Old school finding new rythms

Japan's youth generation has gained infamy for ripping through fads and trends at lightspeed. Whatever is hip this week in Harajuku isn't going to be The Thing next week. Popular culture in Japan appears to ride swells of trends, even generating the waves of what's fresh and the withdrawing tide with the same motion last season's clothes are pulled off hangars.

At the same time, Japan also maintains customs that are centuries old, honoring the ancient traditions in small ways: festivals, visits to the local shrine, kimonos. The hipster kid in the Mura (Osaka) in his newest Hawaiian shirt and chinos may pause at a shrine before pushing on, oblivious to the contradictions. A girl who is a habitual consumer of the latest fashions may also look at the latest kimonos with the same eye and on the same whim.

But sometimes old traditions come creeping back into society to become trendy again. I noticed this when I was walking through Ebisubashi in Osaka the other day, looking for some sweet arcade game action. I was drawn to a crowd outside one of the arcades in the area. Of all the machines in the place, racing games, shooting games, fighting games, there was just one game outside the place: a taiko drum game. Take Dance Dance Revolution, change the music to taiko drum beats and stick two traditional-looking drums in front of the machine and you have The Taiko Drum Game(tm). In and of itself, I wouldn't normally think this would appeal to the generation that is always looking for the latest version of The Thing or the newest moment on the horizon, but here was a young man just wailing on the fake drums to the beats in the game like a real taiko drummer! And he had a huge audience! And did I mention this was a videogame?

While I was standing there, the crowd got bigger. The guy was obviously good. He also added embellishments to his style, looking no less the part of the taiko drummer. I also saw a couple other guys on the side, I guess waiting their turn, and they had their own taiko drum sticks.They were the model taiko drum game otaku, there is a devoted following of the game complete with their own sticks and their posse.

So just when I think that Japanese culture has two completely divergent aspects of itself, and the nationalists would have you think that the New Japanese are destroying the traditional way of life, here comes a temporary integration of the two faces of Japan. One final note: You can't really see it in my picture (crappy 1 megapixel cellphone camera), the little girl in front is bouncing to the beat. Kawaii!