What does a Japanese person look like?  From what I have seen, they generally have dark brown to black semi-straight hair.  Pale to average tinted skin and almond shaped eyes.  Of course that’s just what Japanese people are born with, that’s not including the people with dyed hair or who wear colored contacts.  In a country where everyone is born with generally the same features, the amount of diversity that actually exists is surprising. For example, within Japanese society as a whole there are several sub-cultures of people that look and act a certain way.  For example the “gyaru” and “gyaruo” that exist mostly in largely populated areas.  They have a tendency to dye their hair a ridiculous shade of orange-blonde, wear incredibly fierce heels or overly large jeans and shoes in the male case, and wear colored contacts.  In my opinion this genre of Japanese is closely related and intertwined with the “yanki” and “yakuza” genre of people.  Even though this sort of extreme type of self expression exists in Japanese society, it is not as common as one expects.  For choosing a “portrait of a Japanese person” I decided on someone who is a good friend of mine and who has a good balance of individuality and Japanese.  

This is Kayo Ikoma, we have been friends for several years now and convincing her to participate in this exercise was not difficult at all.  For the first portrait I chose, it not only shows off the physical characteristics of a Japanese person, (dark hair, almond brown eyes) but it also has a taste of what a “Japanese” lifestyle is.  By showing her standing at a bus stop in the morning the viewer gets an idea on how much Japanese people value public transportation.   However she personally asked me to not show the specific bus stop sign for privacy reasons.

The second picture, I chose to express a more personal version of Kayo by showing her participation on two very important things in her life: sweets and work.  In the picture she is eating a large candy bar and wearing a suit.  By showing her eating a candy bar the viewer understands that sweets or indulging in things that one enjoys are important to this person.   Also by her wearing a suit it shows that she also actively participates in Japanese society by going to work every day.