Will Miss #517 - (fearlessly) taking pictures of food

I didn't realize it until I returned, but people in the U.S. think it's really freakish to take pictures of your food when you're at a restaurant. In Japan, it's practically a sport. Many people use their cell phones or cameras to catalog what they're eating and then post the picture on social media sites. It's not only considered socially acceptable by your cohorts, but also by the restaurant staff. They realize that it's actually a form of promotion of their business because a Facebook status or Tweet that shows the food might lure customers to them. Of course, food is usually pretty appealing in appearance in Japan so few have anything to fear.

In America, restaurants sometimes actually tell you that you can't take pictures of their food and will get upset if you do so. They think you're trying to mock their slop online. Other Americans simply think you're strange.

I liked taking pictures of my food in Japan and am glad to have recorded what I ate. It has not been unusual for me to look back through Facebook albums to locate a restaurant based on my pictures and descriptions so I could go there again or recommend that place to others. I miss the way it was socially acceptable to take pictures of your food in Japan.

Will Miss #512 - easy and safe picture-taking

One of the things I loved to do in Japan and would love to continue to do in the U.S. is take random pictures that include people or are of people dressing strangely or doing odd things. In Japan, being a foreigner pretty much gave you a free pass when it came to pointing a camera at someone (or in their general direction). In the U.S., I'm afraid of being confronted angrily by people who think I'm trying to capture their moment or mock them so I have to be extremely circumspect or simply give up on the opportunity. Even taking pictures of property in which people are not present can feel risky as you never know when some paranoid person is going to conclude that you're casing their property for some sort of crime.

In Japan, by virtue of not looking Japanese, people assumed I took pictures because I was a tourist or was overly curious about the differences in our cultures. They didn't assume I was making fun of them or trying to get data to carry out an elaborate heist. I miss the ease and safety of taking pictures in Japan.

Will Miss #319 - interest in my picture taking

Generally, I really don't like having attention directed my way simply because of my hair color, eye color, or body. This sort of attention is unwarranted and based on superficial observation and objectifies me. There is one type of attention which I rather like and that's when I take a picture of something strange and the Japanese folks around me notice and look very carefully at what I'm taking a picture of. Considering the nature of this blog, I'm often taking pictures of things which are considered mundane. I like the fact that this puzzles people because I want them to wonder what a foreigner might find curious and ponder their own culture, if only for a moment. I also know from my Japanese friends on FaceBook that they find what I take pictures of of particular interest because of how it reflects their culture in a manner they have never conceived of before. I think seeing your own culture through very different eyes has been of great value for me, and I hope to provide a little of that value in return.

Interest in my picture taking sets off what I hope is a process of examining ones own culture and what may be a curiosity to others, and I'll miss the potential for setting off this mental dialog in folks.

Won't Miss #36 - peace symbol pictures

I've seen oceans of pictures of Japanese people and vast seas of them are little more than people holding up the peace symbol. Picture after picture is the same pose. When you ask people why they do that, they just say "peace", as if that says it all.

I won't miss the repetition of the same pose in picture after picture.