[Chichi]

I recently moved with my family to Hiroshima, Japan from London, UK. It’s presently been little over a year since I’ve been here and truthfully I’ve had a fantastic welcoming.

Hiroshima is, to put it bluntly, a rural area that primarily comprises of temples, small-market stalls and stores (that sell some nice noodles), housing estates and a few tourist attractions. We do have many schools here too and a University that is a 45-minute drive to and from my home where I currently study.

With my friends/girlfriend we do frequently commute to either Osaka or Tokyo for the weekend for shopping and leisure by fast train. During the summer Miki has relatives who live in Tokyo, so sometimes I stay with them too for a few weeks.

The immediate difference I suppose from the UK to Japan is that the ethnic majority here is obviously Japanese, whereas in England, especially in London, I was use to seeing a diverse mix of nationalities.

As a Fashion student, I do take heavy note on eastern influences. Japan has a ray of prominent designers that are heavily focused around the market over here, not just in Japan, but in South Korea and Hong Kong to name a few. That said, many have become international, Mori Hanae for example. Western fashion is surprisingly popular over here despite the dominance of the eastern industry where in Tokyo especially, you can see regular D&G, Hugo Boss, Prada et al stores on all local high streets and shopping centers. Aside from high-retail Fashion, teenagers are more inclined to shop for Vintage Street wear, with a variety of fads. The music scene is a heavy influence on what teenagers decide to wear I find, and like anywhere, this is highly dependant on what’s ‘cool’ at the moment, or rather, what the person likes to listen to. Miki is rather tall for a Japanese girl, being 5’7, but for the most part girls hover around 5’4, which is still fairly tall considering. Nonetheless, platforms/heels are still very popular. Other noted trends would be Gunguro, where girls (and even boys) will bleach their hair blonde. This was usually seen over the summer period for good reason. Cosplay outfits were a rarity among the crowd I socialize in, but was existent. Baggy white socks are popular too… I suppose to those who are stylishly less inclined to care about such issues, to put it simply, eastern Fashion is far more deliberate and obvious than Western fashion, with obvious fads that ironically contradict themselves by staying in Fashion anyway, namely platforms. Most teenagers, including myself, wear a mixture of western/eastern garments, from up market jean stores like Diesel to formal stores like Ralph Lauren. Like anywhere else, Goth clothing exists, and you can see plenty of teenagers wear this in certain parts, but they are in the minority. There are also specific stores for that style. To replace Arcadia’s empire (Topshop) there’s stores like Shibuya 109 that focuses on providing relatively sophisticated styles for fair prices to a younger market.

In regards to the financial issue, like anywhere else in the world it does heavily depend on where you live in Japan. Obviously the main cities will be considerably more expensive to live in than say where I do in Hiroshima. Take note that Toyko’s accommodation/transport prices are extremely high, much alike London in the UK; so if you are living there, be assured to pay a lot for little. Fortunately for me, I work for my Dad’s company, maintaining an online private image library for the architectural engineering company he works for. I work from home, accessing the server online, and frequently updating the resource. Strangely it works out for them better than when I worked in London since the time zones complement each other. I was paid £7.50 an hour working here and there during the week, which works at around 4,840 JPY a week.

Edit: I’ll write more soon concerning language barriers on my behalf, video games and relationship comparisons but I have a few commitments I need to attend to. Hopefully my contributions helped give an insight in some way. I also apologize if any of this was mentioned before, since I only spanned through the topic briefly.