Kohei tanaka

let me introduce my Japanese friend. He is Kohei from Okinawa. he lives right in front of my house so we hang out almost everyday. we've been friend for 4 month but we already like best friends. He used to play soccer in famous high school called YASU high school in Shiga. When I saw he is playing, I was just amazed by his skills and tricks.
 although I play baseball, I like soccer too and he likes baseball too so we get along with each other.  He always wears this orange jacket so it is really easy to recognize him.
 In terms of anthropology, you will see that he is holding his phone and smiling. I think this is a represent of one japanese culture; using phone all the time. when he gets bored, he always faces with phone and texts somebody or plays apps. When I took this picture,  I was talking with my other friend and he was there, but he was like this picture and enjoying something.
 His motto is to keep the harmony in groups so he is a group oriented person. this is also one of japanese culture. Japanese people always keep harmony and respect each other. he is really this kind of person and I like him in terms of keeping harmony.

 He is crazy about hip hop, and he knows almost all US hip hop singers. that is really impressive actually.  through this blog, I realized that how Japanese and foreigners are different when they hang out here in japan. foreigners prefer to go out and drinking, doing karaoke and such things, but japanese people rather stay in house or chill with some alcohol and sometimes go out than go out all the time. of course I like both, but I am just glad to know this differences through looking at some other students blogs and comparing them to my blog.
  Anyway,  I am really glad to meet Kohei and I learn a lot from him.
 This is my japanese friend Kohei.

taguchi1 cho-me

my neighborhood Taguchi 1cho-me. this place is located by east gate of kansaidaigai. there are lots of facilities which people gather.
 this place is a hospital called"tanoguchi-shinryo-jo".  this place is located next to my apartment. it is always  crowded by old people mainly. Every time I pass the hospital I see people talking in front of the hospital. I think this place can be one place people enjoy talking.

there is another hospital nearby Tanoguchi-shinryo-jo. the hospital called Sugano-iin. these 2 hospitals located within 5minuts from my house. I do not know why these hospital located really close but at least people who live in this town easily can go see doctors.






Tanoguchi 1cho-me has more place where people gather.  there is a big park called "Tanoguchi-koen" this park is really big, and lots of activity occurring  in the place such as baseball activity, gate-ball, soccer and so on. the park is also good to take a walk and chill so people go there and communicate with people. I often go there and take a nap, and sometime I talk to people there.

When I think of neighborhood, I think about this place called"nishi taguchi komingashi." this place is for the local organization, therefore, people gather and organize event such as festival or some assembly.  you see a little bullet board on the right side of the picture.  organization inform people local event and stuff so I sometime see people stop by there and take a look at the bullet board.


Through the research for this blog, I realized that there are many place people are able to gather and share information, and also I became loving this neighborhood because of this many places people can gather.

What is Japanese culture??

First of all, let me introduce my self. I am Shun (Shunsuke). I am Japanese, and I have been here for 20years so I am a native Japanese speaker and a native anthropologist. This blog is for a class called"Visual anthropology of Japan" therefore, I am going to mainly write about my own culture-Japan-.
What is Japanese culture?? If you are foreigner, you would imagine Samurai, Sushi, Shinto and such thing, but these things are really old and these cultures are disappearing. Of course there is a lots of traditional cultures like this photo. this is a shrine called "Yamada Jinja" and this shrine is nearby my house in Hirakata. What I want to say about this picture is that Japanese traditional shrine does not exist only with traditional way, but it is more combined with traditional and modern way such as this warehouse for fire equipment.  In this shrine, shrine is not only for the place people go for pray their hope but also for the place people gather and maintain their neighborhood community.  As I said earlier, this place is just 3minutes from my house by walk, on the way to get here, you will find lots of modern Japanese houses.

This is a temple also placed nearby my house. as you see left side of the photo, you will find a non-traditional house. this house is in the shrine.  this shrine is also combined with traditional and modern Japanese culture. This might be weird for Foreigners but this is modern Japan.

   Like these pictures, Japanese culture is not only traditional or old style, but also is a combination of traditional and modern culture. nowadays, manga or anime culture is becoming more popular, this might be a good example of modern Japanese culture. As the technology develops really fast, traditional Japanese culture is disappearing, but we (Japanese people) try to keep traditional Japan.