Thursday, March 4, 2004
いい気分！
Regular readers of this page will instantly realize that I've done this sort of thing before, but if you are new to glitchslaptko then I'll refer you to some precedent postings on this subject, which were 2003.11.03 and 2003.10.07. What is 'this sort of thing' to which I'm referring? By way of an answer, let me posit the following: I am interested in finding THE MIDDLE PATH between Western consumerism (really a form of materialism) and 21st Century Japanese aestheticism (really a form of spirituality) if there is in fact such a way to be found at all.
Well, please allow me to quote from the 2003.11.03 posting at this point. "I always like to visit the webpages of big, nasty companies and compare the different versions that they've done up for different countries." I went on to write "Why this is interesting to me, I don't have time to go into here." I think I'll take a few seconds to give speculate as to the things that led me to feel this way.
* The story of my families financial history certainly isn't a 'rags to riches' one...nothing that Horatio Alger would write about. But at the same time, let's just say there was a marked period of economic 'contrast' before the current, rather comfortable situation, and I don't recall being born where I was born (e.g. Georgia) with a silver spoon in my mouth.
* I spent the better part of my 20s in Athens, Georgia, reading things like THE FLAGPOLE.
* There are too many books by Naomi Klein on my bookshelf.
* MMCC, an essay by Momus has always weighed heavily on my mind.
* I currently live one of the most aesthetically ENLIGHTENED neighborhoods in the universe, which although it is 'weightless' in terms of the points given above, it is its own center of cultural gravity. To keep myself from floating off into the void, I tether myself to America, whose sheer cultural 'mass' keeps my feet on the ground.
A formulae for the development of a pretty unhealthy neurosis you say? Well, yes...probably. Yet, while the sheer atomy of the point-by-point explanation given above might seem a little bit...exhaustive (and I've always maintained that exhaustivity itself is the highest form of indiscretion), it at least has a positive side. I'll not put too fine a point on it, but instead allow the ever-anecdotal Mr. Cage to diagnose the case...
'I was never psychoanalyzed. I'll tell you how it happened. I always had a chip on my shoulder about psychoanalysis. I knew the remark of Rilke to a friend of his who wanted him to be psychoanalyzed. Rilke said, "I'm sure they would remove my devils, but I fear they would offend my angels." When I went to the analyst for a kind of preliminary meeting, he said, "I'll be able to fix you so that you'll write much more music than you do now." I said, "Good heavens! I already write too much, it seems to me." That promise of his put me off.'
- From Indeterminacy, by John Cage
Whew...I'm glad all of that is over with! Things almost got downright...personal.
[Insert dramatic pause here]
Ahem! Anyway, let's now turn our attention to today's example, which is the (originally) American convenience store 7-Eleven. (Before reading further, please DO take a minute to visit their webpage and familarize yourself with it.) Please give at least a semi-cursory glance at the 'Milestones' section of their webpage. Here is a quick rundown of my favorite 'milestones' for you, peppered with some rather sardonic comments by moi:
1927 The Southland Ice Company is founded in Oak Cliff, Texas
[So we have Texas to thank for this cultural phenomenon. Well, everything is big in Texas.]
1946 7-Eleven store name introduced because the stores are open 7 a.m. until 11 p.m.
1952 100th store opening
1966 Slurpee frozen beverage introduced
[Such an innocuous beginning...]
1963 First 24-hour operation introduced (Austin, TX and Las Vegas, NV)
[Personally, I'd like to map the new store hours atop a graph showing any changes in crimes that occured. I would imagine that it now became quite 'convenient' for the criminal element to make a quick, late night cash withdrawal from this point.]
1969 "Oh Thank Heaven for 7-Eleven" campaign introduced
[I can't tell you how often this thought occured to me, especially when I was living in LA.]
1974 First store opens in Japan
[Now there is literally a 7-Eleven on every block in Tokyo.]
1979 First $1 billion sales quarter
[Hummm...I'm sure there is no connection here whatsoever to the first store opening in Japan 5 years earlier.]
1984 Super Big Gulp is introduced (44-ounce fountain soft drink), ATMs introduced to convenience stores
[It is also interesting to note here that the video game PAC-MAN was invented in 1980, the sound 'paku paku' being a Japanese onomatopoeia for 'munching' this being the econonomic and cullinary zeitgeist of the decade!]
2000 20,000th store opens (Tokyo), 7-Eleven is re-listed on the New York Stock Exchange
2002 7-Eleven Celebrates its 75th Anniversary, First sugar-free Slurpee drink introduced nationally
[If we do a little calculaton, and figure that 7-Eleven customers have been drinking 'Super Big Gulps' for about 19 years, then any movement in a 'sugar-free' direction may be too little to late.]
