Interview.
I interviewed my new friend I made while I was here in Japan, Hitomi.
I asked Hitomi about her life here in Japan. I learned she is nineteen years old and has one younger brother who lives in a dormitory while he is in high school currently. She lives with both of her parents in a house in Nara, a city I was able to go to on an excursion to see a Buddhist temple. She travels about an hour and a half to and from school at IBU. She showed me dedication to wanting to get her education to have the ability to become a teacher. I have learned from my own experiences that tattoos are not accepted in their society, as they are in the US society and way of living. Hitomi stated she liked my tattoos and that she wanted to get a little one behind her ear but said she would not be able to teach or do what she wants if she got it. This has shown me a different culture's way of thinking for sure. In my opinion, many students currently attending SLCC do not have a goal like Hitomi, they are just concerned with getting their general studies education and not thinking about excelling. I also feel as though many SLCC students do not have the passion and desire to learn that Hitomi and her colleges have. I feel that I am similar to Hitomi for the fact that I am only a year older than her and have more of a goal and idea of where I want to be in five years from now than many of my colleges. The difference is in Utah my colleges are impressed or surprised that I have a big goal, whereas it is the usual to know what you want to do and to really focus on school.
Hitomi has a part time job and only works Sunday and Thursday since her main focus is on her education. This would be nice to only have work two to three days and focus more on school because I am used to working about forty hours a week and attending school full time. Hitomi also informed me about how she feels about her safety in Japan. She walked Bethany, another student, and I to the bus station to make sure we would safely return to our dormitory, when Bethany and I asked if she would be safe making her way home her response was that she'll be fine because she knows the language. She stated she does not feel she is ever in danger in Japan and that she has never seen anyone pick pocket or still a purse from someone. This was good news because many people informed me that there may be a chance of getting pick pocketed. Since this country is so respectful of the land and each other it is rare to see anyone steal anything. Adam and I have experienced the honesty within Japan because he had left his cell phone in the bank at an ATM and when he returned for it it had been turned in and I had left my purse in a basket of a bicycle and when I returned a man was sitting near our bikes but my purse had not been touched. I feel if we were anywhere else both the phone and purse would have been taken within minutes.
The last thing I spoke with Hitomi about was the Japanese street fashion. I told her how much I love the way everyone dresses everywhere I go in Japan. What would be considered 'dressed up' in Utah and many other places in the US is the normal in Japan. Skirts, shorts, and dresses are seen all over the women of Japan. It is rare to find a woman wearing jeans, more men do sometimes, but even then many men wear unique colored pants instead of jeans. I also told her how I feel that Japan is more ahead than US, mainly Utah, in their fashion trends. Hitomi said she felt the opposite and that she thinks Japan tries to mimic the fashion from the US. This surprised me, but I think that it is because she is thinking of the bigger cities in California and New York. I informed her that it would be looked down upon if girls were to wear shorts with knee high stockings in Utah because it is so conservative. Yet, this is a contradiction to Japan in general because Japan is so conservative, quiet, and respectful, yet the street fashion suggests differently. This is a unique trait that Japan portrays. Hitomi told me she did not realize that it was looked at as inappropriate until she lived in New Zealand with a host family while she attended school there. She informed me that many Japanese girls do not know that others are not accepting of this style and she is glad she had the opportunity to learn that things common to her may bot be the normal for another culture, just like the way tattoos are viewed in the US versus in Japan.
I have fallen in love with the Japanese street fashion, it was a lot easier to find many clothing items that I was willing to buy than what I am able to find in Utah. This is what caught my attention the most, including how dedicated Hitomi and her colleges are to their education and their families still being together. Also, all of the students I spoke with had both of their parents still married to one another, which is not common in the US. This is been an amazing opportunity to learn the Japanese customs and culture. I am still so interested in the way Japan is such a respectable and conservative country, yet the way the women dress and the openness toward sex in newspapers or toys is so contradicting.
