Despite of the real meaning of this popular song by The Vapors, “Turning Japanese”, I took this for its catchiness for this blog title. While the real meaning is about masturbation :P,  if you don’t believe me and are a very curious fella, click this link. turning japanese lyric

Anyway this song was popularized again by The Kill Bill movie, by Quentin Tarantino, showing a Japanese villain chick, played by an American Taiwanese-Chinese actress, Lucy Liu. Yes, an American.

I continued my monkichichan street art, she does get around these days! This one was around Aoyama street.

I also found a character called monchhichi and it has a gallery at Asakusa. I bought a tote bag and it was so cute, the kids around there also like it but Totoro is more popular. Monchhichi is a cartoon monkey and has been around since 1974 in Japan. Became popular again in the 90’s and there were girl and boy monchhichi.

Kawaii desu ne! Monkichichan and Monchhichi…

The Japan culture has became a cool theme culture, in cinema - anime and J-dorama huge fans, while I love more of the selected Japan new cinema but I also enjoy horror, monster, pink etc. Animation produced by Studio Ghibli was the anime I enjoy the most, I felt an obligation to visit the museum in Mittaka, Japan. Ghibli was acclaimed internationally for the Oscar winning “Spirited Away” for the first anime movie that won the best animation film. So I went and it was fascinating enough, undeniably an experience for a Ghibli fan, even though if I understand the language more, it would have been much better. <–pic

I tried to buy a movie from my favorite director, Hirokazu Kore-eda, I found it but was not sure if it would play in my country which will be a huge disappointment if I did. It has eigo subtitle, but region is 2, found out later that US region is 1 and South East Asia is 3. The movie called “Still Walking” or Aruitemo, Aruitemo and costs like ¥4500!! Compare to a bootleg DVD which is less than $ 0.70 in Indonesia but not always great festival movies will hit this black market only if I’m very lucky. Click for more DVD region info.

Fashion also, their unique street fashion was different compared to New York, London and Paris while there was always some similarities in general style like punk, hip hop or mod. Since I was in college in Bandung, I kept a style from Non-no magazine, Japanese fashion magz for teenagers. Me and my friends were hunting vintage/ used clothes in the big flea market regularly. The hats, clothes, scarfes, shoes, bags came from Japan, Korea and Hongkong mostly and was sold for very cheap. We had to look very carefully to find great items, put them in laundry and we were set to go to the bar/ club where our friends were playing in the rock band. ^_^ Those times were great. I found one great thrift shop, a really neat one, in Takeshita Dori, Harajuku. Sorry my bad, I don’t have the name but here’s a pic. The place was selling oldie but goodie keds in cute colors! of course I was in a hurry so I didn’t buy one. -_-  –>pic

Food, sushi place was trendy and I won’t complain about how many udon, ramen, shabu2, yakiniku restaurants are now open in Jakarta. I recalled that few years ago, lots of people won’t eat raw including myself but after serving sushi as a waitress in New York and got paid with sushi not money, I got hooked ever since. I ate delicious-ten times better than any restaurant in Jakarta-real Japanese food! I ate okonomiyaki in Hiroshima style <– pic where the chef prepared in front of you and we had to eat in the hot “stove” too. Tonkatsu with curry, ramen, sashimi horse meat (yes, I ate a horse and it was delicious), kaiten sushi … was few that I could remember oh and din tai fung was better in Tokyo too than in Jkt, taste wise. I ate bento everyday for 5 days and started getting a bit sick of it but after a week I got back, I found myself craving  again and went to Papaya nearby to get some for dinner ^_^

Literature, I followed some contemporary Japanese authors like Haruki Murakami, Banana Yoshimoto and read some work from the older generation Kenzaburo Oe and Mishima. But I have not had a chance to really visit the huge Kinokuniya in Shinjuku. I managed to buy some books at the Kansai airport (don’t ask why I went back from Osaka, it was a long story) and turned out these books opened my eyes about the real inside Japan. One fiction about yakuza daughter by Shoko Tendo, Yakuza Moon and a non-fiction about the fall of modern Japan, The Dogs and Demons. Following me and my Japanese friend’s conversation about yakuza in modern Japan is still alive and the fact that many of them are Korean Japanese who were discriminated by the homogenous Japan society. Racism to non japanese could lead to disadvantage for education, career and social life like marriage, status etc. My gaijin friend travelling with me a long way from New York also complained about how the people won’t sit beside him in a crowded train. Well, we don’t really know why exactly these discriminations still exist in such modern country as Japan.

J-music, I didn’t get to explore in very short period of travel, but my friend brought me to his favorite Jazz & Coffee place <–pic, a really small cozy place. We had to climb the old stairs and found the hide away place from the busy city. There was a big rare collection of jazz plates on the shelf, I’m not much of a Jazz fan but this cafe reminded me of how Murakami used to own a Jazz bar. So this is like what I have always imagined of Murakami sitting behind the counter. ^_^

Speaking of Tokyo, it was impossible not to talk about the night life, I visited the red light district of Kabuki-cho, Ikebukuro and Pachinko parlors. I didn’t take pictures because it was prohibited. Interesting culture that they have host bar where women can also be the guest and guys can be the host and hostess bar which is common every where. The handsome guys with suit and big hair hanging out on the street smoking, looking for women, was the typical host guys. I went to Akihabara and found a maid cafe –> pic which I was very curious about and dragged my friend in, a big disappointment! since we can’t speak Japanese so the maid was serving us the usual way.. unlike the “serving style” for oji-san that came after us.

I went to Asakusa also and experienced the Old Tokyo feeling with the temple and the sellers of noren, sweets, kimono, koinobori, etc. I took a lot of pics of everything in my flickr.

Enough said, the main reason for me is to attend a pilgrimage few weeks ago, visited and prayed in the big temple  Taisekiji in Mount Fuji and it felt very refreshing after. It was truly beautiful, the spring air felt great on my skin, the weather was perfect, nice breeze in the morning then warm afternoon and back to a bit cooler at night. Sakura was in full bloom, the environment was calming in perfect balance.

Despite the bad and beautiful view and facts about Japan, I still want to go back and go places I haven’t been. The more complex the country, the more interesting it feels to me.

Turning Japanese I think I’m turning Japanese I really think so´

Turning Japanese I think I’m turning Japanese I really think so´- The Vapors