{"id":74363,"date":"2013-12-26T10:00:23","date_gmt":"2013-12-26T01:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fukuoka-now.com\/?post_type=feature&p=45551"},"modified":"2017-06-13T12:52:04","modified_gmt":"2017-06-13T03:52:04","slug":"become-a-tourist-in-your-own-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/become-a-tourist-in-your-own-country\/","title":{"rendered":"Become a Tourist in Your Own Country"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have been studying in Fukuoka for over two months now, on the \u2018Japan in Today\u2019s World\u2019 course at Kyushu University. I jumped at the chance to spend a year here because Japanese culture and traditions are truly unique and in many cases can only be experienced in Japan. So far, I have had the pleasure of watching sumo<\/em>, and taking part in rice-harvesting and a tea ceremony. This month I will go to kabuki<\/em> and the Hakata Odori. Despite being undeniably proud of their distinctive customs, most Japanese people I\u2019ve met haven\u2019t experienced these traditions for themselves. It\u2019s a shame and a travesty that they don\u2019t appreciate how lucky they are to have such inimitable traditions right on their doorstep. By sharing my experiences I hope to encourage Japanese people to take part in these at least once in their lifetime.<\/p>\n

\"fn181<\/p>\n

When most foreigners think of Japan, they think of big, modern cities like Tokyo, of fancy toilets and technology. But the appeal of the other Japan – \u2018old\u2019 Japan, of geisha<\/em>, samurai<\/em> and sumo<\/em> – should not be forgotten. Although there are no longer any real samurai<\/em>, the chance to see geisha<\/em> in Kyoto or a sumo<\/em> match is irresistible precisely since they are exclusive to Japan. I, for one, hugely enjoyed going to watch sum<\/em>o, and was happy to see that the stadium was full. There were many foreigners present, showing the cultural cache that many locals fail to appreciate. Sumo<\/em> is a special sport, and I think a foreign perspective can help Japanese people to recognize this and many other traditions that are no longer part of daily life. Perhaps if Japanese people knew how much foreigners pay to watch a match, they would realize how lucky they are that they don\u2019t have to spend thousands of dollars on travel to Japan for the experience, and would seize the chance to go.<\/p>\n

Japan has many festivals (matsuri<\/em>) unique to different regions. Last month, I experienced the Karatsu Kunchi Yoiyama in Saga Prefecture, and was captivated by the 6m floats, hauled around the streets by man power alone. The atmosphere was electric \u2013 thousands of people turned up to see the annual event, enjoying the music, parade and street stalls. This was a mostly local matsuri<\/em>, and the main attendees appeared to be from surrounding towns in the prefecture. Many of the spectators were relatives of those involved, calling out to those they knew as they passed by. Matsuri<\/em> are still important events on the annual calendar of individual towns, but other traditional aspects of Japan \u2013 such as sumo<\/em>, kabuki<\/em> and tea ceremony, seem not to be part of modern Japanese life. This is, of course, understandable \u2013 it is can be costly to attend such events, especially when travel and accommodation are taken into account for those who don\u2019t live nearby. But this is not really any excuse when the cheapest sumo<\/em> and kabuki<\/em> tickets can be bought for the same price, or cheaper, than a night out downtown (\u00a53,000). Even if it\u2019s not an everyday occurrence, I believe that every Japanese person should see and experience such things at least once in a lifetime. You may think it\u2019s not to your taste, but how will you know until you have tried it?<\/p>\n

Japan has undergone a dramatic change in recent years, from the Meiji era to today, but especially since World War II. Young people today are lucky to have benefits of technology that didn\u2019t exist when their grandparents were growing up, but this may lead to less appreciation of the \u2018old ways\u2019. Whilst a return to traditions like rice-harvesting by hand would be impractical,there are still aspects of \u2018old\u2019 Japan which should be experienced at least once in a lifetime. Therefore, I would encourage all Japanese and visitors to Japan, whether old or young, to go watch a sumo<\/em> match, or be part of a local matsuri<\/em>. Take a leaf out of a foreigners\u2019 book \u2013 don\u2019t put it off because you can, watch it or do it now because you can. Japanese people could become detached from their own culture if kabuki<\/em>, sumo<\/em> and the like are not promoted to and attended by locals. So, I recommend to all Japanese readers: why not become a tourist in your own country? Dodesho<\/em>?<\/p>\n

\"fn181<\/p>\n

by Jenny Cook, UK, Student<\/p>\n

\"offyourchest\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Originally published in Fukuoka Now Magazine (fn181<\/a>, Jan. 2014)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have been studying in Fukuoka for over two months now, on the \u2018Japan in Today\u2019s World\u2019 course at Kyushu University. I jumped at the chance to spend a year here because Japanese culture and traditions are truly unique and in many cases can only be experienced in Japan. So far, I have had the pleasure of watching sumo…
\nby Jenny Cook<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45552,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_locale":"en_US","_original_post":"45551","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4914],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-others","location-fukuoka-city","en-US"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/fn181-dodesho-illo.png?fit=1072%2C940&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74363"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99221,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74363\/revisions\/99221"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}