Mine” or one of my personal favorites, “Just Be Friends.” Just Be Friends is about a breakup, and it shows both people in the couple being sad about their happy memories. They grew apart, and they stopped dating. World is Mine, on the other hand, is different. The whole song is about a spoiled girl wanting her boyfriend to do everything and buy everything she asks for. She wants him to obey her, then she realizes the things she does and tries to love her boyfriend even more. This is the holographic concert for the song World is Mine.

For more information, the offical Vocaloid website is here: http://www.vocaloid.com/en/

Onigiri

If fine sushi is a culinary art form, you could think of onigiri as culinary arts 'n' crafts. Slightly more practical than sushi, onigiri is a main element of the Japanese bento box (boxed lunch) and a popular quick meal.

These little rice balls are made with sushi rice, but the rice is salted lightly, instead of seasoned with rice vinegar like in sushi. Sushi is meant to be aesthetically pleasing: it shows off the most delicate (usually expensive) pieces of seafood. Onigiri, however, uses leftovers and other ingredients you might have around, and hides them in the rice instead of showing them off.

[source]

Above is a picture showing how to open pre-made onigiri from a konbini. If you open it correctly, it doesn't fall apart and it can easily be eaten.

If you want to make onigiri, not much planning is required. All you need is cooked sushi rice, salt, and a few other ingredients to fill your onigiri.

If you don't have a rice cooker, here's how to cook rice without one:
Put 1 ½ cups of sushi rice (sushi rice and rice used for onigiri are the same) in a bowl. Rinse the rice in water, then drain, and repeat this process a few times to fully clean the rice. Put the rice and two cups of water in a saucepan, then cover and cook on medium-low for about 15 minutes. Then, turn off the heat (keeping the saucepan covered) for 10 minutes to allow it to finish cooking fully.

You can leave the rice plain or mix seasonings or pieces of meat and vegetables into it. What I found common in Japan was putting a filling in the center of the rice ball.

If you choose to put filling in your onigiri, pick in ingredient with lots of flavor. That way, if you're eating it on the go, you'll be able to enjoy it thoroughly without having to use anything like a dipping sauce. If you put leftover fish or chicken inside the onigiri, a little bit goes a long way. If the filling seems plain or bland, mix it with a little soy sauce, lemon juice, mayonnaise, or hot sauce before putting it into the onigiri.

Other onigiri ingredients are tsukudani (a seasoned type of seaweed called kombu) and umeboshi (pickled plum) are also popular.

[source]

Convienience of the Konbini

The konbini, (コンビニ) is a Japanese word meaning convenience store. These konbini are found all over Japan. Unlike convenience stores in America, konbini in Japan have a much larger variety of items. Konbini are smaller versions of Wal-Marts in America, with the same amount of items packed tightly in shelves along the walls. In konbinis you can find food for dinner, lunch, and dessert; masks, items for first aid kits, chap stick, magazines, manga, and shelves of 100 yen snack foods (right now 100 yen is a little less than a dollar).


In Japan, a popular reliable chain of konbini is 7 Eleven. These always have an ATM (which is very helpful for tourists) and are usually kept clean with high quality goods. However, every konbini I’ve been in was kept very clean and had very high quality items. The food (especially the sandwiches) were made in such a way that it seemed like they put quality over quantity, and valued the customer.

This is a konbini:

[source]

One of the most interesting things that’s carried in konbini are the types of bread, or pan (パン). There are many types of bread in Japan. It’s often eaten as a lunch food (since it’s high in calories to be a snack), but the variety of breads amazed me. There’s the curry bread that’s a circle of dough filled with spicy curry (called kare pan); my favorite sweet chocolate chip melon bread (called choco melon pan); sausage bread (so-se-ji pan); and the most interesting of all, the yakisoba roll. The yakisoba roll is a hoagie or a hot dog bun filled with noodles in special type of sauce, or yakisoba. There’s also veggies on top, and it’s a popular savory food in Japan.

Below is a picture of Yakisoba roll for sale in Japan. To the right of it is a ham and potato sandwich bread, and to the left of it is an egg salad roll: 

[source]

Bowing

In Japan, bowing is a very important part of daily life. The Japanese word for bowing is ojigi. Bowing shows respect for people who are important to you. Shown below is a picture of various degrees of bowing. In Japan, the most respectful bow is a saikeirei, or “deep bow.” This is generally 45 degrees. It’s proper to bow at this angle if you are very grateful to someone, or you are talking to your boss or someone in a position higher than you. The keirei (“medium bow”) is generally used when thanking or showing respect to people who are on the same level to you, for example your coworker. The eshaku (“light bow”) is when you are in a higher position than the person you are talking to (your employee, or someone younger than you or in a lower grade in school).