Anyway, I'll end what has inadvertently turned into a kind of indictment of the American 7-Eleven (no fun shooting fish in a barrel anyway) here with this statement: I know that for America, with its attendant 'car culture' a store like 7-Eleven is probably...indispensable. But iTHE AUTOMOBILE CULTURE ITSELF is what I'd like to see dispensed with. Of course this will never happen -- at least not during my lifetime -- since the impending energy crisis aren't due for another 50 years or so. Oh well...In the meantime, while I spend the waning years of my 20s and my early 30s in Tokyo, I'll always have my fond memories of American 7-Elevens to keep me company: The constant fear of walking into a robbery in progress, the embattled look on the employee's faces, constant surveillance, the gastronomic banquet that was the menu, the cornucopia of products on sale, the fact that I couldn't use a 100 dollar bill, and oh yes...least I forget, the pungently sweet smell of fossil fuels literally going up in smoke. Fear and trembling...
[Oh, I'm just so SPENT now!]
Since I haven't been in America, and therefore in an American 7-Eleven in quite a while, I'm not sure exactly how the currently reality of the situation would compare and/or contrast with this diatrible. And of course, I'm also interested in learning more about the situations in other places, like the EU and the rest of Asia. Perhaps some kind soul out there would be kind enough to clue me in on what I'm missing?
Now for the piece de resistance, I'd like to consider the 7-Eleven Japan webpage, which is really quite a study in contrasts when compared to its American counterpart. There is such an overabundance of points that deserve to brought up that I really don't know where to begin. Actually, that isn't true at all. I was just being hyperbolic. I know the perfect place to begin and end. In other words, there is something on the 7-Eleven Japan webpage which completely encapsulates all the fundamental differences between the American and Japanese manifestations of this establishment. Namely, these four commercials.
Although the Japanese languages ranks in the top 10 most widely spoken languages in the world, I personally don't know that many non-Japanese who are fluent, so I'll provide some translations (my own) here. (In general, no commentary is provided except in a few places, since I think these adds basically speak for themselves.) Hope you enjoy!
----------
Yuuki [Courage in the Japanese]
Man [customer]: Ummm...
Man [continuing]: I want some courage.
Woman [employee]: Yes, we have that.
Man: Where is it?
Woman: It's inside of you.
Man [turning to a different woman in the store]: Please marry me.
ON SCREEN TEXT READS: What is 7-Eleven to you?
Woman [to which the man proposed]: Nods in agreement
----------
Nikuman [a kind of Chinese dumpling popular in Japan]
Elderly Man [customer]: Nikuman, please.
Woman [employee]: How many do you want/How old are you? [This phrase is a non-sexual double entendre in Japanese having both of these meaning.]
Elderly Man [in a friendly tone, turing the question into a joke]: How old do I look?
ON SCREEN TEXT READS: What is 7-Eleven to you?
----------
Tsuki [in the Japanese this means 'moon']
Man [customer]: The moon was beautiful, and I just came here.
Woman [employee]: The moon will be beautiful tomorrow too!
ON SCREEN TEXT READS: What is 7-Eleven to you?
----------
Kodomo [meaning 'child' in Japanese]
Child [potential customer, running up to the store]: I'll come back again!
ON SCREEN TEXT READS: What is 7-Eleven to you?
Well, please allow me to quote from the 2003.11.03 posting at this point. "I always like to visit the webpages of big, nasty companies and compare the different versions that they've done up for different countries." I went on to write "Why this is interesting to me, I don't have time to go into here." I think I'll take a few seconds to give speculate as to the things that led me to feel this way.
* The story of my families financial history certainly isn't a 'rags to riches' one...nothing that Horatio Alger would write about. But at the same time, let's just say there was a marked period of economic 'contrast' before the current, rather comfortable situation, and I don't recall being born where I was born (e.g. Georgia) with a silver spoon in my mouth.
* I spent the better part of my 20s in Athens, Georgia, reading things like THE FLAGPOLE.
* There are too many books by Naomi Klein on my bookshelf.
* MMCC, an essay by Momus has always weighed heavily on my mind.
* I currently live one of the most aesthetically ENLIGHTENED neighborhoods in the universe, which although it is 'weightless' in terms of the points given above, it is its own center of cultural gravity. To keep myself from floating off into the void, I tether myself to America, whose sheer cultural 'mass' keeps my feet on the ground.
A formulae for the development of a pretty unhealthy neurosis you say? Well, yes...probably. Yet, while the sheer atomy of the point-by-point explanation given above might seem a little bit...exhaustive (and I've always maintained that exhaustivity itself is the highest form of indiscretion), it at least has a positive side. I'll not put too fine a point on it, but instead allow the ever-anecdotal Mr. Cage to diagnose the case...
'I was never psychoanalyzed. I'll tell you how it happened. I always had a chip on my shoulder about psychoanalysis. I knew the remark of Rilke to a friend of his who wanted him to be psychoanalyzed. Rilke said, "I'm sure they would remove my devils, but I fear they would offend my angels." When I went to the analyst for a kind of preliminary meeting, he said, "I'll be able to fix you so that you'll write much more music than you do now." I said, "Good heavens! I already write too much, it seems to me." That promise of his put me off.'
- From Indeterminacy, by John Cage
Whew...I'm glad all of that is over with! Things almost got downright...personal.
