A short discourse of scattered thoughts

Several evenings ago I was having dinner with a new Japanese friend. We were talking about Japanese culture, and I was trying to explain, in a mixture of languages, why I find it so unique--in particular, the Japanese sense of subtlety. However, there was some confusion over the word "unique". Japanese has imported many words from other languages, though the sense of them is sometimes changed a bit in translation--"unique" being one of these words. In the West, the word has a rather positive feeling--something is especially good because of its dissimilarity to anything else. My date, however (and I assume other Japanese folks), had a somewhat negative image of the word ("weird" perhaps), especially with regard to describing people. I was puzzled for a few moments, and then I remembered where I was. Japan. To differ completely here, to stand out, is to be seperate from the whole. Un-Japanese, perhaps. My friend had taken me to mean not only is Japanese culture "one-of-a-kind", but also that Japanese people are rather egotistical about their way of life, a point with which she concurred. I wouldn't go as far as to say Japanese folks are egotistical, but as a whole, the society does seem to have a "elite" air about it, though paling in comparison to American brashness. Yet, it is exactly the delicate nature with which the Japanese regard everything about their culture that I find truly unique.

Near the end of the date, we were walking through the train station and several groups of young, drugged by the West, Japanese hipsters caught my attention. There seem to be two fashion styles for Japanese youth, what I will call Mismatched and GlamRidiculous. The Mismatched folks dress to shock-- they wear just about anything, as long as it doesn't make sense with anything else they have on -- the more colors, fabrics, prints, brands, and accessories, the better. The Glam folks dress to impress--expensive brands, fake tans, $200 nail jobs, sunglasses all the time, rhinestones on everything, lots of white and lots of tight, and fabulous (whether you like it or not) hair. Anyway, I was getting a good dose of hipster watching when the irony struck me--all these young Japanese cats eagerly trying to be different and catch eyes, and all of them looking quite similar (to me at least) and well...very Japanese I suppose.