Musings of Temwani

So, a few days ago, David T. made a rather interesting comment about how people in Japan have a very different view about individuality than we do in the United States. He observed how, in an hour long bus ride, we only saw about 3 colors of car and everyone wore either a white, blue or pink shirt and bland pants. Of course, this was in Tokyo, where one would expect to find all the oddities of the country, so I just accepted that people didn’t have any desire for the kind of individuality we have in the United States. I just assumed that, in Japan, people wanted to be valuable to society rather than stand out. I, however could not stop noticing how, as we traveled further away from the city, we began to see more variation among cars and the clothes people wore. Although I noticed that there was a clear style, a bland shirt with bland pants, there were more people and cars that stood out compared to Tokyo. And this surprised me because it was simply the exact opposite of what I expected. One would think that Tokyo, a modern city with influences from around the world, would take on some characteristics that we consider modern and desirable.

Temwani M.