Japanese Culture
This culture course took a comparison look at Japanese culture as shone in historical texts and in its present unveiling. I took the course because despite the number of Japanese courses I have had the pleasure to take, I hadn't taken one that covered Japan in a historical sense. The History of Japan course at CSUMB is taught in Japanese, so I was unable to take it before I went to Japan. I also decided quite early that if there was any place to learn the history of Japan, Japan was probably the place to do it. This course used weekly readings and feedback questions to display the mindset of past eras in Japan. We read several accounts from Japanese and American diplomats as they were welcomed and shown the sights in each other's countries. Each diplomat would talk of how strange the customs were, and how baffled they were at the levels of formality and differing social classes in each place. By far the most interesting account was of the Japanese diplomats who looked at the culture I am well aware of and questioned how we as a people could live that way. It allowed me to see America from an outsider's point of view--something I am thankful to have received. At the same time we were exploring and analyzing culture in the past, we also looked at events and news from today, and debated exactly what aspect of our cultures created our differing opinions. This class gave me at least a little window of what it was like to see through the lens of a culture that was not my own.