Omiyage: Japan’s Souvenir Culture
Food, Fashion, and Event : Fusion of Mixed Culture in Japan!
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Throughout the years, there have been things that Japan has adapted from other countries and from these influences, they have recreated it to become a part of Japanese culture. What was once another country’s traditional dish, style or special day has either evolved or been incorporated into Japanese culture!
How popular music has become!
Look at the charts and see! Music in Japan is the second biggest industry in the world but most of the influences have come from America, the Caribbean, Europe and so on. You can see it in the influences of Pop, Hip-Hop and even Rock music while listening to it. To highlight a few, Caribbean music such as Reggae and Dancehall have been very popular in the main island of Japan since the 90’s. Also Western pop artists such as Ariana Grande and Ed Sheeran and continue to top the charts and influence their fans in Japan with their musical style. In addition, the past few years have seen more collaborations with artists are changing the face of music such as Crystal Kay and Far East Movement or Momoiro Clover Z and KISS.
It’s in the style!
…Which brings us to the influences of fashion! Although Japan is also well known for it’s diverse fashion, there are some hairstyles and fashion risks that are out of the ordinary in Japanese culture and came from other countries. Baby Shoop, a B-style (standing for ”black lifestyle”) store influenced by American hip hop fashion is an example of this. Baggy sweatshirts, sleeveless tops and snapbacks are some of the best products that they sell and are mainly imported from LA.
Some food is not originally from Japan!
Hamburger Steak? Ramen? Gyoza? Some of your favourite Japanese food is originally not from Japan. But the way the Japanese have been able to recreate other countries cuisines and adapt it to their food culture is pretty amazing from the flavouring to the texture. For example, Japanese curry. While everyone knows curry originated from India, it has been changed and adapted so much to suit Japanese taste and ingredients. It has become one of Japan’s most famous dishes with pork cutlet as a recommended topping to Japanese curry. It would also seem curry in Japan is sweet to Indians as the flavoring is different. Because of this, places like Coco Ichibanya and Go Go Curry offer different sweet and spice levels for their customers.
Celebrating national holidays like Christmas!
All over right now you may have seen sets and chocolates ready for White Day in March. Although White Day is more a tradition in Japan, other traditional days such as Christmas, Halloween and Valentine’s Day are celebrated here and stores are filled with gifts, costumes and sets. A lot of these Western national holidays weren’t celebrated in Japan until the late 1980’s/90’s. And now you’ll find during the Christmas season, people will celebrate with a KFC bucket or the streets of Shibuya will be filled with people dressed up for Halloween taking pictures together!
Transport and technology has developed!
Although Japan has a representation for having such amazing technology, the start of some of the development didn’t originally begin in Japan. Railway tracks and trains were introduced to Japan in 1872 when British engineers came to help improve the roads. Now, they have one of the fastest trains in the world with the Shinkansen after 40 years since the first train. Even the toilet is very high-tech and sanitary! where else can you find the toilet to keep warm? So while the influence and start of these transportation and technological items are from the West, Japan has worked on developing it to become worldwide products that they can be proud of.
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Nyasha
A writer who sees Tokyo as her second home and often writes about food, travelling, culture and living in the capital.
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