The Many Faces Two

- this is a boy that was just enjoying the snow in japan.

If you have not read below please read that before this entry. I have tried documenting my photographies and tried to figure out the poses of japan with the peace sign and the faces they copy from television personal's. I have come to much conclusion that it is just the Japanese way. Maybe it is do to their incloser for so many centuries from the rest of the world that keeps them harmounous but more and more young Japanese are going outside of that box and traveling and seeing the world and becoming less of the whole back of a person's persoanlity. If you would like to hear more about my research please contact me at wiccan03@hotmail.com.
Thank you for your time and patients!

- this man was waiting for a bus tour to start

look at the pose he gave.

-this picture was taken to show that if one is in japan long enough one starts to do the peace sign.

-this woman was doing a pose again, more so poses are famous in japan now a days. These women are also posing for the camera it seems to be really popular now especially with purikura.

The Many Faces of Japan!

I chose to do my project on the Japanese people. Sure, it is very obivious that the Japanese people are a part of Japanese culture but do many people consider them beautiful? Without the Japanese people there would be no Japan. With many different peoples stereotypical idea of how a Japanese person it is interesting how they make people notice them. I decided to narrow my research down to picture taking and interviews.

- This picture was taken while doing maiko which is rarely done by the japanese now.

The peace sign is so big in Japan one might find themselves doing it after awhile staying in Japan. My task to myself was to uncover why they do the peace sign and to capture the true person uderneath the sign and face.

-This picture on the left was taken of a woman doing her usual pose with the peace sign included. However, to the right is her caught of guard doing something quite different from her usual self!

I wanted to show two different sides of a person. However, I found it difficult to get people to let their guard down and how the real them. So I focused my effects on a few individuals that will remain nameless. I got to know these people very well and I saw the real them hopefully you can too!

- These two pictures I found fascinating. The one on the left was taken at a pre-school on lunch break and apparently this woman was incharge of the money. The one on the right is a training subway man who was being tested for his job.

Many people I interviewed said that they felt the peace sign or the "V" for victory was what people expected of them as well as part of the Japanese people. Because the Japanese have been doing the sign for decades, now many believe that it is a Japanese thing to do. For people that feel it is expected of them to do the peace sign I believe that is a stereotype and the Japanese just let the stereotype stay the way it is.

- In these two pictures I found women who were like other Japanese people and thinking the peace sign is cute and I also found someone with inner beauty and she knew it.

Many Japanese people have such a dedication to their jobs that sometimes it is scary. I deicided to catch some Japanese being their childish selves again. I believe that at times the Japanese could learn things from foreigners as well as their children. Just because someone is an adult does not neccessarily mean that one can not have fun.

-These two photography's I took were showing adult's acting like children. The man is feeding deer in Miyajima and the woman is being a child once more in a Nagano zoo.

-I feel that the Japanese can learn from their children to relax and live a little. The woman's photo was taken at a maiko parlor in Kyoto. The children were on a bus tour with me for several hours.

-Children have such innocence and do not care much about what society wants from them or what other people do either. The boy just smiled at his mother in the audience at his school. The other boy decided to strike a pose for me. Do you think that when the Japanese strike some pose it is the same as threwing the peace sign?

- Three Japanese women at a local sushi bar striking a pose once more at the camera. However, not the peace sign. Four Kansai Gaidai students at a purikura place in Kyobashi.

I would like to know what you think about my blog as well as the Japanese peace sign and poses. Hopefully we as a people can figure out why the Japanese do what they do. Thank you for reading feel free to comment please!

Hokkaido

I recently traveled to Hirafu which is about 3 hours away from Sapporo in Hokkaido, the most northern island of Japan. It is interesting because Hokkaido is also known as Dekkaido and Hokkaido is the only part of Japan that has more natural space then human inhabitated space. It was rather wide for a change as oppose to the city life in Osaka with crapped streets and such. I went with my two big sisters in Japan, Chie and Nahoko and Nahoko brought two of her guy friends Morishin and Hirose. We went there by plane and it took 4 hours from Osaka to Hokkaido which we have a transfer in Tokyo. We went to go snowboarding because it is March in Japan it is rather hard to find snow but it is still rather cold. It was a weekend trip in which we went Friday to Sunday and I had to ruin some fun by twisting my ankle the first day, hey what can I say I am from Miami and I am a beginner. But we still enjoyed the delicious food that Hokkaido had to offer with all the seafood and beer you could eat!

From the airplane the island looked alot like Alaska with all the snow and mountains. It was a surprise to find this island that was convered by pure snow and it was powdered compared to the normal pictures of Tokyo that many take of the thousands of people crossing the street. And in movies the hussle and bussle of city life of Tokyo. Many don't stop to take in the atmosphere of Hokkaido. However, it is a prime spot for Austiralians for a winter get away. At least Hirafu was the get away.

During the plane flight the Japanese entertain themselves with games and with making fun of their friends if the friend falls asleep.

I caught this shot by admiring the view of Hirafu and this Japanese snowbroader was admiring it as well until he went down the steap pass on a beautiful Friday and the sunset in the less inhabited Hokkiado.

The Beginning

Hey I'm a undergraduate student studying abroad in Osaka, Japan. This is my second semster here at Kansai Gaidai University. It is a good college campus and with well defined afternoon classes. I live with a host family and they are like my second family I am so lucky to have meet them. I have done much traveling during my time in Japan and still am. I wish to share with many people the wonders that Japan has to offer other then the stereotypical Japan such as: manga, anime, cartoon pornography, pachinko, and love hotels. Sure those are a part of Japan however there is so much more, that many are taken a back with when they travel to Japan and become disappointed. I hope to not disappoint you however boarden your mind at the possiblity of many new things and share with you my Japan Explored.