Aun No Kokyu

As an example of Japanese traditional culture, today I’m going to talk about Karesansui (枯山水), Japanese Zen garden style, and especially I’d like to focus on the Ryoanji (龍安寺) which is the Zen temple in Kyoto.
Usually Karesansui consists of sand, gravel and rocks, and without using water it represents the beautiful landscape of the stream. Karesansui was born to make the beautiful garden in the place where is little water and little space, and in the Muromachi era (室町時代) it developed as a representative garden style of Zen temples. Karesansui is like a picture, because we can feel the beauty not by walking there, but by seeing the landscape quietly.
Ryoanji is famous for its beautiful and mysterious Karesansui garden. Above picture is the miniature of the Karesansui in the Ryoanji, as you can see there are fifteen rocks in the garden, but there is no certain interpretation about the arrangement of the rocks, so each person has different interpretation about that, and we cannot know what the artist really wanted to express through the garden.
I think the puzzle of this stone garden represents “Japaneseness”. There is a word “aun no kokyu (あうんの呼吸)” which means that people can communicate without gestures or words and Japanese have such sense, so the artist who made the Karesansui garden in Ryoanji might consider such a Japanese character when he made it.

The Westernized Japan

Today's　Japanese life style is similar to the western one.　For example the clothes, diet, and houses were westernized, and today I want to focus on the Starbucks Coffee as a example of globalization in Japan. There are numerous coffee shops in Japan, and especially the foreign affiliated coffee shops have a high popularity among Japanese.
Starbucks Coffee is the one of the most popular coffee shop in Japan. It was born in us in 1971, and it came to Japan in 1996. at that time there were only 3 Starbucks in Japan, but now there are 686 shops in japan, and near Hirakata station there are 3 starbucks (picture). The growth of the number of shops is amazing, and also it implies how Japanese are westernized, The atmosphere and the music which is being played in the Starbucks are western, and such western style is accepted and preferred by Japanese. If Japanese are not westernized, they cannot feel comfortable in such place. However many Japanese can feel relaxed by being there and having coffee, so it is the evidence that western life style is established deeply in Japan. 　

Are They Shy?

This week’s topic is “Japanese people”, so I’m going to explain about character of Japanese people. Japanese are often described as shy people, but by my observation in Karaoke box, it is not true. Karaoke culture is born in Japan in 1971, the name “Karaoke” is the abbreviation of two words which are Kara(空, empty) and Orchestra. At first it was not a popular entertainment, but now Karaoke is very popular entertainment not only in Japan, but also in other countries. Needless to say Karaoke is a place which we can sing freely, and also it is a place you can break your stereotype about Japanese character. In my opinion to sing in front of many people is very hard, so if he/she is really shy, they will not go to Karaoke, but many Japanese enjoy going Karaoke, so it is the evidence that many Japanese are not shy. These photos are taken in Karaoke box, and as you can see they are really enjoying Karaoke, and especially the woman who are singing with dance seems not shy at all. If you have the stereotype that Japanese is shy, you might be surprised at the truth, but these Japanese is not unusual.
If you have Japanese friends, I recommend you to go to Karaoke with them. Your eyes to see the Japanese might change.