TABLE
OF CONTENTS
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Japan:
Vernacular and Transnational
Perry
Jackman
One
of the first things we learned in Global Cities was the differences
between
vernacular and transnational. Our first
port during this voyage around the world is Japan.
When I visited Kobe, Osaka, Kyoto, and
Nara,
I found many transnational and vernacular examples.
When
I got off the ship and got a chance to walk around Kobe, the first thing I noticed was
tall
buildings and the crazy advertisements. Even though Kobe was a small city, it had
definitely
caught the globalization bug. I also noticed that when I visited Kyoto. Kyoto I had the
chance to experience
globalization. I grabbed a coffee at Starbucks and had a late midnight
snack at
McDonalds. If I didn’t know better, I would think I would be back at
home in Denver.
I even noticed
the effects of globalization while I was eating sushi. In one of our
readings
for Global Cities was an article about the effects of
globalization. The
article “Supply-Side Sushi: Commodity, Market and the Global City”
talks about how
even Japanese
sushi in Japan
is part of globalization. The fish that many Japanese restaurants serve
are not
even fish from Japan.
They come from tuna farms from America.
I found it to be very ironic that I had come all this way to have
genuine
Japanese sushi, when in all reality the fish is from back
home.
Even
though I found many examples of globalization in Japan,
I also found many sites that
were vernacular. I loved the fact that I would be walking in the city
and right
next to a building would be a Buddhist temple. Japan
has such a long
history that
I find it hard not to incorporate in their daily life. I went to Nara to see the
big
Buddha. I left Kyoto and went to Nara. They
couldn’t be
more different. Nara
didn’t have the big buildings, but acient temples. When I went to see
the Big
Buddha, I was amazed by the architecture. The temple in which the
Buddha was in
was the largest wood building in the world. The buildings was built
without the
modern technology we have today, it also had no influence from the
outside. I
was amazed by its beauty. I would never be able to see anything like
that at
home.
Overall, Japan
was a great experience. I loved how I could experience both sides of Japan;
the
transnational side and the vernacular side.
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