How much of Western culture influences Japanese culture?

Since when is it considered chic to eat sushi?! It's a food like anything else and it's not like it's exactly new on the scene in the west. Sushi bars have been around in California for at the very least several decades by now.

 

It might be because I live in an oasis of urbanity in a wasteland of apocalyptic hickdom but it actually is considered something special in my experience. Those who do partake for the image would never come right out and say it of course but there's always a quite pretentious subset of the sushi-eating demographic in my area. This coming from someone who worked in a sushi place for about a year. Usually guys in button-up Affliction shirts and "vintage" jeans trying to impress a date with "cultured" food. Or maybe just slightly more expensive food. Not sure which.

 

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11quU3nqkVE"]Sponge Bob[/ame]

 

Sushi is generally still seen as the preserve of the yuppies I think, although that is beginning to change. It's not a functional choice in the west to eat in sushi bars etc, it's a lifestyle choice

(that's not to say I haven't eaten it myself, of course)

 

California is the largest area of chic and geek. Followed by Seattle, Portland, and perhaps New York.

Yep. Yep. Yuppie

 

That all depends on where you live! Out in these parts you're never more than five or ten minutes from sushi. As a comparison, there are 93 McDonald's, but 232 sushi restaurants. I sometimes feel like I have to make the lifestyle choice NOT to eat sushi.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fighting_Spirit_(manga)


Western boxing, eastern manga.

 

Great video and bless their excited hearts

 

If you are a trendy type in London then you've probably eaten sushi. There seems to be a lot of it down there. The rest of the country still gets by on fish and chips.

Back on topic, I think the influence of 'Western culture' on Japan is superficially enormous, but fundamentally negligible. Japan seems to have a limitless appetite for all things 'western' - but copies and adapts them and turns them into something utterly Japanese. I get the strong impression that Japan's identity and self-image is altered not on jot by all the 'western' influences that it assimilates.

 

I can remember eating Sushi almost 20 years ago in Birmingham as a (not well off) student. I've only seen it widespread in supermarkets for the last 12 years though (in Scotland as well as England, I can't speak for other parts of the UK). While it has never been as big as Indian/Bangladeshi or Chinese cuisine, I'd hardly describe it as new over here.

 

I concur. They have imported tonnes of western culture over the last 100 or so years, but yet they still maintain their own unique identity and culture. Everything from trains, planes, and highways to western style buildings, televisions, telephones, computers and other conveniences have become so common place in Japan that we don't think twice about such things. The one thing that hasn't changed over the decades is that unique Japanese cultural identity. As my sensei once said, "Westernized body, Japanese soul."

 

Leeds has some great chinese restaurants, red chillies I believe does great Sushi.

 

Hello everyone,

Interesting topic for discussion!

Some other examples would include dress, music and language. Most English speakers have more Japanese words in their vocabulary than they know due to loan words used in Japan.

There are also many things in the West that we can also trace back to Japan.

Best,

Todd Schweinhart

www.yoshindojo.com

 

i like how japan and other countries will take a western concept and put their own unique cultural spin on it.
i HK macdonalds made "Shrek" red bean and green tea sundaes for the movie premier and seasonally they release my favourite - the japanese inspired Ebi (just shrimp) burger.
in macdonalds india they had "aloo tikki" burgers and chicken tikka burgers and paneer wraps.

Japan took it to a new extreme. combining the love of tech and burgers - burger king released they "windows 7 burger":

 

also japanese "rice pizza"
it's a pizza except the base is made of sticky rice adn they have weird topping like raw egg and mangos.
my friend tried this and almost puked.

the japanese are perfectly capable of ruining some western recipes just as the west can ruin japenese ones

 

oh sorry. i thought it was okay to use the plant names!

apologies senor!

 

Is that why the gardening thread disappeared?

 

Their culture has been doing this since the "modern age'