"Obey Consume Repeat!"

Dec 14, 2008
Taipei, Taiwan

We left Japan this morning and headed for Taipei. Home with my mom for the rest of the year. A much needed break and the unparalleled comfort only mom can provide.

Here are some of my overall impression of Japan:

1. Japan is one large mall/covered arcade. Every train station has a department store attached to it, all urban centers in Japan (Osaka, Tokyo, Kyoto) are all centered around places to shop (i.e multiple department stores within blocks of each other).

2. You could get lost in all major train stations and or live there for days.

3. My favorite things in Japan is the Shinkansen, and the best bargain you can have in Japan is the JR Pass.

4. Sushi is incredibly fresh in Japan, even the 20% off ones that you buy at the super market after 5pm.

5. Japan has a really interesting relationship with sex, marriage prostitution, evident in the multiple red-light districts that is a part of every city or how high school girls will sleep with men for easy money to pay for things such as their cell phone bills or a new outfit.

6. The Japanese are incredibly polite but the politeness is a facade.

7. The Japanese culture is for the good of the many and not for the will of the individual, obedience is highly valued, they don't even jay-walk.

OBEY CONSUME REPEAT feels like a good summary of my glimpse into the Japanese culture.

Japan certainly has many virtues, nearly a 99% literacy rate, and nearly 100% employment rate as well. It is extremely clean and modern, certainly a city of the future in many aspects. It is unparalleled in many of technological advances, such as a cell phone that can record and play TV shows, or with direct link to your credit card for you to make purchases simply by waving your phone at a censor. Yet the combination between advanced technology, obedience / lack of individual will, "strange" relationship with sex, pornography, marriage, rampant consumerism .... the combination only makes me think of movies such as Blade Runner or Novels such as The Handmaid's Tale. None of which depicts a future that I am excited for or eager to participate in.

I think I will skirt the modernized cities of the world for a little while. I think I prefer something with a little bit of rawness, something with a bit of an edge to it for the next destination.

Food Costs in Japan

Dec 4, 2008
Kyoto, Japan

The impression of Japan is that it is an expensive country to live and travel in. I certainly am feeling like I am burning through money a bit here. Although I do think that a trip through Europe or US would be just as expensive, if not more so.

As I have traveled, I have always found ways to cut down on costs and be some what thrifty, but I am having a rather hard time here practicing some tried and true money saving methods. For one thing, none of the budget places, hostels or ryokans actually have a kitchen for the guests to use that includes a stove. Which means that not much cooking is really possible. When a bowl of ramen costs 650Yen and up (current exchange is 95.4Yen = 1USD and with banks fees factored in, its more like 93Yen = 1USD), which means that the simplest meal you can have will cost you nearly $8. If some amount of cooking was possible, it sure would help with the budget travel.

Here are some of the sample food costs here in Japan:
A single apple = 88 Yen - 180 Yen (88Yen was on the smaller side, the larger ones are the size of an infant's head)
Bread = 188 Yen ( there was a special at the market that day where the price for 3 slices, 4 slices, 5 slices or 6 slices are bread all costs the same)
6 eggs = 298 Yen
Cream Cheese, 6 small single serving = 460 Yen
Pork Cutlet Sandwich = 360 Yen
Lunch Bowl sold at Train Stations = 840 Yen
7 piece of sushi outside of Tsujiki Market = 3500 Yen
Coffee = 200 Yen - 529 Yen (all simple drip coffee, nothing fancy, the cost of coffee is certainly killing me a bit here)
Pastry = 180 Yen and up
Water = FREE! The tap water is of such great quality there that you at least don't have to buy water, and it tastes great!

So, thank god for free and clean water, but maybe I should think about cutting back on the need for fresh fruit and coffee.

Girls here come in pairs, at minimum

Dec 3, 2008
Kyoto, Japan

Our friend Brian explained the Japanese mentality as an desire for not stick out. Individuality is ok but only when expressed along side of another. So if your friends are practicing the same kind of individual expression as you, then all is well.

With that in mind, I have been observant and I see that the girls come in pairs, at least. When you spot two girls together, on the train, out and about, they are coordinated, if not matching. They are sporting the same style and have made themselves (clothing, make up, accessories and etc) all to be of the same. Its like they are a matching pair.

This can quickly become a fun game to play - sit somewhere and see if you can spot the matching friend in the crowd.



Then, there are the school girls who are in uniforms. You would think that once they are in uniforms they all would look the same. Not so much. There is always little modifiers that are added on to the uniform to express that sense of individuality, except the group all share the same identify. For instance, there is this group of school girls all in uniforms but all of the girls all of converse style sneakers on, only that all of them are of different colors and patterns. Then, there was another group which all had "kicks" on by either nike or puma, same style but different color and patterns.

Is individuality is individuality when it is conformed within the will of the group? Can we all still be the unique snowflake that we are when we are all look the same?

Geisha spotting in Gion, or is it wild life hunting?

Dec 2, 2008
Kyoto, Japan

I think one of the must do thing for all of those who travel through Japan is at least an attempt to walk through the Gion district and have a sighing or two of Geishas as the culture and practice has captured the imagination of the West.

But as there are less than 100 geishas and 80 maiko left in Kyoto, less than 1000 of geishas and maiko in all of Japan, standing on the streets of Gion district in hopes to spot one of them begins to feel like a wild animal sighting of sorts. This feeling only deepens as double decker tour buses pulls through the narrow alley way full of tourists, Japanese and foreign.

At last, I see one! Dressed in full make up, hair and kimono, hustling down the street in small quick steps, my instinct is to pull out the camera and attempt a shot, but as all the other wild animal enthusiasts who have gathered near by flashes away, I quickly see that the Geishas do not really enjoy being photographed.

Out of respect (and also I rather suck as a paparazzi and I was not geared properly for wild life photography) I put my camera away after one lousy shot and started to take photos (albeit random and crappy) images of the gawkers instead. I think I really just wanted to annoy them in attempts to make them understand why the gawking and flashing cameras without any regard for the Geishas might just be a bit rude. I can't say if I was successful at annoying them and making my point know but I did get a few confused and dirty looks.

Plastic Food Models and Fake Foods

December 1, 2008
Kyoto, Japan

There are plastic food models outside of many Japanese restaurants to show you what the restaurant offers and what the costs are. Some of these food models looks amazingly realistic and delicious. Which got me thinking about a culture where much of your visual sensory experience relating to your meal is "fake" or "simulated." What effect does that has on the national psyche? the collective unconsciousness?

Then I got to wonder about the traveling sales men who goes from restaurant to restaurants to sell the owners updated or new models of the plastic foods. Where is the factory where they make these plastic foods? What about the factory workers who have to make the models and assemble them? Do you think the sales men has a big glossy catalog of plastic food options to choose from? Or do you think that the models are custom made to order for each restaurant? After all, I have seen quiet a bit of diversity in the arrangement of each models, even if the restaurants are all selling similar foods. Or do you think its a do it yourself kit that you can order? You get as many parts as you needs along with a large bottle of lacquer and you can arrange for the portions and presentation of the plastic foods as you see fit for your restaurant and when you are done, you pour the lacquer over it and wait for it to dry.


Then there are these miniature plush food replicas. Is it merely decorative? Or is it some sort of luck and prosperity kinda of talisman?

I am rather fascinated by all of these fake foods and if effect it has on the unconsciousness.