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What's not to Love:
Stories from a strange point of view |
Everyday is Halloween in Japan (Nov 1) |
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So Halloween has come and gone in Japan and I thought in the spirit of Internationalization I would share my thoughts on how its viewed in Japan. Halloween is described in the Japanese dictionary as "a fake holiday used by foreigners as an excuse to make fools out of themselves." Keeping with this |
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definition I found myself utterly shocked at the reactions normal everyday Japanese people had to Disco/Pimp Jamie (seen above). I mean this is Japan, the place where absurdly obese people dressed in adult diapers trying to force one another out of a rope ring is the national sport. Not to mention I was in Tokyo, the town where anything goes! The place that gave us that crazy show in America called Super Extreme Challenge (an old program called Takeshi's Castle in Japan). I have come to a few conclusions on the matter.
First, Japanese people are in denial about how wacky their country is. I mean do they actually watch the insane commercials on their tv's?!? One of the more recent ones I have seen is where a bunch of cookies are taking a |
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bath in chocolate and in the middle of the bath the cookie breaks his own head in half. I am not quite sure why someone would do that to their own head. I was a bit scarred. It was the first snack food suicide I have ever witnessed. I found it a little disturbing and it certainly didn't make me want to eat cookies. Along these lines, Japanese people are constantly dressing up in costume and looking silly. Here is one Elementary school teacher to the left. He finds that dressing like this keeps the students attention longer and in case of a flash flood he will be prepared. |
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So why are they surprised when I sport a giant Afro and a purple suit. The thing is that they aren't shocked, they are envious. A lot is always said about how Japan lags behind the rest of the world in entertainment. They are still singing karaoke, and bon jovi karaoke at that. Movies you see on the plane haven't made it to the theaters in Japan yet. I think Ben Hur just came out last week. Well, hairstyles are no different. People pay good money to obtain an afro-esque look. The male perm did not die with the Brady Bunch in Japan, rather it has flourished. You see space is limited in Japan and now people have realized that getting a |
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perm is like adding extra storage space. Some people even carry their lunch in their perm.
And don't let anyone tell you that Japanese don't act silly. They have festivals where they get horses drunk, and then dress them up and parade them through the streets trying to agitate them into bucking and kicking. And need I remind you about naked karaoke.
So Japanese people dress up all the time, have perms, and act silly. So the real question I should be asking is why haven't they adopted Halloween as their own. The simple reason is its just not crazy enough. |
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(ABOVE: Even the cute kids dress up in traditional pajamas for japanese cultural events) |
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