[Insert dramatic pause here]
Ahem! Anyway, let's now turn our attention to today's example, which is the (originally) American convenience store 7-Eleven. (Before reading further, please DO take a minute to visit their webpage and familarize yourself with it.) Please give at least a semi-cursory glance at the 'Milestones' section of their webpage. Here is a quick rundown of my favorite 'milestones' for you, peppered with some rather sardonic comments by moi:
1927 The Southland Ice Company is founded in Oak Cliff, Texas
[So we have Texas to thank for this cultural phenomenon. Well, everything is big in Texas.]
1946 7-Eleven store name introduced because the stores are open 7 a.m. until 11 p.m.
1952 100th store opening
1966 Slurpee frozen beverage introduced
[Such an innocuous beginning...]
1963 First 24-hour operation introduced (Austin, TX and Las Vegas, NV)
[Personally, I'd like to map the new store hours atop a graph showing any changes in crimes that occured. I would imagine that it now became quite 'convenient' for the criminal element to make a quick, late night cash withdrawal from this point.]
1969 "Oh Thank Heaven for 7-Eleven" campaign introduced
[I can't tell you how often this thought occured to me, especially when I was living in LA.]
1974 First store opens in Japan
[Now there is literally a 7-Eleven on every block in Tokyo.]
1979 First $1 billion sales quarter
[Hummm...I'm sure there is no connection here whatsoever to the first store opening in Japan 5 years earlier.]
1984 Super Big Gulp is introduced (44-ounce fountain soft drink), ATMs introduced to convenience stores
[It is also interesting to note here that the video game PAC-MAN was invented in 1980, the sound 'paku paku' being a Japanese onomatopoeia for 'munching' this being the econonomic and cullinary zeitgeist of the decade!]
2000 20,000th store opens (Tokyo), 7-Eleven is re-listed on the New York Stock Exchange
2002 7-Eleven Celebrates its 75th Anniversary, First sugar-free Slurpee drink introduced nationally
[If we do a little calculaton, and figure that 7-Eleven customers have been drinking 'Super Big Gulps' for about 19 years, then any movement in a 'sugar-free' direction may be too little to late.]
Anyway, I'll end what has inadvertently turned into a kind of indictment of the American 7-Eleven (no fun shooting fish in a barrel anyway) here with this statement: I know that for America, with its attendant 'car culture' a store like 7-Eleven is probably...indispensable. But iTHE AUTOMOBILE CULTURE ITSELF is what I'd like to see dispensed with. Of course this will never happen -- at least not during my lifetime -- since the impending energy crisis aren't due for another 50 years or so. Oh well...In the meantime, while I spend the waning years of my 20s and my early 30s in Tokyo, I'll always have my fond memories of American 7-Elevens to keep me company: The constant fear of walking into a robbery in progress, the embattled look on the employee's faces, constant surveillance, the gastronomic banquet that was the menu, the cornucopia of products on sale, the fact that I couldn't use a 100 dollar bill, and oh yes...least I forget, the pungently sweet smell of fossil fuels literally going up in smoke. Fear and trembling...
[Oh, I'm just so SPENT now!]
Since I haven't been in America, and therefore in an American 7-Eleven in quite a while, I'm not sure exactly how the currently reality of the situation would compare and/or contrast with this diatrible. And of course, I'm also interested in learning more about the situations in other places, like the EU and the rest of Asia. Perhaps some kind soul out there would be kind enough to clue me in on what I'm missing?
Now for the piece de resistance, I'd like to consider the 7-Eleven Japan webpage, which is really quite a study in contrasts when compared to its American counterpart. There is such an overabundance of points that deserve to brought up that I really don't know where to begin. Actually, that isn't true at all. I was just being hyperbolic. I know the perfect place to begin and end. In other words, there is something on the 7-Eleven Japan webpage which completely encapsulates all the fundamental differences between the American and Japanese manifestations of this establishment. Namely, these four commercials.
Although the Japanese languages ranks in the top 10 most widely spoken languages in the world, I personally don't know that many non-Japanese who are fluent, so I'll provide some translations (my own) here. (In general, no commentary is provided except in a few places, since I think these adds basically speak for themselves.) Hope you enjoy!
----------
Yuuki [Courage in the Japanese]
Man [customer]: Ummm...
Man [continuing]: I want some courage.
Woman [employee]: Yes, we have that.
Man: Where is it?
Woman: It's inside of you.
Man [turning to a different woman in the store]: Please marry me.
ON SCREEN TEXT READS: What is 7-Eleven to you?
Woman [to which the man proposed]: Nods in agreement
----------
Nikuman [a kind of Chinese dumpling popular in Japan]
Elderly Man [customer]: Nikuman, please.
Woman [employee]: How many do you want/How old are you? [This phrase is a non-sexual double entendre in Japanese having both of these meaning.]
Elderly Man [in a friendly tone, turing the question into a joke]: How old do I look?
ON SCREEN TEXT READS: What is 7-Eleven to you?
----------
Tsuki [in the Japanese this means 'moon']
Man [customer]: The moon was beautiful, and I just came here.
Woman [employee]: The moon will be beautiful tomorrow too!
ON SCREEN TEXT READS: What is 7-Eleven to you?
----------
Kodomo [meaning 'child' in Japanese]
Child [potential customer, running up to the store]: I'll come back again!
ON SCREEN TEXT READS: What is 7-Eleven to you?
