Fashion Forward

How could I visit Japan and not write about Fashion?

When we were in Kyoto we saw a ‘Maiko’ (young female artist) waiting outside a restaurant. As they are considered high end celebrities it was quite exciting to see the exquisite outfit she was wearing. Maiko and ‘Geisha’ (paid artists) still wear formal Kimono as their costume dress, paint their faces white, wear their hair up and walk on platform sandals. They use to represent the perfect beauty and be the leaders of women’s fashion.

Now, in this modern era, Kimonos are not a choice of daily attire as they are reserved for special occasions. As Japanese society gains disposable income people can afford to follow Western styles and trends. As I live in an expensive area code I see women with the income to shop for higher end brands and they are really well put together. Pearls are the jewellery of choice from what I can tell and I have seen really big ones in short necklaces and strings of small ones looped about. The women all wear high heel shoes or boots and can walk like it is the most comfortable thing in the world. I am a fast walker but some of them have me beat and I am in running shoes (yes, I get looks).

Every weekday the kids go to the kindergarten so I see a large number of local mothers and they are also well dressed. It can be 8:30 in the morning and their faces are made up, they are in skirts or dresses and high heels which make them appear taller (yes, it’s like being back in the 50’s). Most of them have shiny, flowing, long dark hair although some have shorter cuts. I covet the bags and purses I see but turn my head at all the fur. I have heard that one of the mothers is not impressed with some of the mothers who are arriving in more casual attire as she feels the private school has an image to uphold. I have a tiny feeling I may contribute to her dissatisfaction but I am a gaijin that favours comfort over fashion.

As we live at the University we also see student style every day. When we first arrived it was hot so we saw many young women wearing very short cut-off jean shorts with black tights and high heeled boots. These students’ style is influenced by a trend that came out of the subculture called Gyaru or Gal in English.

According to Wikipedia, the name Gyaru originated from a 1970s brand of jeans called "gals", that had an  advertising slogan stating, "I can't live without men", and was applied to fashion- and peer-conscious girls in their teens and early twenties. Shibuya 109 is the famous shopping mall in Tokyo for teenage girls who follow these trends. The term gradually drifted to apply to a younger group, whose seeming lack of interest in work or marriage gained the word a "childish" image. From my perspective the image is far from childish and is titillating for men. However, in Japan the term erotic has negative connotations where as anything remotely cute is very culturally acceptable. I think the lines are really crossed. These outfits are racy. The teens we see in the city often combine these outfits with a dark tan and extra long false eyelashes. They even have their own style of writing called Gyaru-Moji made popular by various teen magazines. I bet the men here are very happy with the visuals they get just going for a walk. I have seen Tim’s eyes pop out of his head more than once. Maybe the girls think it is liberating to dress this way but I wonder what their grandmothers are all thinking.

One fascinating aspect of Japanese fashion culture is Cosplay (costume play). Groups dress up and hang out with friends on Sundays in Harajuku or Akihabara (city districts).  As Japan has the largest publishing industry in the world it is easy to produce massive numbers of magazines specific to each group promoting the subculture. It has become a cultural phenomena loved by media and tourists as they love to get their photos taken. We have witness two of the many subcultures styles; 50’s greasers in black leather and Lolitas who look like Victorian porcelain dolls.

Anime has really helped spread the popularity of the Lolita style showing characters dressed this way because it is so kawaii (cute). The Lolita look consists primarily of a knee length skirt or dress, headdress, blouse, petticoat, knee high socks and high heel/platform shoes. It became really popular with female youth in Tokyo and today, Lolita fashion has grown so much in popularity that it can be found in department stores. We saw a lot of students wearing the generic frilly short skirts (they remind me of those bloomers you put over babies diapers in the 50’s) with tight tops, over- the- knee- stockings and high heels or short boots often with open toes. Now that it is fall, we see a lot of students in tights with long sweaters and over-the-knee high-heeled boots looking very sassy. These looks also really confuse the line between racy and cute.

The kids have been pointing out all the fur they see and in the beginning they were quite upset about it. I have explained that much of it is fake which makes them feel better but we see tails hanging from purses, fur collars, wraps, coats and little fur accessories on shoes and boots.

Eleanor also likes to point out women’s fingernails that she thinks are painted really fun. We see a lot of fake nails with patterns from leopard prints, to black and white dots. My friends have manicures to have jewels placed on their nails to look dazzling. The other things the kids take note of are the cell phone decorations. Some women have bobbles for decoration, some cell phones are covered with shiny gem patterns, and many have all sorts of little characters hanging from them. I was given a little pink bear to dangle from mine.

