Farm Tomita, Hokkaido |
"Famous" is "the word" when the Japanese want to describe anything related to Japan- food, place, person, movie, shows, thing, festival. It's like everything in Japan is famous.
I must admit that there are indeed many famous Japanese things, places, food, shows and festival. Even people who haven't been to Japan can probably name things related to Japan such as sushi, cherry blossoms, Mt. Fuji, anime, manga, kimono, World War II, etc. etc. But there are also a lot of things that Japanese people claim to be "famous" when in fact, other Japanese don't even know about them.
But, how do I know that Famous is NOT Famous at all?
I've been handling group business classes. All students are Japanese. Several times, I ask them to talk about Japanese culture including food, places and whatever they want to talk about. Half of the things students mention are described as "famous" but half of the students don't know about it. So, how can something be famous when it's not even known to a group with less than 10 people living in the same place?