Well, my trip to the middle of America and back is finally done. I managed to put 3200 miles (5150 km) on my 2002 Miata, the distance from San Diego to Maine, and I got to see some of the most beautiful parts of the U.S. Now that I’ve rested, I’m fully ready for all the fun we’re going to have at Anime Expo this week!Toshiba got some unwanted buzz this weekend when a commercial for its SuiPanDa, a home bakery machine that can bake both traditional bread from flour as well as “rice bread” using white rice, caught the eye of bloggers. The commercial was interesting because it featured a Japanese woman in a blonde wig with a fake nose (the Japanese perceive the noses of foreigners to be especially large, even when they’re not) speaking outrageously accented Japanese. While some are calling the commercial racist (and Toshiba has removed the video from its website and YouTube), occasional TV commercials poking harmless fun at Westerners are just another aspect of living in Japan, and I rather like them because of what they teach us about the Japanese. In this commercial, the cultural connection of “foreigners = bread” is an interesting concept, and many Japanese do imagine that Westerners eat a big basket of bread with every meal, as the Japanese do with white rice. The girl speaks in a hilarious “gaijin” accent, essentially using the overly-emotional inflection of English while speaking Japanese, and saying phrases like “Oh no!” which foreigners are famous for. While people who want to be offended by this will be, it’s also true that the performance was spot-on — we really do talk like that. So, what do you think about Japan’s stereotypes of foreigners?
An amusing look at Westerners through the Japanese.
