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Japanophilia

(Tokyo Wako)


Published: April 21, 2007 Modified: Feb. 11, 2025

Tokyo Wako is located at several places in Southern California, and this picture is the one in Pasadena. The entrance door of the restaurant is made out of wood, which contains a round window representing the sun, and a mountain of salt placed on the side. In the restaurant I found two Japanophilic objects. First, all of the waitresses there dress in a yukata. The way they dress the yukata is very loose, and some girls have the yukata too short. They also wear the geta as part of the uniform but they wear regular socks, not tabi. The yukata or any kind of kimono should not be worn loosely and the geta should not been worn with a tabi or in this case, socks. As the restaurant represents Japan, this form of act will influence the American perspective. Secondly, Tokyo Wako is known for Tepan Grill and Sushi. This does not apply solely for Tokyo Wako but generally Japanese restaurants in America seem to favor the combination of two or more different meals; within the variety of meals one has to be sushi. This tells me how Westerners strongly link the images of sushi and Japan. Nevertheless, the fact that they combine two or more different styles of meals in one restaurant itself is an incorrect representation of Japan.

Part of this album

Japanophilia
This collection brings together student work from a seminar held at Occidental College, titled "Japanophilia: Orientalism, Nationalism, Transnationalism." The class examined the relationship between collecting/appropriating Japanese cultur…
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