This post is supposed to be about the Japanese people. Now the only reason I used such a clumsy opening sentence is because it is a very vague question. Also somewhat dangerous. I mean, making broad generalizations of an entire group of people is always treading on uncomfortable ground. So I'm going to try to narrow it down to just the Japanese students I have met at Gaidai. Granted that isn't much better, Gaidai is a pretty large school of about 10,000 Japanese students. Still, it is better than trying to talk about the people in a nation of over 127,000,000. I took two pictures for this week, one of a few of my male Gaidai friends and one of a few of my female Gaidai friends. One thing that I have noticed about Kansai Gaidai is that it appears to attract very similar students. When I have asked what movies, music, books, etc. the answers are all very similar. It struck me as a little strange that there would be so many people with such similar tastes. Then I began to think; almost all of the Gaidai students are English language majors. It would make sense that they would have similar interests. I think one of the reasons that it stuck me as odd was that I am from a liberal arts school where there are many majors that one can choose. I know that many of the film majors at my school have similar tastes, there are just far less of us so it seems more feasible.
Yes, it is difficult to generalize about all Japanese people; that is why I asked students to do specific case studies. Gaidaisei might work - but I find it hard to beleive that all Gaidaisei like the same movies, etc. Perhaps among your circle of friends like attracts like?
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