JAPAN

Japan,

  It's very unique but incomprehensible.

For example, Manga, which is Japanese culture. But its characters has bigger eyes than typical Japanese. Actually I am not a fan of manga any more.  

Maybe it because I was just too faithful for school teachers who seemed to have bad ideas about manga. What they said that manga should disturb students learning, badly influence to their growth or it could be childish.  I ended up developing the idea about manga like this,   "Only teenagers read manga." Spontaneously I put a bit negative image to manga in my mind. 

Today, I visited World Cosplay Summit was held in Nagoya, Japan. "Cosplay" can be interpreted "costume play".  Wearing costumes of manga, you would become the character of your favourite manga.  As if you came out of the comic book.  

However what made me surprised was that participants were not teenagers, but they were "salaryman", which is Japanese-English, employees of some offices. 

I tried asking some people what their status was. But all of them answered me that they were usually working in offices. 

(To be honest) OMG!

As I was wearing normal summer clothes, a t-shirt and a white coloured long cotton skirt. But it didn't match their atomosphere. Usually it is opposite but today, if you wore clothes normally, you would be funny, doesn't fit the place. 

I still feel strange for the office workers who wore manga costume pretending to be heroes or heroins. Or maybe I could say that they were dreaming about being manga characters. Their minds were in somewhere else not this world trying to forget such boring everyday life.  

But now, I think, Cosplay, which might be the biggest support for them to represent themselves. 

School don't allow them to bring manga to school, try to put them negative images about manga saying to them, "if you were always reading manga, you could fail exams!" Yes, right words are here, they try to threaten their students. 

But even for outside of school, for example, offices, in Japan, it should be good to follow others doing, which means there is no chance to express yourself.  

Maybe....  maybe the reasons why such people do Cosplay is there.  They found their place where they can identify themselves, who they are. 

But for me, I have a room where I can express myself. 

It is writing.  I write what I am thinking. 

Also I could fit more traditional Japanese culture.  

After visiting the summit, I popped into the festival in a market, which reminds me of old Japanese days, my childhood.  Hearing big sounds of drums and watching traditional local dance, I re-discovered my place, which was here, Japan.

this is traditional local dance called AWA.