Not being exactly new to Japanese media, I wanted my experience of auto-ethnography in Asian media to be different to just watching more stuff from Japan and Asia. I wanted to challenge myself and consume media outside my comfort zone, that I hadn’t seen before and that would challenge and shape my perceptions of Japanese Culture.
My idea to re-watch Initial D was quickly usurped by a thirst for horror as I started to build a list of films from around Asia. As I started watching films and ticking them off the list, it became apparent that I was veering towards Japanese films, over horror films from other Asian cultures. My thoughts to compare the tropes between cultures slowly died and was replaced by the rabbit hole of cultural history, tradition and ideas that is Japan. I was spending hours reading deeper into specific ideas, following influences and cultural links and loving it.
What I have lacked though, is any sort of direction. I wanted to go into this experience open minded, and find my way from there, but it’s now 11:50 of the night these blogs are due and I’m still not %100 on where I’m heading with this research.
My next and most important step is to decided how to structure my report and whether it needs to be backed by a digital artefact. So far, I’m currently leaning towards looking at the effect of the industrialisation of Japan on peoples relationships, because this seems to be either a theme or influence in most of the films I’ve watched.
After the report will not be the end though, I will continue watching and consuming Asian media and loving it, just now with a little more cultural understanding and thought under my belt.
Digital Asia 