5. You Are Not in Tokyo Anymore　【Column: Leap Before You Look】

How do you truly 溶け込む (assimilate) in a culture you were not born in?  Good question, right?  In my case, it was by 没頭する (immersing myself) in the great American pop-culture.

I watched many “classic” テレビ番組 (TV shows).  Nickelodeon was my friend.  “Get Smart,” “I Love Lucy,” “I Dream of Jeannie,” “Mork & Mindy,” “Taxi,” “Twilight Zone,” – the list goes on.  Also lots of movies – “Casablanca,” “A Streetcar Named Desire,” “The Graduate,” “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “Annie Hall,” and of course, “The Wizard of Oz.”

You really cannot 過小評価する (underestimate) the power of these shows and movies.  If someone says “every time a bell rings” they expect me to finish the sentence by saying “an angel gets its wings.”  “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!” will 無意味である (make no sense) if I don’t know Dorothy and her friends’ adventure.  I will be totally lost if someone mentions “cone of silence” in a conversation had I not seen Max and Chief under it and having all sorts of problems.

Now I wonder what the equivalent of those TV shows and movies in Japan would be.  サザエさん (Sazae-san) is definitely one of them.  Alsoドラえもん (Doraemon), ひみつのアッコちゃん (Himitsu no Akko-chan), 8時だヨ！全員集合 (Hachiji da yo! Zen’in shūgō), and 笑点 (Shōten).  As to the movies, 七人の侍 (Seven Samurai), 東京物語 (Tokyo Story), 羅生門 (Rashomon), 砂の女 (The Woman in the Dunes), and お葬式 (The Funeral) comes to mind.

What is it about these TV shows and movies that make them so culturally significant?  I can’t put my finger on it exactly, but somehow they provide an 重要な手掛かり (important clue) and make me 疎外感を薄める (feel less alienated).  Just like Dorothy realized she was no longer in Kansas, I know I am no longer in Tokyo. But I doubt I will ever say “there’s no place like home” because it is too exciting to follow the yellow brick road.