Changing Impressions

Before taking this class of Visual Anthropology, my idea of the field of anthropology was very vague and to tell the truth, I had no idea about it. I just thought we would learn about Japanese people and culture, which I believed I knew to a certain extent as a Japanese, however that belief was totally wrong. 

What I learned in the class were very new to me and were the things I had never thought about in my daily life.  Even for me, a Japanese, I found many things which I could not believe or the issues few Japanese people might know. 

I thought we, Japanese, of course knew things happened in Japan. However, every after watching the videos in class, I was always surprised and ashamed that the truth that I did not know what happened in Japan. At the same time, I felt really glad that I could know them by taking this class and I thought we, Japanese should pay more attention to our own culture and life. 

In my opinion, recently in Japan many people look at foreign things because they are attached to those from abroad. However, to know our own culture and to keep them are also of course important. 


Moreover, I was very glad that foreign students were very enthusiastic about the issues talked in class. They said their opinions positively, which made me rethink about those issues with new view points from the other perspectives. Then I strongly thought that to think about our culture within our Japanese view points was too narrow so it was a very good time to discuss with them and to listen to them in class. 

And it is true that I encountered many things about Japan, which I had no idea about, therefore when I have a little question mark in my head about something, I will try to search it by the ways I learned in this class.