May 30th, 2015: Arising New Questions

By: Jennie Lam

On only our second day in Japan, we were fortunate enough to have a free day. With such freedom there was so many things to do and see that I couldn’t decide where to begin. In addition, I felt I had to pick a place or activity that related to my research of exploring the Japanese’s perception on Chinese food as well as the contribution of the dominant culture on the current adaptations of the foods. I stopped myself from becoming overwhelmed and decided to start simple and get some breakfast down in the lobby of Sakura Hotel in Jimbocho. While I drank my tea, I decided to temporarily ignore my responsibilities as a student and allowed the traveler in me to take over. I thought about where I wanted to go most and remembered that there was a small town in Tokyo that I had seen pictures of, that fascinated me. It had lots of trees and some interesting old fashioned looking shops and homes. It was the “perfect” little neighborhood that I could walk around and just enjoy the balance of nature and civilization that Japan is well known for.

 

Walking up the street of Shimokitazawa

Walking up the street of Shimokitazawa

I took the train to Shimokitazawa with a few of my fellow classmates and found something I wasn’t expecting. The town was more western than it appeared in the pictures I had seen. There were even more western styled restaurants than Japanese style. It turned out to be a mini hipster shopping town. Despite that, I didn’t want to dwell on my drop in excitement and came to a conclusion to make the most of it and walked around anyways. There was still the hint of the harmony between civilization and nature, which eased my slight disappointment. During my walk, I spotted another Family Mart, the fifth I’ve seen since arriving in the country. I thought to myself that it must be a big chain convenience store in Japan, and ended up going in to get a small snack.

 

Drink aisle in Family Mart

Drink aisle in Family Mart

While looking around, I realized that there weren’t that many Chinese products besides instant ramen. To my knowledge convenience stores are on an exponential rise in popularity among the youth in Asia, especially in Japan. I’ve also noticed that all those stores sell pretty much the same things, which shows what products are most popular among the Japanese and reflects their tastes in food. This leads me to wonder whether or not the Japanese enjoy Chinese food. Why aren’t there a lot of Chinese food products sold in convenience stores? Does preference really have that much of an influence or is it just because this is Japan and there should naturally be a dominance of native food. What are the Japanese’s opinions on this lack of Chinese foods in convenience stores and why do they think that is? Or perhaps Chinese and Japanese foods aren’t that different and there is a blend of both that isn’t that noticeable to them yet. These are all questions I plan to address in my future excursions.