By Kevin Cooney
I spent the New Year's holiday in the most traditional Japanese way. Cocooned inside layers of blankets watching TV and eating mikan oranges. Of course, the kadomatsu, kagami mochi and other seasonal decorations are an important part of the Japanese New Year celebrations. They are, however, only minor distractions. The TV is king during those lazy days of the New Year. Kohaku Uta Gassen, the Ekiden are among a few of the programs that keep people glued to their sofas.
This year I passed on most of the traditional New Year's programming, and instead kept myself busy with a triple marathon of american science fiction shows. I cruised the stars with Battlestar Galactica, Babylon 5 and Star Trek. I know, I am a stellar nerd.
The year 2010 is a bit technologically disappointing. I remember as a kid thinking about 2010 being so far in the future. I would have though we'd have flying cars and food made out of plankton by now. But we don't. Well, actually I'm not sure about the plankton thing. I think I might have been served that recently in Tokyo.
One thing struck me from all the Sci-fi I watched. In almost every future world conceived by Hollywood, most people eat with chopsticks. What's more, people in the future almost always appear to be eating udon noodles. How is it that the writers and creators of Hollywood collectively decided that in the year 2365 all humans would be eating udon with chopsticks?
Chopsticks are not new, far from it. Their origin predates the fork by centuries. I prefer chopsticks to the knife and fork, but I'm curious why so many different science fiction creators agree that our future is the chopstick. I had such high hopes for the "spork."
Obsessively watching the details of every scene, I started noticing Thai triangular pillows in the alien sleeping quarters. Ikebana in the intergalactic meeting rooms. Martians eating out of a donabe hotpot! American sci-fi set designers incorporate a stunning amount of asianesque bric-a-brac into future worlds.
I suppose it's due to the exotic nature these things have from a western perspective. I'm often asked by friends back home about Japanese robots and technology. No flying cars here. Though the door at Seven Eleven opens by itself. That's cool, but not a sentient cybernetic personality. At some level living in Asia demystifies the foreignness of these things and thus ruins the imaginary future. Instead of enjoying the fantasy world in my TV, I just wonder quietly to myself why hundreds of years into the future, the universe is using chopsticks yet still these gaijin can't slurp noodles properly.
I spent the New Year's holiday in the most traditional Japanese way. Cocooned inside layers of blankets watching TV and eating mikan oranges. Of course, the kadomatsu, kagami mochi and other seasonal decorations are an important part of the Japanese New Year celebrations. They are, however, only minor distractions. The TV is king during those lazy days of the New Year. Kohaku Uta Gassen, the Ekiden are among a few of the programs that keep people glued to their sofas.
This year I passed on most of the traditional New Year's programming, and instead kept myself busy with a triple marathon of american science fiction shows. I cruised the stars with Battlestar Galactica, Babylon 5 and Star Trek. I know, I am a stellar nerd.
The year 2010 is a bit technologically disappointing. I remember as a kid thinking about 2010 being so far in the future. I would have though we'd have flying cars and food made out of plankton by now. But we don't. Well, actually I'm not sure about the plankton thing. I think I might have been served that recently in Tokyo.
One thing struck me from all the Sci-fi I watched. In almost every future world conceived by Hollywood, most people eat with chopsticks. What's more, people in the future almost always appear to be eating udon noodles. How is it that the writers and creators of Hollywood collectively decided that in the year 2365 all humans would be eating udon with chopsticks?
Chopsticks are not new, far from it. Their origin predates the fork by centuries. I prefer chopsticks to the knife and fork, but I'm curious why so many different science fiction creators agree that our future is the chopstick. I had such high hopes for the "spork."
Obsessively watching the details of every scene, I started noticing Thai triangular pillows in the alien sleeping quarters. Ikebana in the intergalactic meeting rooms. Martians eating out of a donabe hotpot! American sci-fi set designers incorporate a stunning amount of asianesque bric-a-brac into future worlds.
I suppose it's due to the exotic nature these things have from a western perspective. I'm often asked by friends back home about Japanese robots and technology. No flying cars here. Though the door at Seven Eleven opens by itself. That's cool, but not a sentient cybernetic personality. At some level living in Asia demystifies the foreignness of these things and thus ruins the imaginary future. Instead of enjoying the fantasy world in my TV, I just wonder quietly to myself why hundreds of years into the future, the universe is using chopsticks yet still these gaijin can't slurp noodles properly.
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