Japanese Coolness Essay

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Before I participated in this program, I just thought the name of it simply try to tell people that Japan is a cool country. However, after finishing the program, I discovered that “Cool Japan” is a very complicated and meaningful concept. To talk about Japan’s coolness, it includes various aspects of its local cultures and subcultures, or basically it is mentioning about everything related to Japan. Like fashion, idol, anime and manga, to name but a few. All of the above contribute a lot in building Japan’s coolness. In this article, I am going to point out a few areas which make Japan so “cool”. Recalling my memory when we had the last lecture, which is Mr. Kazuhiko Tsutsumi giving a lesson on Promoting Cool Japan to the World, he stated that many of Japan’s culture also took reference from other…show more content…
This really shocked me at that moment and brought me insights on the reason why Japan is so cool. In my opinion, what makes Japan so cool is all about “relativeness”. I am a student who comes from Hong Kong. Hong Kong is a unique city as many countries’ culture can be found in this city. However, when people ask us anything that can represent Hong Kong, we seldom have an answer. Just like Chell said in the class when she mentioned about Philippine, because of a variety of historical factors, we cannot easily think of anything that can best describe or should be proud of our cities. In this aspect, I believe Japan is also similar to Hong Kong and Philippine after having Tsutsumi sensei’s lecture. Nevertheless, when people ask for the first impression of Japan, answer like ramen, curry, onigiri and etc. will show up. And the food which I introduced above is also the consequence of learning and modifying from other countries’ dishes. Like ramen and onigiri’s original model is Chinese noodles and rice respectively, and curry is from India. I am a Chinese and I can easily try noodles and rice in my city. Yet, I still have a
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