Fads of Japan

Japan is a country filled to the brim with fads. I’ve noticed many interesting little fads just in the schools, even. It’s a various interesting phenomenon. I’ll have students asking me questions like “What’s your favorite stationary?” right along with questions like “What color do you like?” and find it strange when I tell them that I don’t know. I knew I’d get the question about my blood type, but stationary? Really?

Car dashboard decoration.

Almost everyone here diligently watches at least one weekly television program (and almost none of these people are without cable). People with nice cars wash said cars every chance they get. Everyone seems to have all sorts of little knick-knacks – for their cars, their desks, and their bags. Everyone with a phone has somewhere between 6-16 charms for the thing. I'm not kidding - google search "japan phone charms". All the kids have pencil cases with various charms hanging off the zippers.

Then there’s the One Piece fad. It’s absolutely incredible! All the boys could probably wear a different O.P. shirt for every day of the week. Every last one of the elementary school boys in my schools has at least one O.P. shirt. Most of the girls do too. Chopper seems to be the most popular character for that. In an arcade near here, ever other claw machine had O.P. stuff in it, and we passed a life-size cardboard stand-up of an Ace action figure. I’ve been getting little O.P. charms from dispensers found in many stores, 200 yen each, but I think my favorite O.P. thing I’ve seen so far is a set of shot glasses. I want!

ONE PIECE phone charms!

And last for now … the stickers. “Shiiru” is sticker here, and kids always, always want more stickers. We’ve seen a few television cartoons where the characters collected stickers they earn for various reasons, and I’ve found that the students do the same. I’ve given them stickers during class, and many will carefully place the sticker on their notebooks or folders or pencil cases, if they deem it worthy of the spot (and they usually do). It’s really cute! I’ve always loved stickers, so it’s fun to see these kids treating their stickers like great prizes.

I feel like someone could write the longest post in existence about Japanese fads, so I’ll leave it at this for now. I’ll also add that I do think some of the fads are great fun. I love collecting small, cute things. Being here will probably feed that particular hobby of mine. Family and friends, be prepared to get many small gifts from me when I return!