Pop Culture (And I'm Not Talking About Soda)

Pop culture is a hard topic to cover. According to the dictionary on my Mac, pop culture is “commercial culture based on popular tastes.” So, what is popular in Japan? That is a questions that I don’t have enough Japanese language under my belt to answer. However, I will take a stab at one thing: convenience. Throughout the mini-trip I took in Japan, I noticed the number of different ‘convenience’ items located throughout the cities, subways, train stations, and streets. The first picture is obviously a shot of a vending machine. Vending Machines. Are. EVERYWHERE! I am staying in a somewhat, more rural area of my city, and we have the convenience of still having a vending machine sitting right out side of our door. Is it starting to get colder? Well, they have covered that too with all of their tea’s and coffee’s switching from cold to warm. That’s right! If you are feeling the freeze, just pop in 120 yen or so and you will be able to indulge in a nice, warm, canned beverage on your bike ride to school. This is not to mention the vending machine that will scan your body, recommend a drink to you, and all you have to do is touch the screen and flash your Suica to obtain liquid bliss!

Vending machines aside, this is also evident in the world of convenience stores in Japan. Manga, toiletries, alcohol, meals, snacks, you name it and a convenience store near you probably has it. The most fascinating thing to me is the pre-made meals. If you ever forgot your lunch, no problem! Going to the combini and grabbing a meal from the shelf is just as good. They will heat it up and even provide you with a hand towelette and chopsticks.

All of this being said I would like to pull you to my second picture. It is a picture of nature. Tell me, how convenient is that? I suppose that is a fairly loose questions, so I will just make some stipulations here. Let’s say that I live in the country of Japan. Most of the ‘professional’ jobs, especially as a college grad, are not going to be located in the middle of rice fields. There is also a large difficulty when it comes to transportation. If I wanted to live in the country, I would have to buy a car or ride the train to and from work every day. However, why go through all of this hassle when I could just move to the city where everything I could ever need is sitting there in a nice little pre-packaged, heated, chopstick provided combini? What I am trying to say is that, from what I have experienced in Japan thus far, most people are all about convenience, and with such a large buy in toward this ‘popular taste’ (literally in some cases), it is most apparent to me that it is a facet of Japanese pop culture.