[source]

Pets in Japan

Pets in America are very common. They range from poisonous snakes and spiders to parrots to huge purebreed dogs. Pets are kept because people want a companion, or some type of animal to take care of. Americans often have large pets in their homes, since they generally have larger homes than people in Japan. Some people in America (who own large areas of land) even have huge pets, like camels, cows, or even buffalo. The most common pets in America are dogs, cats, rats, rabbits, fish and reptiles. When I was younger, I had two big dogs and a hedgehog.

In recent years, pets have also become more popular in Japan. Because Japan has much smaller spaces for housing, smaller pets are vastly more common than larger pets. In the country, where bigger houses are built, bigger pets can be found, such as larger breeds of dogs. Smaller pets are much more common in the city. These small pets are also easier to take care of than bigger pets would be.

There are many types of animals that are kept as pets, such as small dogs (chihuahuas, pugs, miniature poodles and other miniature breeds) cats, and fish. Hairless cats are common because they don’t shed, and anyone can own one even if you have a cat allergy. Stag beetles and beta fish have little to no maintenance to be kept, so they are popular with people who want pets but don’t have much time to care for them. Breeds of hamsters, flying squirrels, chinchillas, chipmunks and Netherland Dwarfs (tiny rabbits) are kept because they are cute and can easily be kept in a cage. Ferrets and Chinese rats are generally more intelligent, and therefore more high maintenance, but for people who are willing to care for them, they are great pets.

Rare pets in Japan include Fennec foxes, wallabies (small kangaroos), alligator snappers, brush-tailed possums, raccoons, prairie dogs, Skunks, hedgehogs, armadillos, and even iguanas. These pets are found kept both in the city and the country, but they it takes lots of different types of intensive care to keep them healthy, so they’re not in very high demand. Still, these pets are bought because they’re rare. Fennec foxes are super cute, but other pets like the alligator snappers are purchased to seem intimidating. Nothing is cooler than having and living with a dangerous rare pet. A lot of these pets (such as wallabies or armadillos) are kept by people who live in the country. These larger pets can’t be kept in the city; they need more space to be comfortable.

In Japan, pet stores can be much, much smaller than those in America. I saw one in Shinjuku on a street corner. It only had twelve dogs and cats in tiny cages on display, and the entire space was only a few meters wide. It was pouring (it was the rainy season, after all), and a young couple huddled close together under their umbrella, oohing and awwing at how adorable the puppies and kittens were. A few people who didn’t have umbrellas went inside for a short time to look at baby animals instead of braving the rain.

Another pet store I saw was much larger. It was in Aeon (pronounced ee on) mall, and it had more variety of animals. Half of the store was shelves stocked fully with pet toys, outfits, and food of various kinds. The other half of the pet store was the animals themselves. It was mostly many breeds of dogs and cats, such as wiener dogs, tiny poodles, calico cats, hairless cats, and tabby cats. The wiener dog seemed relentlessly shy, and wagged its tail slightly from between its legs whenever someone tried to pet it. The hairless cat sat tall on his haunches, looking down on all who watched him. A scruffy puppy with curly brown hair bounced around its cage, playing with a squeaky toy. A tiny striped kitten laid on its back and peeked at all the people looking at her. Her huge green eyes captivated a large audience, and I heard more than one child begging their parents to play with it or buy it.
 This is a picture of the cute little kitty:

My host sister in Japan bought her pet dog (Cocoa, a super fluffy white poof) in that pet store in Aeon a few years ago. Cocoa is house trained and very obedient. They taught him to fall over and play dead when they say “bang bang.” He wears a pink and blue striped sweater, and every 20 minutes or so, my host family would lint roll the white hairs Cocoa shed off the sweater. Like Cocoa, many pets in Japan are loved and cared for by their owners.

Peace~!

The peace hand sign, shown below, was originally called the V sign.

[source]

The V sign meant victory, and was shown whenever something was completed, or something good happened. After World War II in America, it was used as a symbol of pride symbolizing our victory. Later, in the Hippie era, the V sign was used to symbolize peace. Today, peace is the most common meaning of this symbol. It was widely used in America, but in recent years its popularity has drastically decreased. It’s not popular among American teens to form the peace sign in pictures. However, in Japan, that is not the case.

In Japan, teenagers and young people use the peace sign for pictures. Literally every single picture I took at the high school I went to had the peace sign in it. In Japanese the word for the peace sign is piisu sain (ピースサイン), or just piisu (ピース) for short. Many students think the peace sign is cool or cute, and even Japanese idols use it. In Japanese high schools, you don’t really fit in if you never do the peace sign in pictures. Similar to silly bands in America (for the one month they were popular), or that odd sock trend in Japan in the 90’s (which I’ll cover in a later post), it’s just a thing teenagers do as a fashion trend.

Here’s a picture of Japanese high schoolers showing the peace sign!

[source]

I used the peace sign so much in Japan, I still use it in pictures when I’m not thinking about it. I don’t even realize it, and then I notice people are looking at me oddly, and I’m the only one doing a peace sign. Just because, here’s a picture of me and my Japan trip friends! This is the last picture we took together in Japan before we split up to go home (one person stayed behind for an extra week, so the group wasn’t the same). We are all making the peace sign, and it’s all become natural for us.  

