I watched most of Japanland and was impressed. The woman who studies judo and tours around was thoughtful and sensitive to things traditionally (nearly stereotypically) Japanese like sumo and the like. What I found powerful was the time she spent with the homeless in Japan. When I was there for a year, I saw quite a bit of this and the neighborhood in which i lived also had quite a bit of the seedier/hidden side of japan that few talk about (mental illness, crime, substance abuse), the things more closely associated with the u.s. The tent city that's been established around Osaka castle is mind-blowing. in other words, i dug the program.

to address another issue that you raised about holding cultures accountable to standards that we might have here, that is a tricky question. surely, there is a sense that the idea of a strong woman's consciousness is colored mainly by western feminism. there could easily be ways of showing power in the home or wherever that western feminists don't take into account because they are mostly hidden from the casual observer. even here in the states the actuated female in mass culture here has transformed from the Gloria Steinem of my youth to the Christina Aguilera-style actuated sexuality that, i feel, really pollutes the minds of our students. I heard that the only profession in the US that women make more on average than men is porn. how far have we come, baby?

however, even if the auteur of Japanland is coming from her own cultural biases, i think she and anyone has the right to express her opinions. in peru, i argued with a travel agent about her changing a deal that we had made about travel plans to Macchu Picchu. I was visiting a anthropologist friend who tried to explain to me that business in peru is not like the US and I was using unfair cultural biases in my expectations. be that as it may, i was getting ripped off from my point of view, she was getting her cash from her point of view, and i was going to gripe until i got my money back or the deal was changed. i think i was right to express my complaints in spite of cultural practices.

i think what we learned in class was that there was quite a strong women's consciousness in Japan up until the samurai period. the writing by women bears this out. the major works by women nearly stop after the kamakura period starts and the murasakis and shonagons disappear. kabuki men playing women appears. i say that the US still struggles to shake from its slaveowning past which coincides with the meiji restoration in that japan is still struggling to shake off its samurai past. there is a time parallel to both.

japanland was interesting to me in that the search for wa or harmony is nearly impossible in the old, tired traditional ways for most people. wa is like a fairy tale for japan in that the society is in such a state of flux that wa is a "japanland" and not japan. most japanese it seems are forward looking, not holding on to old tea ceremonies. soccer is passing baseball in popularity. new fight like k1 or pride are usurping sumo. starbucks may trump tea. and ideas about social issues like women will change with the times too.

dan