Like Shibuya 109, another famous fashion mall is called Hep5 Hankyu Entertainment Plaza in Osaka. We went to check it out as it is where a lot of teens and youths are influenced.  Our children liked the giant red ferris wheel outside connecting the upper floors.  We didn’t get inside as there was a famous Japanese woman being interviewed outside and masses of people were trying to get photos of her on their Keitai (cell phones). We caught a glimpse of her and I noted that she was wearing very ripped-up green army pants with really high heels and a white collared shirt with a massive brown and beige fur vest. Her hair was up in a messy bun-type do. She was a far cry from the traditional beauty of a Geisha but times have changed for better or worse.

Disney and Ghibli

On Sunday we took a ‘Shinkansen’ (very fast bullet train) to Tokyo. Why our government in Canada is not linking our country with several of these is beyond me. What a comfortable way to travel. Eleanor and Lucas were really excited to be on one at first but then they settled in for the two and a half hour journey.

Upon our arrival we went to the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno Park to see the Japanese artefacts which Tim and I enjoyed but the children had little interest. They wanted to go back outside to the market in the park where they saw masks of some of their favourite Japanese T.V. characters. As we couldn’t arrive at our accommodation until around seven we went through the museum park, purchasing two masks along the way. We saw a shrine and ended up at a big city intersection with megatrons and bright signs everywhere. The kids were in awe looking at the giant T.V.s advertising all kinds of products. This was the first place we saw homeless folks sitting on tarps at the edge of the park where they reside in makeshift tents. We passed them by as many do and walked across the street with thousands of others wandering along until we found an ‘Izekaya’, a restaurant that suited all our food desires. The kids were happy to eat fries and pizza for a change. Tim ordered a shrimp dish for all and weren’t we surprised when deep fried shrimp heads arrived at our table. Eleanor said she would try one and claimed they were good. Lucas was not so brave.

We caught a local train and arrived at a colleague of Tim’s house which was a ten minute walk away from Disneyland. She had a guest room with futons and a little ensuite bathroom with a shower stall and sink to freshen up.

Monday morning we arrived at Disneyland early to see a huge line up already in place. Eventually we were let in and we walked into a Christmas wonderland with a giant, decorated tree in the center of the world bazaar. Next we saw Cinderella’s castle where Eleanor gasped ‘it’s so beautiful’. We followed crowds to Fantasyland and headed straight for ‘Winnie the Pooh’s Hunney Hunt’. This is the only one in the world and it is famous because the honey pots you ride in are robots. They don’t run on any sort of track but move freestyle and harmoniously with each other. It was amazing to experience them manoeuvre through the Hundred Acre wood and then through a trippy dream where Pooh finally awakes to find himself in a tree full of honey. The kids loved it so we rode it again the second day.

By the end of the second day we went on almost all the rides available except Space Mountain. We all loved “It’s a Small World” which performed Christmas songs in all the languages while representing countries of the world. The children loved “Peter Pans’ Flight”, “Pirates of the Caribbean,” racing cars, and flying in the space ships. Tim took the children on “Alice in Wonderlands’ Spinning Tea Cups” twice.

My favourite rides were the two interactive ones. Monsters Inc. had a great ride where you and your partner had flashlights to shine on the M signs to make monsters pop out of their hiding spots. We also loved Buzz Lightyears’ Astro Blasters where you have to shoot your laser at Zorg’s Z’s to gain points. I am reluctant to share that I got the highest score in my family.

Tim left at one point to give a guest lecture at our host’s university so I took the kids into Toontown. I was pleasantly surprised and pleased that the children entertained themselves for an hour playing on a trolleycar and a tooncar put there for effect. As I sipped my coffee I was reminded that we don’t need places like Disneyland to entertain children. We need to give them a few props and let them be. I guess we were all glad to have a break from the rides.

Disneyland hosts parades four times a day. I got quite a kick out of how many people the park employs just to organize the crowds for each parade. And they take their work seriously, ensuring people sit in the right areas, that picnic sheets are not taking up too much space and that everyone participates in getting pumped up for the coming show. The parades reminded me of a mix of Gay Pride in Toronto, Vegas shows and Mardi Gras with Disney characters present just to keep it on theme. The costumes and dancing girls were impressive. The music was very dramatic and at one point they got the crowds to yell ‘let it snow’ over and over until fake snow came blasting out of the Christmas themed floats. Each of the parades has a corporate sponsor whose logo is brightly displayed for the captive audience.

The children were able to stay up to see the fireworks the first night. We took them back to Norie’s house, got them ready for bed and watched the amazing display of lights through the window in the warmth of her home.

Tim and I had a great time in the evenings visiting with Norie and in the mornings she made breakfast and coffee for us before we would head out for the day. It was so kind of her and her hospitality saved us a bundle.

At the end of the day I can say I am happy to have gone but I am not a fan of Disneyland. Even Eleanor and Lucas are not hooked. It is such an artificial place which leaves nothing to the imagination and I think is lacking in the magic it claims to provide. Watching the Japanese in all their enthusiasm did up the entertainment value though. 

