Visual-Kei

Yuki, the vocalist of the Oshare-Kei band, Anjyu', leads the audience in para-para. Anjyu' is part of a newer movement of Visual-Kei (which is basically Japanese glam rock) called Oshare-Kei, which is all about being cute, crazy, and colorful. This band was the headliner at a recent indie show in Umeda, Osaka.
Seeing Visual-Kei bands is something people can really only experience in Japan. I've seen some of the same bands in the States, but seeing them with a Japanese audience is pretty surreal. The entire audience does para-para (coreographed hand-dancing, for lack of a better description) and instead of cheering at the end of songs, everybody strikes poses. You don't see that sort of stuff in America!



The guitarist of SKULL has been playing with a broken index finger since October. I saw SKULL for the first time at Osaka Holiday in Umeda in October, and I was surprised to see him playing with a broken finger. And again, when I saw them in November, his finger was still broken. Despite that, he played great. It's nice to see guitarists with dedication like that. All the American bands I know who've had guitarists break their fingers normally just cancel shows until said guitarist's finger is healed. Interesting.
SKULL is a much different band than Anjyu'. They don't have much para-para and they're not really an Oshare-Kei band. Instead, they're pretty normal Visual-Kei, which is just outrageous hair, make up, and clothes.

(These photos were taken by my friend Laura at a show at Osaka Holiday that we went to. Do not steal them.)

Blog Essay #2

Visual anthropology is something that has no real specific definition, so when looking through my classmates' blogs, it's always nice to see a wide variety of images and thoughts.

Willy, a fellow classmate, has a number of interesting posts, but the one that caught my interest the most, was his post about Spiderman in Japan, which can be found here: http://willysvisualblog.blogspot.com/

He talks about the popularity of Spiderman in Japan and provides a link to a website containing more information about the Japanese version of the character.

What I really found interesting, though, was that he wondered why people just assumed his friend, Taka, was a foreigner because he was in costume (as Spiderman), and was with Willy. He said that people approached Taka and spoke in English instead of Japanese. It doesn't really surprise me that it happened, since a lot of the exchange students here at Kansai Gaidai tend to stick together, but I wonder what the people who approached Taka thought when they found out he was actually Japanese...

Kansai Gaidai School Festival

So Kansai Gaidai had its school festival last weekend, and here are some photos that I took of things that I thought were interesting...


The international fashion show consisted of students from about five or six different countries. The students featured here, obviously, are from Japan. Other countries that participated were from America, Canada, and Egypt. An announcer explained the purposes of the different traditional costumes. All in all it was pretty interesting.
More information about kimono and other traditional costumes of Japan can be found here: http://www.japanesekimono.com/


The high light of the festival, for me, was the live house that the folk music club put together. Throughout both days of the festival, they had cover bands playing music. Most of the covers were of Western rock acts, like Queen or My Chemical Romance. The one in the photo, however, was a cover band of X Japan, one of the more well known rock acts from Japan. It sort of bothers me that Japanese kids pay more attention to the American rock scene than their own, but at the same time, I know many Americans (myself included) who are more interested in the Japanese scene than their own.
As for the cover band, they did a great job of doing X Japan justice. It was cool to see that they haven't been forgotten.
X Japan's official site can be found here: http://www.xjapan.ne.jp/

My first experience in a capsule hotel was an interesting one. This was probably one of the strangest things I've done since coming to Japan, but at the same time, I think it's necessary to stay in one of these things at least once while I'm here. The hotel was in Amerika-mura, Shinsaibashi, and it was only about 2,700 yen a night, which included services like a sauna, bath, relaxation room, etc. There was a women's only section and a men's only section, which could only be accessed with the key that could be obtained at the front desk.



This is another thing that is essentially Japanese; gold fish catching. This photo was taken at the Danjiri Matsuri a couple of weeks ago. The process of catching a fish is a little silly and it seems like it's a bit of a scam because the paper in the scoop is so flimsy that the fish could just fall right through, back into the water...

Idols in Japan

It's always nice to know that even almost ten years since the death of a great musician, people still admire him. In a guitar shop in Tennouji, there are guitars made to look (and sound, of course) just like famous musicians' guitars. In the photo are two Fernandes Mockingbirds modeled after hide's (of X Japan fame) guitars. For a while a lot of models of his guitars were made, especially after he passed away in 1998, but over the years the different kinds sold have dwindled down to the two most popular, shown here. Other famous guitarist models the store sold were Imai Hisashi of Buck Tick's guitar and Ken from L'Arc en Ciel's guitar.
Here is a link to hide's official website, where you can order the guitars shown here: http://www.hide-city.com/


This is the Gundam building in Den Den Town. Pretty much any Gundam series is guaranteed to be popular among youth in Japan, but of course, some do better than others. The store sells a huge range of models, costumes, and just about anything else you can think of relating to the Gundam shows.

Mannequins in Japan (or Blog Essay #1)

A post writtin in the blog "Visual Anthropology of Japan" concerning the end of summer in Japan had something in it that caught my interest.

Mannequins in Japan, for the most part, look like Western people. The photo in the blog post displays a typical looking family in yukata, ready for a festival. There is a mother, a father, a son, and a daughter. The strange thing is that none of them even have black hair. They look like mannequins straight out of a Dillard's department store in the States. I suppose most people don't even think twice about what mannequins look like, but think about it for a second.

If you're Japanese and you live in Japan, wouldn't you expect to see Japanese mannequins displaying clothes in stores?

It seems to me that Japanachived Westernization a long time ago, but really, Western mannequins take things to a whole new level to me. I'm not saying that all mannequins in Japan should look Japanese, but it is unusual that a group of mannequins displaying traditional Japanese clothing would look so un-Japanese.

The original post can be found at: http://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/2007/08/some-summer-images.html

Dotonbouri, Osaka

Obviously, I fixed the photo problem. I was using Photobucket to upload pictures, but now I'm just doing it directly from Blogger. Anyway, this is a photo of a restaurant called the Kani Dojo (Crab Dojo) in Dotonbouri, Osaka. It's been around for a long time and is often referenced in Japanese pop-culture, especially anime and movies set in Osaka. The crab above the doorway is mechanical; its legs and eyes are constantly moving around.

As for this monstrosity, this is the Don Kihote store, which is one street over from the Kani Dojo. Really, it's just a huge store full of junk, a lot like a dollar store, only much, much bigger. The glowing rings around the mascot of the store are actually part of a ferris wheel that can be accessed from inside of the store. Don Kihote sells all sorts of things are fairly affordable prices, and if you're looking for something ridiculous, you're guaranteed to find it there.