Slideshow video: Waking up in Japan

Text version

The words ‘Waking up in Japan’ are written in large type across a dark grey background. Below is a samurai clock with Japanese numerals and its hands pointing to 6:55. The samurai’s eyes are closed and there is no sound.

The scene lightens to reveal a Japanese-style shoji screen. The clock hands change to 7 o’clock and the alarm goes off.

The screen doors slide apart to reveal a photograph of two geishas walking away down a Japanese street. The lively sound of Japanese musicians performing in an outdoor area commences.

The music continues throughout the rest of the slideshow as the images rapidly change:

  • Looking down from the top of temple steps towards a large gate; many people are walking in the paved courtyard.

  • A group of eight girls in school uniform stand chatting; the uniform includes a blue and white sailor suit shirt and dark blue pleated skirt.

  • Two young women; one woman is wearing bright pink clothing, many beads, hair clips and hair bands, and has a flat strip of hair covering one side of her face; the other woman has a pale painted face with green and purple eyelashes and mass of blue hair with an arrangement of flowers topped by a Japanese fan

  • The open pages of a Japanese comic book and two Star Wars Stormtrooper figurines.

  • A collage of 5 photographs showing pairs of people demonstrating martial arts; the people are wearing judo style outfits and some have wide black pants.

  • Two cartoon characters with very large eyes; one is a woman and the other is a young girl; the images have a purple colouring.

  • Large room in a museum with kimono-style coats hanging from the ceiling and other pieces of fabric with geometric designs in display cases.

  • Colourful origami swans and other animals suspended from dry twigs.

  • A taiko drummer is poised with her sticks, her red drum in front; the word ‘Hope’ is written on a band around her forehead.

  • Two martial arts players, wearing protective clothing including helmets with metal grilles, cross wooden swords.

  • A batter at a Japanese baseball game swings his bat as the catcher also reaches for the ball.

  • Rows of colourful sushi.

  • A small elegantly shaped tree in a shallow rounded pot in front of a white wall.

  • Four young people, three wearing baseball caps with studded belts, performing on stage; one person is holding a microphone and they are all clapping.

  • A large, imposing Buddha statue.

  • A geisha glimpsed from behind through small opening in a fence or wall.

  • Two sumo wrestlers squat down as they square off on a stage; one has his buttocks to the camera.

  • A young woman in sparkling clothes sings cheerfully into a microphone; behind her are colourful lights.

  • Teenagers lined up in front of a shelf in a bookstore reading comics.

  • Many paper strips, with Japanese writing, knotted along two cords.

  • A samurai lifting his sword dramatically with both hands.

  • A muscular man leans back behind a large taiko drum ready to strike the skin.

  • Two women in traditional dress draw back their bows at an archery event.

  • Large wooden archway (torii gate) in a large lake or bay with misty mountains in the background.

  • Large Japanese-language characters painted on paper with a brush.

  • An old photograph of a female samurai.

  • A women in geisha clothing walks gracefully down a Japanese street towards the camera.

  • A woman in a kimono plucks the horizontal strings of a long instrument (koto).

  • Collage of images: two native Japanese people stand with a third man and a bear in front of a hut; a traditional thatched Ainu hut; a young woman plays a stringed instrument she holds in her arms.

  • Two soccer players collide as one hits the soccer ball with his head.

  • Three people wearing dramatic face makeup stand on a small wooden stage; the man in the front is holding out his arms in a grand gesture.

  • A group of actors in Japanese dress and wearing face paint stand on the stage of a theatre.

  • Two people with bright orange hair and each holding a stick in their mouth; the woman is wearing a sailor’s suit and has funny glasses.

The slideshow fades to black and the words ‘What did you see?’ appear. After a few seconds these words are replaced by おわり [the end] and then the final scrolling credits [see attributions above].