!Special Lecture「Japanese Culture」In Three Case Studies… Or, “So, what`s it like to live in Japan?”

Student and faculty guests from the College of Charleston are visiting our university this week. We have a very long, close and important reltionship with this college, so the Center for International Education is rolling out the red carpet and pulling out the top guns for a sample Japanese class, lecture on Japanese business and lecture on Japnese culture. I have been tasked with the last. So how am I supposed to explain the complexities of Japanese culture in 90 minutes? To be honest, the longer I have been in Japan, the less I seem to understand.

Around the time I was conscripted for this lecture, I had the pleasure of meeting my cousin's daughter's husband (or first cousin once removed-in-law), Preston. After talking for a while, Preston asked me, "so, what's it like to live in Japan?" I was taken back by this question, no one has asked me this in a long time. I tried to briefly explain my family, neighborhood, job and research. Then it dawned on me, why not organize my lecture in a similar way and call them case studies. So I will be talking about my neighborhood (with a focus on my research of its fall festival), my major research subject (Deaf communities and sign language) and my passion (the Hanshin Tigers).

Thanks, Preston!

I am providing some resources below for my lecture audience (and others who might be interested) with more details about the case studies.

1) My Neighborhood (in Kadoma-shi): Focus on the Fall Festival

Sources:

祭り Matsuri Photo Exhibition 写真展: https://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/2024/01/matsuri-photo-exhibition.html

Japanese Anthropology Workshop (JAWS) Newsletter No. 53: https://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/2025/04/announcement-new-jaws-newsletter.html

Distributed Multimodalities: Ethnographic Experiments in Memory and Performance: https://distributedmultimodalities.carrd.co/

Distributed Multimodalities on VAoJ: https://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/search?q=Distributed+Multimodalities%3A+Ethnographic+Experiments+in+Memory+and+Performance

Fall Festival on VAoJ: https://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/search?q=fall+festival

2) My Primary Research: Deaf Communities and Sign Language

Sources:

「A Primer on Deaf Communities in Japan: Identity, Sign Language and Diversity」@YCAPS, Getting to Know Japan Webinar (2024): https://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/2024/06/announcementa-primer-on-deaf.html

The Embodiment of the Deaf in Japan: A Set of Heuristic Models for Identity, Belonging and Sign Language Use (2023): https://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/2024/01/theres-nothing-like-holding-real-book.html

Sign language, what is it? An ESCAP guide towards legal recognition of sign languages in Asia and the Pacific (2022): https://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/2023/05/new-publication-from-united-nations.html

Representations of Deaf People in Japan: Inspiration, Outrage and Real Life (2021): https://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/2021/05/representations-of-deaf-people-in-japan.html

Barrier-Free Communication for the Deaf in Japan: A Local Initiative for Medical Interpretation Services in Japanese Sign Language (2021): https://kansaigaidai.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=8036&file_id=19&file_no=1

Performance, Sign Language, and Deaf Identity in Japan (2019): https://www.anthropology-news.org/articles/performance-sign-language-and-deaf-identity-in-japan/

Living Partial Truths: HIV/AIDS in the Japanese Deaf World (2006): https://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/2007/08/hivaids-in-japan.html

Deaf and Sign Language on VAoJ: https://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/search?q=deaf+sign+language

3) My Passion: Hanshin Tigers

Sources:

Hanshin Tigers Webpage (in Japanese): https://hanshintigers.jp/

Food Terrorism and Japanese Baseball: A Hanshin Tigers Case Study@SWCAS 11/4/23: https://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/2023/11/food-terrorism-and-japanese-baseball.html

Hanshin Tigers on VAoJ: https://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/search?q=hanshin+tigers