This is Not Los Angeles. This is Japan.
Preface: I apologize for the lack of posts over the last week. Things got busy, and I'm having to work out a new approach to my duties and obligations. I'll do my best to stay on top of things.
I went to Miyazaki City for the weekend, and while there we ran across what looked like a Chicano car show. I didn't have my real camera with me, so all I could manage was a handful of snaps with the phone. I'm pretty sure there aren't this many Mexicans in all of Miyazaki, if not Kyushu. These are Japanese emulating Mexican-American hip-hop/gangster culture. Most of the guys have the dress down pretty well, while most of the girls look like a misguided interpretation of something from a Christina Aguilera video.
Not only did they have the look, they had the jumping cars to boot.
The strangest part had to be how so many of them sported the icons of their adopted culture down to the last detail. Long sleeved flannel shirts with only the top button fastened, worn over an extra long plain white t-shirt, which is over a pair of oversized black shorts, and then a pair of long athletic socks.
In Japan, where tattoos are still somewhat taboo (maybe not as taboo as they once were, but they're nowhere as common as we see in the states, with every bandwagon-jumping airheaded sheep getting tribal barbwire tattoos around their narcissistic biceps, or tribal floral patterns hovering over their low-hanging derriere...) (breathe...) so, yeah -- In Japan, tattoos, etc -- there was a girl with a full shoulder tattoo of the Virgin Mary that ran down to her elbow. You can bet she's not Catholic. I might even be willing to bet she might not know the meaning of the icon she has impressed unto her flesh.
My favorite part had to be the way they carried the Mexican national flag with them. There were more Mexican flags than you'd see American flags in an hour of Faux News -- there were that many. Affixed to cars, carried aloft (some of those flags were pretty huge)... it was surreal.
To wrap this up, I spoke with a couple friends who actually attended a couple parties thrown by this crowd. The guys got up on stage and rapped (in Japanese) about how nobody understands life in the 'hood, and that there are people dying in the street... 'Hood? People dying in the street? Where? Certainly not Japan.
Oh, and with all these trappings, one of my friends walked up to a group at one of these parties and asked "Como estas? Que paso?" They had no idea what he was talking about.
Oh, Japan. You're so silly.
I went to Miyazaki City for the weekend, and while there we ran across what looked like a Chicano car show. I didn't have my real camera with me, so all I could manage was a handful of snaps with the phone. I'm pretty sure there aren't this many Mexicans in all of Miyazaki, if not Kyushu. These are Japanese emulating Mexican-American hip-hop/gangster culture. Most of the guys have the dress down pretty well, while most of the girls look like a misguided interpretation of something from a Christina Aguilera video.Not only did they have the look, they had the jumping cars to boot.
The strangest part had to be how so many of them sported the icons of their adopted culture down to the last detail. Long sleeved flannel shirts with only the top button fastened, worn over an extra long plain white t-shirt, which is over a pair of oversized black shorts, and then a pair of long athletic socks. In Japan, where tattoos are still somewhat taboo (maybe not as taboo as they once were, but they're nowhere as common as we see in the states, with every bandwagon-jumping airheaded sheep getting tribal barbwire tattoos around their narcissistic biceps, or tribal floral patterns hovering over their low-hanging derriere...) (breathe...) so, yeah -- In Japan, tattoos, etc -- there was a girl with a full shoulder tattoo of the Virgin Mary that ran down to her elbow. You can bet she's not Catholic. I might even be willing to bet she might not know the meaning of the icon she has impressed unto her flesh.
My favorite part had to be the way they carried the Mexican national flag with them. There were more Mexican flags than you'd see American flags in an hour of Faux News -- there were that many. Affixed to cars, carried aloft (some of those flags were pretty huge)... it was surreal.To wrap this up, I spoke with a couple friends who actually attended a couple parties thrown by this crowd. The guys got up on stage and rapped (in Japanese) about how nobody understands life in the 'hood, and that there are people dying in the street... 'Hood? People dying in the street? Where? Certainly not Japan.
Oh, and with all these trappings, one of my friends walked up to a group at one of these parties and asked "Como estas? Que paso?" They had no idea what he was talking about.
Oh, Japan. You're so silly.
posted by Dehn at 15:55
4 Comments:
*Pours 40 (1.18 liter) of Calpis*
I ran across one of these guys not long ago. He had a teardrop tattooed in the corner of his eye and three dots ("la vida loca") in the web of skin between his thumb and index finger, both hispanic gang symbols.
I was hoping that they were something not too widespread, but I guess that's not to be. The amateur sociologist in me really, really wants to know what they're thinking or what they're persuing.
I wonder which would be a stronger parallel to the "Chicanos"...
1) Japanese Bousousoku (Biker gangs)
2) American street racers
3) Southern California street gangs
4) American otaku anime clubs
For some reason, I'm leaning toward #4. It just makes more sense to me. #3 is is second place.
As far as I know from growing up in Santa Ana, "Chicano" just means Mexican-American, nothing to do with dubious pachuco lowriders.
I read a flyer from the gathering where I thought they referred to themselves as "Chicanos", but looking back through it, I think there's much more "Lowrider" than "Chicano".
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