Today I had a wonderful time strolling the sneezy Brooklyn Botanic Garden with my Japanese students (mostly middle school), getting to know them while enjoying the beautiful plant-life. What I did not enjoy so thoroughly was the Sakura Matsuri (The Cherry Blossom Festival) itself. Here is what I am going to put up on my public blog:
Spending my childhood summers in Japan, some of my favorite memories come from the neighborhood festivals in Nagoya and Kochi. There were carts with middle-aged men and dumpy women yelling "Hai IRASSHAI!" ("Step right up!") which really fast always sounded like "HAIRASSHAI!!", hawking plastic festival masks, goldfish-scooping games, mitarashi dango, and takoyaki from hastily erected stalls lining the main walkways. There would be snotty children running around bumping into things and screaming, yukata-clad women looking coy for the men, and older men in belly-warmers and sandals traveling in clouds of smoke, a glowing cigarette-butt lighting their way. Even in the bustling downtown areas, the sidewalks would be packed with people craning necks to see the dancers stomping and jumping down the street, or else a small platform with a huge taiko drum and drummer to wake up the old spirits for a little beer and fireworks.
Nothing was refined or demure except for the pretty girls who were trying too hard to impress the pretty boys, and everyone knew that both sides were trying too hard to play the game, which made it both fun to watch and tedious at the same time. Nothing was intellectual. Nothing was philosophical except the dancing. Nothing was too expensive.
Going to events in the U.S. that showcase things "Japanese", I'm always disappointed by how pretentious everything is, how un-natural, how staged. Japan is not really as clean as the Japanese think everyone wants to believe it is. Festivals are loud and sweaty, not serene. They are stupid and fun, everything tastes good, and yes you can buy things, but you don't have to to have a good time.
In trying to present the best of Japan in the U.S., some of the best stuff has been lost, in exchange for flower arrangements, expensive dolls that you can't touch, and $14 noodles in plastic containers. The only thing for kids is a haiku workshop. That's just sad.
Here is what I actually feel:
Sakura Matsuri was so bourgeois as to be utterly depressing to me. Anything Japanese that gets translated and intstitutionalized in the U.S. undergoes a sterilization process that removes any fun and replaces it with cookie-cutter constructions of "Japanese culture" for idiot bourgeois consumption. Sushi pillows for $45? Come on!!
There were no picnicking families, no street vendors, no stupid games, no real spectacles (aside from classical Japanese and Okinawan dance) - no fun. Instead, everything was high art and high prices. High schoolers in Japanese costumes paraded around and felt vindicated. Men of all races sauntered with their Japanese trophy-girlfriends. There was nothing to fill the stomach.
Spending my childhood summers in Japan, some of my favorite memories come from the neighborhood festivals in Nagoya and Kochi. There were carts with middle-aged men and dumpy women yelling "Hai IRASSHAI!" ("Step right up!") which really fast always sounded like "HAIRASSHAI!!", hawking plastic festival masks, goldfish-scooping games, mitarashi dango, and takoyaki from hastily erected stalls lining the main walkways. There would be snotty children running around bumping into things and screaming, yukata-clad women looking coy for the men, and older men in belly-warmers and sandals traveling in clouds of smoke, a glowing cigarette-butt lighting their way. Even in the bustling downtown areas, the sidewalks would be packed with people craning necks to see the dancers stomping and jumping down the street, or else a small platform with a huge taiko drum and drummer to wake up the old spirits for a little beer and fireworks.
Nothing was refined or demure except for the pretty girls who were trying too hard to impress the pretty boys, and everyone knew that both sides were trying too hard to play the game, which made it both fun to watch and tedious at the same time. Nothing was intellectual. Nothing was philosophical except the dancing. Nothing was too expensive.
Going to events in the U.S. that showcase things "Japanese", I'm always disappointed by how pretentious everything is, how un-natural, how staged. Japan is not really as clean as the Japanese think everyone wants to believe it is. Festivals are loud and sweaty, not serene. They are stupid and fun, everything tastes good, and yes you can buy things, but you don't have to to have a good time.
In trying to present the best of Japan in the U.S., some of the best stuff has been lost, in exchange for flower arrangements, expensive dolls that you can't touch, and $14 noodles in plastic containers. The only thing for kids is a haiku workshop. That's just sad.
Here is what I actually feel:
Sakura Matsuri was so bourgeois as to be utterly depressing to me. Anything Japanese that gets translated and intstitutionalized in the U.S. undergoes a sterilization process that removes any fun and replaces it with cookie-cutter constructions of "Japanese culture" for idiot bourgeois consumption. Sushi pillows for $45? Come on!!
There were no picnicking families, no street vendors, no stupid games, no real spectacles (aside from classical Japanese and Okinawan dance) - no fun. Instead, everything was high art and high prices. High schoolers in Japanese costumes paraded around and felt vindicated. Men of all races sauntered with their Japanese trophy-girlfriends. There was nothing to fill the stomach.
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