A little about culture...

Japanese culture is really very intersting. I know, horrible Topic Sentence, and rather obvious coming from me, but I really do think it is. It's not just Anime I like from all this. It's really the culture as well. This is sort of a responce to I think...it was...Krammer's blog...about food and cultrue. Just expanding. 

For instance, a lot of Japanese things portray ghoasts as being either enemies OR allies. You can befriend them and thier fight battles for you or play games and make you really famous. When was the last time anyone saw that in America? I think this point of view is really intersting because in a lot of cultures, ghoasts are really very dangerous and look gross and violent. Just think of something like "The Sixth Sence." In Japan, a ghoast would appear the way it's emotions are, not the way it died. If it's emotions are out of control, the ghoast would be seen in a distorted, hazy form. In America, ghoasts are thought to look the way they died. If you really want to know what I'm talking about, watch something like Hikaru No Go or Shaman King.

I would recomend Hikaru No Go more because it shows other cultural differences. One thing is drinks. The boxes of juice in Japan are triangle. Milk can still be delivered to your door! Vending machines also hot hot drinks, and when you open them, they are so hot they actually steam! Tea is served in most places.

What about games and stuff? Hikaru No Go features a game called "Go" that is rarely seen in the States. It's sort of like VERY complicated Chess, I suppose. It's more popular in Korea. When playing this game, you also sit on a mat with you knees bent and your legs beneath you, toes on the ground. Is that too hard to picture? Your legs fall asleep...but this is the proper way to sit respectfully during a cerimony. Before a game, you always say "Good Luck." and after you are supposed to say "Thank you for the game." If you want to quit the game you say "I resign" and you bow your head slightly while saying each thing, as well as while greeting others. 

Another polite factor- you never point your foot towards someone in either Japan or China. This is VERY rude. Sitting "guy still crosslegged," in other words, is rude. 

This has made me start wondering about other things- is there a country where looking people in the eyes is rude, for instance? Some things we take for granted might actually be very rude in other countries. If you think of any, please comment. I'm sincerily interested!

-Rea

A Challenge

While driving home this last weekend, I found myself staring at the land much more. I didn't have a lot of time to admire the view when I got home because I had SO MUCH to do, but I can see now that challenging myself to look at things with a new eye has worked. I appritiate much better what I see in The IE now. You guys should really try it. 

Another thing- When I was reading Davis' essay, I came across something funny. One of the people interviewed talks about Victorville, California, which is just thirty minutes from my old high school in Phelan. The way it was described....Don't trust the paper. I've BEEN there. This is either very outdated, or very, very wrong. 

-Rea

To view other posts, view my whole profile and click directly on the numbers 4 8 15 16 23 42, please. It won't let me put them up on the main page for some reason. The blogger system must hate me.

-Rea

My Placemaking Mythology

I know this is very late, but I still wanted to post about "Mythologies of Placemaking" because I now can. 

Reading this essay made me realize that I may have been making "my place" a rather lame one. It's true that I haven't always enjoyed living out there. It is the middle of nowhere, and no one knows where nowhere is...but it's not the Australian Outback I've made it to be to myself. Sure the colors are all shades of tan in my immediate surroundings, but the mountains are right behind us and right in front of us, and in the clear air up there, you can see as far as Tehachepi most days. 

When most people hear about where I live, they assume the "sense of place" must be really creepy because it's dangerous to be in a place where darkness is absolute at night and the nearest gas station is twenty minutes minimum away. But I would say the "sense of place" is less chainsaw masecure and more like a quiet field where you would sit just to get away from it all...without the grass. It's a place of true peace. Besides, nothing lights up the darkness like billions of perfectly seeable stars and the milky way and Orion right outside your window. I can't even describe the amazing sunsets that come out of the city smog and paint beautiful colors across the sky every night. It's better to see smog in a canvass than it is to smell it.

Plus, when you play your music loud, no one cares and the cops aren't called.

I guess my point is that I've made a mythology in my own place. I've called it desolate and boring, and so that's what it's become. But now, when I go home this weekend, I'm going to try to see it as a more beautiful place, and open my mind to the possibility that what it is to me now is all in my head.

-Rea