Another interesting phenomenon in the realm of Asian visual culture is something almost every person has read: manga. A surprising staple that originated in Japan, it has attracted the attention of a significant worldwide audience.
Typically printed in black and white, manga is sold almost everywhere that you can purchase books (even at the U.A bookstore). A lot of people find the art style and story techniques of manga to be very entertaining, so it's no surprise that manga is read on a global scale.
Some extremely popular titles that come to mind when you think of manga would be Naruto, Bleach, etc.
Dragon Drive was a short manga series but it was entertaining nonetheless.
There's a lot of interesting toys and hobbies that you can find in Japan... one of them revolves around collecting figures from well known lines such as Nendoroid or Figma. As they can be rather or small or not likely to leave a big impression, depending on what kind of figure you're looking at they can range anywhere from $30-$500 (the average price is just about $58 actually).
Why would these insignificant figures charge such a high a price to begin with? It goes beyond reason to spend that much money on any of these, let alone collecting them. However, with the craze that begins in Japan and spreads across the globe like wildfire, reason is something that gets thrown out the window pretty often.
Essentially these figures are based off of popular anime, manga, vocaloid, almost anything you can find in the world of 2-D.
This is a Saber (suit version) figure, from the popular anime "Fate Zero"
Last week during the time of fall break, a friend of mine from high school came back to visit Tucson (he's currently attending ASU, the rascal). To celebrate his temporary return we went out for sushi with other friends. I don't remember what the restaurant was called, but we were watching the people prepare the sushi for us (which was new, previously we had all waited for somebody to bring it out). I don't have the exact file on me for this, but one of my friends took a picture of the order tray that the assistants brought out for a predetermined order, it looked something like this-
Preparing sushi is like an art of some kind, and it was quite the spectacle to see professionals do it in front of their customers. Regardless, almost every kind of sushi you eat tastes delicious.
Having a shrine to Buddha is one of the many features that you can find in an Asian home. Growing up around 2-3 different ones in my household, this is what is currently in my house-
Not being big on religion myself, my parents and my grandparents are the most likely to use it in the household. I do however use this around the time of important events and New Year's.
Most of these shrines are rather simple, but my mother went all out with this when she re-arranged the house.
When you walk in through the front door you'll be able to see it. Quite a hefty reminder that the house you just stepped into has Asians in it.
The Chinese New Year is a unique concept, as it does not take the shape of a party that happens on the first of January, but rather later into the months (perhaps in accordance to the lunar calendar or something along those lines?).
Being a sharp realist might lead one to think that it is insane to have a New Year's celebration after the new year has already begun, but it's not all that bad.
Especially when there is good food and shows/events to go around. I like to go the ones in town with my family every year that I get the chance to do so.
Mikunopolis 2011
If you don't know who Hatsune Miku is, it's the name behind one of many voice synthesizer programs known as "Vocaloid". You might also begin to wonder that it sounds ridiculous for a computer program to sing, but the phenomenon itself is extremely popular in Japan.
The basics- Hatsune Miku is the voice behind many popular songs in Japan, to the point that there are concerts held with her hologram singing to one of her well-known tracks. When the concept became really popular in Japan, it could not be fathomed that these concerts would be seen elsewhere.
That idea did not last for very long as Hatsune Miku's very first concert outside of Japan took place at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles, CA on 7/2/11.
Behold, the internationally famous superstar.
A significance behind this concert is the fact that Hatsune Miku is not a real person, rather a voice synthesizer with a human persona behind it. Not quite a legitimate human being, but a very real pop star- Hatsune Miku serves as a reminder to the ever changing face of Asian art that it diffuses globally rather quickly. As a treat, you might be interested in hearing one of Miku's songs-
Hatsune Miku rocked the crowds in LA, with the stadium holding about 6,000 fans and 100,000 more watching online.
