My name is Casey Forshey and I was a part of the study abroad group from The University of Akron that visited Japan for two weeks.
The contents of this post is mostly just an exact copy from posts on the Tumblr blog I used during my trip. See the original link below to view pictures:
https://www.tumblr.com/blog/caseyjapantripua2016
Blog Post 1: Sumo and Baseball
I think that the one Japanese concept I saw most during the sumo practice was the senpai-kohai relationship. Or perhaps, more specifically, the subordinate relationship between master and student. When the stable master walked into the practice ring, the tension in the air rose noticeably. The subordinate relationship became even more apparent when one of the students appeared to have the duty of setting and returning the master’s mat that the master stretched on. The teacher did as he pleased when not stretching and even appeared to be practicing his golf swing. I would speculate that the student in question is the lowest rank in the stable.
The most interesting thing we did in our free time was explore Tokyo with Danica. We went to an Oriental Bazaar that sold lots of traditional Japanese clothes and accessories. We also got to see an Animate and a Mandarake. Animate is a store chain that exclusively sells anime, manga, video games and merchandise associated with any of those products. Mandarake was very interesting, as it was in the basement of a building and there was a flashing light at the entrance, kept there I’m told was to keep homeless people from sleeping there at night. Mandarke sells mostly used goods like books and figures and CDs and blu-rays, but they are all kept in very good condition. I’m not sure if Japanese are just better at taking care of their products or if Mandarake is just very picky about what it will take, but almost everything looked brand new. Most of the books even still had their inserts left in them. To top it all off, we saw a promo van with people pretending to be Sadako both inside and on top of the van.
I, surprisingly, actually enjoyed the baseball game quite a bit. This is really strange because I do not watch sports at all back home. I think that maybe what entertained me the most about the game didn’t even have to do with the actual game itself at all. Everyone just seemed to show so much energy and cheer for their team — it was hard not to feel that energy yourself. I noticed that there was no booing either, so it was a positive energy being shown throughout the game as well. This a lot different than America, where I’ve seen beer cans get thrown onto race car tracks from fans that were irritated about how a race ended.
Blog Post 2: Tokyo and Osaka
Comparing Tokyo to Osaka, I think that Tokyo seemed just a tad more modern and didn’t have quite as much traditional aesthetics as Osaka did. Osaka seemed to have more places to eat as well, or at least they were more front-and-center. Since Tokyo is such a modern and international city, there were many ethnic restaurants and international stores as well compared to Osaka. While Osaka was still a big city, it still pales in comparison when scaled against Tokyo. I remember looking at the city from Tokyo Sky Tree and awing at how large the city was and how it looked like it almost met the skyline. In Osaka, I think people seemed slightly more friendly compared to Tokyo. I remember when eating fushikatsu with my friends Yukari and Misato that one of the wait staff walked outside with us to show and explain to us the menu. He joked around with us a lot of the time while doing it, too. Maybe people in Tokyo are just more busy and in a rush, and that’s why they weren’t as personable.
I think that hands-on experiences stay with you and are more impactful than say, viewing experiences. They’re usually more fun, too. When you actually take part in something, you feel like you are part of the culture instead of just an observer viewing from afar. In that case, you could probably google sushi making on the youtube and watch a video of someone making sushi just like our instructor did. Doing it there in Japan with our instructor right there, is something that isn’t so easily attainable.
The picture I wanted to show was of me making my own Cup Noodle at the Cup Noodle Museum. It was very interesting seeing how instant noodles came to be and learning about Momofuku Ando and how he devised the process for creating instant noodles and then to be able to do it ourselves. He became a very successful man because of his indomitable spirit and his ability to never stop learning, even in his older years in life. That message can be seen on the outside of the bag that was given to us to hold our noodles that we made at the museum.