We found the magic at the Ghibli Museum. On our fourth day we went to this museum created by the Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki to educate visitors on how hand drawn anime films are made. Our family is a big fan of several of his movies especially Our Neighbour Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service and Howl’s Moving Castle. They are great stories with strong female characters and the movies deal with working through emotions.

The museum is in the west of Tokyo and it is a beautiful, four story house that he designed with rooftop gardens and round, curving walls sitting on a large, treed property. We noticed a Totoro (tree spirit) hiding in the bushes on the way in and a robot from one of his films standing among the plants on the roof.  Inside is natural by design with archways of all sizes for any age to duck under, and doors that don’t lead anywhere. We saw drawings upon drawings of our favourite characters, Lucas found items in a treasure chest, we flipped papers to make our own little moving pictures and we watched a short film.

The children really enjoyed playing in the giant, stuffed “Neko Bus”, a cat from Totoro, and climbing the caged-in spiral staircases. They also found an old tap in one of the gardens where they loved pumping water into a bucket and finding faces in the ground. It was all very hands-on and was able to hold the children’s attention for hours. The food at their organic café was superb and left us feeling very impressed with the whole experience.

On our trip back across the city we were not impressed with being crammed onto the train like sardines in a can.  We were in rush hour in the largest city in the world, what were we thinking? I was afraid for the children when we were shoved closer and tighter together as more and more people got on. I can’t believe there is no limit to how many people can safely ride those trains. I was so glad to get off that train and find our comfortable seats on the ‘Shinkansen’ that I celebrated with a beer. Tim had a can of whiskey and water. ‘Kanpai’ to our Tokyo adventures!

Bikes, Bikes and more Bikes

It was the second day of December and it was nineteen degrees and sunny. What a perfect temperature to connect with the streets and have the wind blow through my hair as I enjoyed a bike ride.

According to David Byrne in Bicycle Diaries “a bike is the world’s most used form of transportation.”

That is definitely noticeable here. Bikes are a principal means of transportation for many because they are cheap, convenient and quick. The local climate and the geographical layout support the activity as well. The roads are kept in good condition so they provide a smooth ride. They are very narrow however and there are deep gutters along the edges which must be avoided. There are a lot of cars on the road too but the nice thing is that the drivers are so respectful and accommodating. At times passing requires some manoeuvring for everyone involved but as no one goes very fast it all feels safe.

Bikes are ridden by everyone from old ladies to children. Most are cruisers with a basket on the front. Many mothers at the kindergarten arrive on ‘Momacharis’ with a child seat on front and back to transport their kids around. My bike is a brand called Frackers, and it is orange with a basket that turns into a baby seat on the front. Unfortunately Lucas is too big to take anywhere in it safely. Bikes with small wheels and tall handlebars are the choice of twenty-something males and females supporting their cool image.

It is liberating and exhilarating to ride a bike in a foreign country. It provides exercise while being an efficient way to whip to the store to get items for dinner. It also offers a different view of the dense residential and urban landscape than travelling by foot or on the train. It makes me feel more connected to the street and the others who cruise around this way. I love biking around here as there is a harmonious flow that I haven’t experienced biking in Canada. The mentality of ‘every man for himself’ is not known here. Everyone watches out for each other. It can be difficult at times when cars, bikes and people are coming toward me and I have to remember to stay left (not to go out to the right) clinging to the edge of those gutters but avoiding the telephone poles. Once someone coming towards me went left confusing me and causing a narrow escape from a head-on-collision.

My ride along the Nigawa River passes houses of all sorts, some traditional and a lot of modern designs as houses have a life of about thirty-forty years here. All are surrounded by walls rather than fences and they have little property to speak of. Tucked between them here and there are places like a post office, cleaners, and a bike maintenance shop all leading to the more commercial area around the train station where there are grocery stores, a bakery, banks, restaurants and cafes.

The Japanese investment into bicycle infrastructure is a statement about what they feel is important for their society. They encourage this activity and it shows in how everything is organized. Around Nishinomiya and Osaka there are specified street crossing areas and ample parking spaces. Riders use electronic bike lock systems outside stores and there are even underground parking garages at the train stations dedicated to the thousands of bikes ridden every day. Even though these exist there are still bikes parked randomly as their riders go about their business.

The children were given bikes when we arrived and so every weekend we take them around the university campus were they are safe from traffic and can go as fast as they can peddle. Lucas always wants to be the leader so often they race by the zen gardens and wind catcher installations that decorate the campus as they jockey for positions. These bicycles have been a huge gift for them as they have come to love riding as much as Tim and I do and it has provided them with a different perspective to see their world as well.

Cruising along on two wheels is a fun way to get exercise and a great way to participate in life in Japan. I hope our children will always embrace that feeling of freedom that a bicycle can give.