litokodori suskiki

Litoko dori

“Japan has a long established tradition of adopting elements of foreign culture and adapting them for Japanese use” (127) This reminded me of Americanized food. Even when restaurants are advertised as authentic Mexican, or Chinese, or Thai, etc, they rarely are. I saw this when I worked at an authentic Mexican restaurant. At the end of the shift when the cooks would cook for the employees the type of food they made was completely different: the food for the employees was authentic and the food served was Americanized. The way America takes food from other cultures and adopts it is similar to Litoko dori.

“Japanese students will not oppose bullies… because they are afraid of speaking out individually without a group consciousness to back them” (131) This reminded me of a social experiment I learned about in sociology class. A guy was placed in a room with eight or so actors of the experiment. The guy thought that he and the actors were there to do a study on visual perception. The group was shown a picture of three lines with differing lengths, and then an actor asked each of them individually to say which the shortest line was. The actors were instructed to purposely choose an obviously wrong answer. Then, because all the actors chose the wrong answer, the guy did too. I find this interesting because it shows that all of humanity has a need to stick with the group consciousness.

Sushiki

“Respect and honor for the souls of one’s ancestors.” In general, American culture values the souls of the dead; however, I personally do not believe in souls. American culture is rooted in Christianity which is why in America we have phrases such as “they’re in a better place now.” That is an American way of respecting dead souls. But, I am atheist and do not agree with American beliefs regarding death and afterlife.

“Cremation was a better way to purify death.” I would like to be cremated, and I like the Buddhist view that this is a way of purifying death—it seems almost poetic. American norm, though, is to be buried in a coffin. However, cremation isn’t necessarily deviant. If America had the same lack of land that Japan had then cremation would probably be more common.