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Window into "cool"

The scare quotes are definitely necessary.

NHK has a relatively new program called "Cool Japan," all about Japanese stuff that is cool. The show is so cool, it's even broadcast partially in English! Still, I have a feeling that by the time a trend comes to the attention of the NHK staff, makes it through production (and past the higher-ups who will probably block any story that they don't think reflects well on Japanese culture [this is a guess based on the uniformly cute and wholesome content of the show]), and hits the airwaves, it is no longer cool. It is merely "cool," a pale reflection of something which might have been sort of cool six months ago.

Add to that the five month delay between the air date in Japan and when the episode is finally aired on TV Japan, and I'm solidly behind the curve on Japanese cool.

Last night's episode was a special broadcast from Paris, where Japanese stuff is really trendy right now, or at least, it was back in July when the show was put together. Risa Stegmayer, one of the show's hosts, wrote a blog entry about it, all in Japanese, but with pictures of the Japan Expo in Paris. It was a total French geek fest! French geeks look pretty much like American geeks. Possibly even dorkier.

One of the French geeks was a woman who was totally into the maid thing. She wore a maid costume at all times (she claims her husband loves it). I had never seen an actual French woman in a French maid's uniform, even if it was a Japanese French maid's uniform.

Still, maid cafes are mainstream enough in Japan that there's even a Japan Maid Cafe Association. How can they forestall the inevitable progression from edgy to ordinary? Well, they can take a page from the book of the goth-loli nun maid cafe, which may implode from sheer trendiness.

The Cool Japan crew went shopping in Paris with a couple of the French geek ladies. At boutiques carrying Japanese stuff, the ladies pointed out all the items which they thought were kawaii while the Japanese film crew said, "Huh. That? Is kawaii?" One of the women picked up a kanzashi and demonstrated how she would do her hair up in a French knot and fix it in place with the kanzashi. "And it looks cool with my Kitty T-shirt!" At which point the film crew had palpitations. Wearing a kansashi with a T-shirt is roughly equivalent to wearing an evening gown and using a toothbrush for a hairpin.

How cool is that?