J a p a n e s e    C u l t u r e

Modern and Traditional Japanese Culture: The Psychology of Buddhism, Power Rangers, Masked Rider, Manga, Anime and Shinto. 在日イギリス人男性による日本文化論.

Friday, April 24, 2009

 

The Poo Poo Song

As mentioned previously, faeces are less taboo in Japan and Japanese people are more likely to discuss their faeces with members of their immediate family for instance. Presumably to encourage discussion and awareness of faeces, the Japanese Toilet Research Association has released a song and promotional video called "The Poo Poo Song" (or "faeces excercise dance") for which this image is a screen shot of the promotional video, which can be seen on Youtube.

The realease of the music was announed in this news article.

The music can be purchased here. I have ordered a copy at ten dollars plus postage.

Where there is an English version, which can be previewed here. The English words are

How's your tummy, hows your poopy
Dr. Poopalot has this to say,
Chew your breakfast, chew it chew it
After breakfast poopy do,
Shiny poopy, rocky poopy, skinny poopy, slimy pooh
Shiny poopy, rocky poopy, skinny poopy, slimy pooh
Shine pooh is very healthy
when you....


The full Japanese words are listed here.

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Monday, April 06, 2009

 

Hsirgne

hsirgne

hsirgne
Originally uploaded by timtak
A back-translation of a T shirt, with English-like writing on it, sold in Japan.

The original has

"Impact attack never give up
Hope wonderful woeld. 
And Peaceful. 
All peopel keep smiling 
Everyday. 
More & More. 
Fatastic.
Peace World."

Imagine if all the Tshirts on sale in clothes shops in the US or the UK had designs like the above. That is the situation in Japan. A large proportion of the Tshirts being worn and in the shops have English-like writing on them if they have any sort of print or patter at all. No one seems to think that it is in any way notable. It seems to me to be indicative of the fact that Western, particularly US, culture has become so desirable that Japanese people want to put its signs on their bodies. That the Japanese wear T-shirts like this suggests to me that Western culture is valued so highly that the same people probably also import Western culture into their minds.

イギリスかアメリカの店に入って、そこにあるTシャツの全てがこのようなデザインだったらどう思われるでしょう。日本人が着ているTシャツのほとんどは、上のようなものです。日本では特別視される事態ではありません。欧米、特にアメリカの文化がその表彰を体に一杯付けたいほど高く評価されていることを示唆していると思います。また、このようなTシャツを着ているのであれば、ここまで英語圏の文化が高く拝められるものであれば、欧米の精神的な文化(思想・価値観など)を心の中にも輸入していると思われるでしょう。

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This blog represents the opinions of the author, Timothy Takemoto, and not the opinions of his employer.