(No source for this image since I took it myself)

Toilet Talk

Generally, toilets aren’t a very interesting topic. I wouldn’t even be talking about them if I didn’t find something about them interesting. And trust me, I really don’t usually find toilets interesting. In America, they’re just toilets. They’re all the same: you sit on them, they’re in the bathroom, everyone knows what they’re used for, etc. etc. In Japan it’s the same general concept, however, there are three different types of toilets.

There’s the one we all know and love, the “normal” American toilet:

[source]

Its porcelain prowess matches no other in America. In Japan, it’s often found in most large public bathrooms where a lot of people go through. One or a few can generally also be found in schools, or other fairly public places. However, it’s not the most common type of toilet I found.

The second type of toilet I found was called a bidet.


[source]

If you don’t already know, bidets are high-tech toilets that spray water on you when you’re finished using them. This helps eliminate paper waste of other types of toilets. You can change the water pressure in most bidets, and some you can even change the temperature of the seat and the water.


[source]

Bidets are weird if you’re not used to them, but they’re not that bad, and they do tend to be cleaner and eliminate paper waste. One of my friends I went to Japan with made it a point to use a bidet every single time we passed one. We made fun of my friend about it for the whole trip, and she was a good sport about it. So you never know, you may love them too.

Last but not least, the most common toilet I found in Japan was the squat toilet.


[source]

These toilets intimidated me because I had never seen one before, and I had no idea how to use them. It was funny to me because earlier in my stay in Japan I saw a sign like this:


[source]

I couldn’t believe anyone didn’t know how to use a toilet, that seemed like common sense to me. I took pictures of the signs and laughed at them with my other American friends on the trip. When I saw a squat toilet, though, it all made sense.

Basically, you squat, and face the bigger part of the toilet. You have to throw away any paper waste when you’re done, or it’ll clog the toilet. I never used one of these toilets while I was in Japan because they intimidated me a lot. Oh well. If you go to Japan someday and use one, you’ll have to get back to me!

So, that was my enthralling two cents about Japanese toilets. Yeah, they’re not the most interesting things in the world, but the fact that they’re so different surprised me. Hope you didn’t think this post was crappy. 

B)

Mansions

When you think of mansions, what do you think of? Towering stone walls, hundreds of glass windows. A monster house with seventeen bathrooms and five swimming pools. Intricate stone carvings of gargoyles leaning precariously off the edges of the roof. Hundreds of wide steps leading up to each lavish floor. Meticulously shaped marble carvings along each doorway. Hand-painted wallpaper, bathtubs with clawed feet, velvet trim on the throw pillows that go with the sofa you could endlessly sink into. A place we all dreamed to live in as kids, a place only the very lucky or the exceedingly wealthy could even think of owning. What if I told you that in Japan, many people live in mansions?

Unfortunately, Japanese mansions are not the same thing as American mansions. In Japan, the word mansion, or manshon (マンション) refers to a huge concrete structure full of apartments. That’s right: in Japan, mansions are just apartment buildings. These mansions are generally many floors high and set in locations that have good views. Because these buildings are so huge, however, they are called mansions after the gigantic, lavish houses in America. This name made mansions in Japan exceedingly more popular, as the name reminded them of being rich or living an extravagant lifestyle.

As I said earlier, Japanese mansions can be many floors high. The second picture is an example of a very tall Japanese mansion. In Japan, it’s important to many Japanese people to live in a space that has a good view. That’s why apartments in Japanese mansions are more expensive the higher up they are. The better the view, the higher the rent. Some Japanese mansions, however, are shorter, or placed in a place where the view out the window is just another apartment building. Since Japan has such densely populated areas, buildings are often built very efficiently based on the land they are created on. This causes the view from some buildings to be not as good as the view from others.

Another important factor when people in Japan are choosing an apartment is the accessibility of the place. The closer a Japanese mansion is to a station, the more pricey the apartments inside it tend to be. The apartments are also more pricey if the Japanese mansion is close to convenience stores, restaurants, or shopping malls, because then the demand for the apartments in the mansion is higher.

Each Japanese mansion usually uses many factors to draw in prospective customers. Similar to in America, landlords or realtors of the mansions will show prospective buyers the apartment and let them see the space (and the view) for themselves. Sometimes mansions will create a functioning model of an apartment in the lobby (complete with a TV instead of a window that shows the view from various floors) that customers can interact with, so they won’t have to go up to the apartment itself.

Mansions in Japan are just apartment buildings, however, that doesn’t make them any less popular in Japan.

Below are a few pictures of Japanese mansions.
Here is the source for this image! [http://livedoor.blogimg.jp/c21oita6/imgs/c/f/cfcdaaca.JPG]


Here is the source for this image! [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Century-Park-Tower-2.jpg]