I tried to recall when I started to build early impressions about Japan and found out that this happened much earlier than when I landed in Kansai Airport. I discovered Japan gradually. My first impression about Japan goes back to when I was five and my parent’s German friends offered me a book about the art of Origami. I was always impressed by how we can make extraordinary things using an A4 white paper. Then came the phase where I started to watch the Japanese anime Inspector Konan that was in Japanese and subtitled in Arabic.
On the other hand my Moroccan background impacted my first impression about Japan. There is a famous joke in Morocco saying that a Moroccan visited Japan and didn’t get up early and the Japanese thought he died buried him. This reflects the general stereotypes we, Moroccans, have of Japanese people. We generally imagine them as people who look all alike, who eat rice are extremely intelligent and work hard all the time. I made sure that this was true after reading a book of the Writer Amelie Nothomb <Stupeurs et Tremblements>talking about her experience working in a Japanese corporation. I started to get rid of my stereotypes after I met Amina, a friend of mine who lived in Japan. She was quite upset when I told all the non-sense I had in mind. The following day she offered me a book of the Japaneese writer Yanasuri Kawabata. It is thanks to this book that I am posting this article today, that I am taking visual anthropology … that I came to Japan! Through his writing, Yasnasuri Kawabata showed some little details of Japanese life and Japanese people that impressed me. I loved this book, this culture and started to know that Japan is more than Sushi, manga and kimonos. When I had to decide where to go for my exchange semester my three choices were: Japan, Japan, Japan…