Culture and Society: Tokyo

✿ Konnichiwa!

The first day of Tokyo, we went to the Edo-Tokyo Museum. When the group arrived, we were told to line up in two straight lines. The lines ended up not being single file, and as we waited, a few Japanese people took pictures of us as we stood out. They weren’t very shy about it either. Later as I walked down the street, I saw people openly staring or doing a “peek-a-boo” look. The oldest and youngest were the ones who would openly stare. At one point, an older woman turned her head as she passed in order to keep gaping at us. The younger generation is similar; however, they haven’t learned any better. The most conservative or sneaky would be the young and middle-aged adults. They would do what I called the “peek-a-boo.” A complete gawk at first, then as soon as I made eye contact, they would scurry their gaze away. Although, after a few seconds they would glance back for a split second, making their eyes dart back and forth. I quite enjoyed it as it seemed comical.

In Tokyo we also went to Akihabara, which is the anime/manga centre of Japan. It was an overload of lights, sounds, and people. It kind of reminded me of New York’s Times Square. There we proceeded to a maid café, which was an interesting experience. Before we entered, we donned bunny, cat, and panda ears. The other patrons didn’t have any on, whether that was because we were foreigners­­—it was the first time we went to a maid café—or a personal preference I don’t know. They would not allow any pictures to be taken of the employees, which I think was a good call as many of the maids and other such cafés are seen as fetishes and sexualized. One of the people in the group that went mentioned that she didn’t like them being objectified as such. For the most part, I believe the maids enjoy the work as they have other options for jobs other than the café. There were many men there, and it seemed like our group had all the girls. The men were mostly wearing business suits, which implied that they were relaxing after a long day of work.

In Harajuku, we saw a lot of independent shops, and as a Sailor Moon fan, the Sailor Moon store and Princess One Spoon (which has a Sailor Moon line) are by far my favourites. Amongst the others was the Kawaii Monster Café, which I was unable to see, but looked very colourful and enticing; 6% Doki Doki, where there was such a good blend between kawaii and punk; and Alice on Wednesday, in which many people in the group bought some baubles. There were also animal cafés. We spent time in the owl café, which was very upsetting and sad. The birds (there were both hawks and owls) are tied down, so they cannot fly. One of them, a hawk called Odin, kept leaping up and being dragged back down to the peg. The barn owls Frey and Freya seemed to be fine until they both tried to fly almost simultaneously only to be denied because of the tethers. It was obvious that one in particular, did not like to be touched at all as he kept moving away from everyone’s hands. Iris was the calmest, and she mostly just stood still and let anyone pet her or pick her up. In the end, I do not think I will be going back to any bird cafés as seeing animals caged or tied up tends to upset me. One thing I did notice from the beginning is that the Japanese don’t do things halfway. Harajuku and Akihabara are prime examples of the ganbaru spirit. If there is any room for improvement, it will be modified to fit other’s needs.

Sayonara!