Japan 10: Home

In a world of technologically driven exponential change, the Japanese have an acquired edge: They know how to live with it. Nobody legislates that kind of change into being, it just comes, and keeps coming, and the Japanese have been experiencing it for more than a hundred years.

William Gibson, Distrust That Particular Flavor

Overall, I had an incredible time in Japan.  As I've said before, I travel because it gives me a sense of adventure, and Japan gave me that in full measure.

If you're even slightly a geek, and a lot of your immediate associations for Japan come from video games, manga, anime or science fiction novels, it's a fascinating experience to visit the country in person. There were times in Tokyo when I felt like I was visiting the backlot of some kind of cyberpunk video game – I kept expecting a first person shooter HUD to appear as we dodged through Tokyo Station in search of the Kyoto shinkansen platform.*

In my case, William Gibson** is probably the biggest reason for that view of Japan.  Books like Neuromancer and Idoru had created a sort of mythical Japan in my mind, an exotic neon-lit setting for all sorts of futuristic high-tech mayhem.

Of course, really, it's not like that. Except that it was, a little bit, with things like Fuji TV's rectilinear head office and its globular centrepiece, or the Minority Report-style interactive maps on the observation deck at Sky Tree, Tokyo's soaring 634 meter broadcasting and observation tower.  In everything from toilet seats to bullet trains, Japan seems to be just ahead of the power curve in terms of technology - just a little bit into the future.

It was also wonderful to share this adventure with my lovely lady Karli. Japan was our first extended trip together, and after ten days of being almost literally joined at the hip*** I was sorry that I had to go back to work and not be with her.

Not only was she was the perfect sightseeing companion, but it turns out that we have strongly complementary skills in terms of locating hotels and train platforms. Thank you so much for making the Japanese trip a perfect one, my love.

Last, but not least, I would like to express our extreme gratitude to the Bertram family.  Terry and Misaki were our hosts for several days out of our ten day adventure. They helped us plan our schedule, made reservations on our behalf, acted as guides and translators, opened their home and even gave up their bed for us.  Thanks again to both of you for contributing so much to our vacation - it would not have been the same trip without your help and hospitality.  有り難うございます。

- Sid

* Karli, I hope this explains why I kept crouching behind pillars and muttering about save points while we were trying to catch a train.

** To get Gibson's full take on Japanese culture and his love for it, I strongly recommend that you pick up a copy of Distrust That Particular Flavor and read the essays on Japan.

*** The seats were a little close together.

Japan 9: Otaku

"Masahiko is seventeen," Mitsuko said. "He is a 'pathological-techno-fetishist with-social-deficit,'" this last all strung together like one word, indicating a concept that taxed the lexicon of the ear-clips. Chia wondered briefly if it would be worth running it through her Sandbenders, whose translation functions updated automatically whenever she ported.

"A what?"

"Otaku," Mitsuko said carefully in Japanese. The translation burped its clumsy word string again.

"Oh," Chia said, "we have those, We even use the same word."

"I think that in America they are not the same," Mitsuko said.

William Gibson, Idoru

Today we visited Akihabara district in Tokyo - Otaku City, as it were. Otaku is often used by English speakers as a synonym for "nerd" or "geek", with a specific slant toward fans of anime or manga, but in Japanese, it's not entirely the same thing.

The word "otaku" literally means "your home" - loosely translated, an otaku is someone who never leaves the house. The term came into common usage in Japan during the 80s, and refers to a Japanese subculture predominantly made up of young males who have turned inward, away from the pressures to conform and succeed that dominate the Japanese educational system, and ultimately, Japanese society. In place of scholastic success and social interaction, otaku choose to obsessively focus on a particular area of esoteric knowledge.

Although many otaku do concentrate on aspects of pop culture like manga, or the Mobile Suit Gundam series or other anime, an otaku could just as easily choose to become an expert in variant types of World War II Sherman tanks - it is the obsessive nature of their interest, and the not entirely healthy manner in which it replaces everyday life, that characterizes an otaku.

Akihabara reflects all of these aspects of being an otaku, but showcases the subculture in a way which would probably not be acceptable in the Western world.  The ubiquitous advertising, and the action figures, videos and games that it promotes, are all intensely sexualized in an exaggerated and somewhat fetishistic manner.

If you turn off the main thoroughfares, the other side of Akihabara becomes visible.  Narrow corridors are lined with diminutive shops specializing in whatever items might catch the eye of a passing otaku. These miniature storefronts are not much larger than an office desk, with an opening just large enough for the proprietor to keep watch over his stock, such as hundreds of kinds of LEDs, or electrical connectors of every shape and size.

Akihabara also originated the maid cafe, another Japanese institution which might not translate well to the Western world.  In a maid cafe, patrons are served by young women dressed in exaggerated French maid costumes - with the accent on the phrase "served".  The maids treat their customers as the masters of their household rather than as paying customers, with services such as spoon feeding or kneeling by the table to stir cream or sugar into coffee.

It may be significant that Akihabara Station was the only place in Tokyo with bilingual Japanese - English warnings on the escalators to beware of upskirt photographs.  This would seem to be an unfortunate indicator that some otaku have chosen to focus (so to speak) on something other than electronics or giants robots.

- Sid

Japan 08: Head Office.

After I commented on the possibility of an Umbrella Corporation branch office in Yokohama, I remembered that according to the movies, they actually do have a main office in Tokyo.

Based on the footage at the beginning of the fourth Resident Evil installment, it's located at - or more accurately beneath - Shibuya Crossing, one of Tokyo's landmark intersections, which we visited today.

In real life, it's the home of the world's busiest Starbucks™ - you know, that other ubiquitous sinister global company.

- Sid