Festival along the streets of Gakugeidaigaku in Meguro features a parade of characters like the American style banjo band wearing stars and stripes ties. Taking the picture as it’s always interesting to see one culture group imitating another in any form. A common sight to see in Tokyo young kids dressed in American hip hop clothes. Each represents some visual play with identity or belonging to a group. They could be dressing up to belong to a group they feel is more “real” than everyday in Japan. It looked like they were all having fun at the festival the picture of the American band is my token photo of Japanese being American as for the lat year at TUJ so many students have used visual depictions of Japanese doing western activities as a way of trying to understand the Japanese culture. Other act at the parade featured hip hop Jump roping and some more traditional costumes that look like they have some agricultural roots in the designs. The crowd was mostly shoppers along this normally busy road of the one time home to a large university. The city Gakugeidaigaku was home to a large university but as the Japanese population has aged the university has closed here. What’s left is a kind of funky town that has some flavor of a youthful university town but with no University. 

Bento

The arrangement of a bento box seem important, as the colors and flower add a visual appeal to the presentation of what is a basic fish and rice meal. All bento here seem to be arranged in some way or organized in a system that has become the expected norm of lunch box arrangement. Almost every sushi box also comes with a big blade of fake plastic grass. I have no idea what to do with this maybe save it for American Easter holiday. The bento has become a staple of the Japanese diet but the meals are more often sold in stores as opposed to made at home. I learned in class that making a kids lunch can take along time to prepare properly.

In the book “Out” I read recently groups of women work the night shift earning minimum wage all night preparing these meals to be later sold in convenience stores around the county. These women in the story had a hard time making ends meet as one of their husbands spent all their savings at the hostess club.  Not to repeat myself but it’s easy to see the unwinding and global undermining of tradition in modern Japan in something as simple as a box lunch. The time people are wiling to spend preparing food indicates a pace of life is faster.

Dogs in Tokyo

This type of dog beauty shop is appearing all around in Tokyo, often in many nice locations. They appear very fashionable and well located in Tokyo. I’m not sure the trend in dog ownership over the years but I can guess by observation its growing and a big business here. I have seen many dog grooming shops and dog owners around Tokyo. People are putting off raising kids I could be a form of displacement activity as dogs are cheaper to take care of than children. Many times I have seen a young couple pushing a stroller only to see inside it’s a small dog wearing clothes under the stroller blanket. The neighborhood I live in is littered with plastic bottle filled with water. I was told it to prevent dogs from peeing on the corner of your house. I read in the paper that one of the first murder trials tried by a lay judge was a case of neighbors fighting over these bottles that ended in a murder. Dogs are serious business here and appear well loved friends for people living in Tokyo. Dogs seem to make up social groups in the parks near my house. It’s hared to tell how close the people are or how well they know each other but people with dogs are often chatting in groups. I notice that the groups are even subdivided often with one group with big dogs chatting together and in a separate area a group with smaller dogs will be chatting. Similar to school kid

Tokyo:

Tokyo: kombini store are every ware here in Japan as fixtures of the economy but more over they have dominated the visual landscape of Tokyo only to represent a side of modern life that makes thing easy to throw away in society that thrives on convenience and quick exchange that sharply contrast the high context culture of Japans past. These convenient stores here in Tokyo often provide temporary low paid work to young people representing the quintessential liminal status Freeter employment. The stores have become at time social centers, as hubs of activity for youth to spend time or look at magazines.

Its been said Japan is a tread mill society as people are often very busy these store provide a service that fit amount of time people have to invest in social interaction or commitment to free time rituals. These stores are very low on the scale of social interaction for some but as they grow many young people see them as someplace cheap and fun to hang around. They read magazines charge their phones eat junk food. Like starbucks in America it could be said is another home to some.

Ramen

The serious business of eating consume a lot of time as many will also opt for a quick meal like the ramen restaurant pictured. This palace is almost always busy with a long line out the door. This day was a rare exception the heard mentality of eaters here usually flocks to this ramen shop similar to the one in Tampopo.

I rarely eat this as it’s been said to be high in salt and fat. It’s a form of fast food and having read that many salary men are only given a small amount of money by their wives to eat lunch this makes for an economic meal. I notice the people eating here are usually men. This appears to be a trend in other ramen restaurants I have observed that roman is for men generally. When I asked about this someone said women like cleaner fashionable café with less fat or healthier prepared meals. The lines at the door of men, generally confirms my observation. Taking this idea it could be said that men and woman in Japan have some difference in taste of food and eating styles. Many ramen shop are lined along train stations and bus stop confirming that ramen seems to be a meal for on the go people in tokyo

Food

This is Tonki the neighborhood deep fried pork restaurant. It’s ranked as the best fried pork restaurant in Tokyo so its always busy. Ranking almost anything from schools to food means a lot here even the pork is ranked so people will line up to eat at many places in Tokyo as other places in the world to eat what somebody else calls the best food. Many TV show are dedicated to food or restaurant as eating is not taken lightly here.

Aum

  This is the Naka Meguro station where one of the Aums attackers boarded the train with the sarin gas. I read in Haruki Murakami’s book “the Underground” an account of the events. The station looks normal as nothing ever happened can’t see any warning or evidence of such a famous event that happened here in Tokyo. I was told the reason no garbage cans are place any ware near any of the Tokyo train stations is to prevent a similar attack on the subway. I travel frequently thru this station in now I wonder what went thru the minds of the attackers to get on the train at Naka Meguro station. Naka Meguro is kind of a fun hip neighborhood, a mix of the old and new artistic and commercial. Maybe it was a place that someone in Aums would not stand out as peculiar or suspicious because you can see many strange and funny dressed people here.