Many parts of the culture of Japan’s are often viewed as a bit odd by western visitors. It is not only the language and customs you may find a bit different from back home, there a few other odd parts to Japanese society that can make any trip to Japan fun, with a new experience around every corner.
One of the more novel forms of advertising in many of the high traffic areas especially around Shibuya and Shinjunku are the tissue packs. These small plastic packages with advertising and packages are handed out in their tens of thousands every day by young people typically advertising mobile phone deals, dating services or party lines.
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The Japanese Animated art form known as Anime dates back to 1917 when Oten Shimokawa created the first film, a 5 minute feature that was called Mukuzo Imokawa the Doorman.
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These are one of the more unique lodgings to be found anywhere. They are basically a small cubicle less than a metre square and 2 metres long, usually stacked 2 or three high.
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If you are visiting the youth areas or areas known for manga like Tokyo’s Akihabara and Harajuku or Osaka’s Amerika-Mura, it won’t be long before you come across Cosplay. Cosplay is is the term for people dressing up in themed costumes. It may be a maid costume, a school girl, a butler or some weird and wonderful cartoon character. Cosplay is quiet popular, especially with older teenagers and young adults.
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Japanese are enthralled with cute characters on just about everything. Known as cute or “Kawaii” culture, most businesses have a cute mascot and soft and cute plush toys come in all shapes and sizes are just about everywhere.
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Seeing a sign Dog Cafe you might be alarmed and think Oh No they are eating Fido, well it couldn’t be further than the truth.
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Any first time visitor to Japan may experience a bit of cuteness overload as it is quite common for Japanese companies, the government and even the military to use a cute character or mascot in their promotional material. Many western people can find it a bit odd and amusing that even the most serious business will put out a publication with a happy character all across it. Today the cuteness or “Kawaii” culture has become part of Japan’s identity with characters that westerners would normally associate with small children’s books becoming part of Japan’s hip pop culture scene.
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Some Japanese toilets are an attraction all in there own with a range of technological features which are sure alarm the first time user.
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You don’t have to be in Japan long before you get exposure to J-Pop it is blaring at full blast from just about everywhere. J-Pop has become a integral part of Popular Japanese Culture, it is used everywhere, from radio, TV, commercials, video games to name a few.
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Karaoke is one of Japan’s most popular entertainment pastimes with over 50 million people enjoying the fun an over 15,000 karaoke box buildings throughout Japan it is huge business and is used as a good English learning tool.
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These huge mechanical crabs are popular with many seafood restaurants.
