Oh Japan, I miss you!

I keep running into Japanese people here in Rio--which should be no surprise since Brazil has the largest Japanese immigrant population outside of Japan itself. The largest cluster is in Sao Paulo and the state of Parana, but there are still some in Rio de Janeiro also. According to Wikipedia, there are over 1.5 million Japanese decent Brazilians  living in Brazil. A century ago the Japanese and Brazilian governments signed a treaty enabling Japanese to migrate to Brazil and occupy coffee plantation jobs. I find it incredibly interesting how the Japanese have assimilated into Brazilian society so well, because the cultures couldn't be anymore different.

For about five years of my life Japan was one of the most influencial countries in my life. My family hosted three Japanese exchange students, I studied Japanese at university and got an Asian Studies minor, visited my foreign exchange sisters in Kyoto, Tokyo, and Okinawa one summer, and went on to studying in Japan for one memorable semester in Osaka. But as life happens, I have lost touch in Japanese culture. Many of my friends in the past were Japanese, but over time people get busy and form new lives and connections. I started studying Portuguese and moved to Brazil to do an exchange program at PUC Rio, after that began working for the government, then now I'm back in Brazil doing my MBA, the inevitable changes of life. But with new life, you can't forget your past and the fabulous experiences you had. The moral to this rambling is: I have started studying Japanese again and realized that I really miss Japanese culture and that I am a hybrid. I am an American that has spent over a decade influenced by cultures outside of my own heavily and that makes me a hybrid that cannot only survive with one culture, one set of beliefs, and one culture of customs. This is impossible for anyone that has lived interculturally for long enough, we become culturally confused, but it's a good confusion.

Today I am a guest columnist at the blog: The Art Reference. I decided to write about one of my favorite fashion trends in Japan while I was there, Visual Kei. I remember daily being visually bombarded with crazy outfit pairings of high heals with baggy cut up jeans, a rainbow of colors, mismatched accompaniments, Baby Lolitas, Ganagurus, dread locks, EnRish phrases on T-shirts, and everything in between. When I went back to the United States, I was so bored with the fashion there in comparision to Japanese fashion. If someone reading this post has never been to Japan, I highly, highly recommend visiting.

Please check out my article on Japanese rock's influence on Japanese fashion: Visual Kei.  次回まで...