I like analyzing the little cultural memes I see in Japan, for example what kinds of things are considered “romantic” here. The Japanese consider two people walking under an umbrella together to be quite a romantic image, and a popular visual meme that shows up in anime and manga is aiai-gasa or “love-love umbrella,” a doodle of an umbrella with two names or faces underneath. A couple walking on a cold morning with a “muffler” (what the Japanese always call a scarf) wrapped around both their necks is the sign of a happy relationship, as is a couple who listens to a song together by sharing earbuds, one in each person’s ear. There’s ude-makura, when a woman lays her head on the man’s “arm-pillow,” though I personally prefer hiza-makura, when a man rests his head in his girl’s lap, preferably while she cleans his ears with a traditional Japanese ear cleaner. A man carrying a woman in his arms might be romantic in any culture, but I like the Japanese name for it: hime-sama dakko, or carrying a woman “princess-style.” Some other popular romantic images include a man eating a bento lunch his wife prepared for him (aisai bento, or “loving wife” lunch) and the simple act of a woman standing on her toes to kiss her husband (called senobi kiss). An unexpected cultural symbol of a happy married couple is hot miso soup, and an accepted way to propose to a woman is to say, “I want to drink your miso soup every morning for the rest of my life.”
“Love-Love Umbrella,” a popular image of love in Japan.
