Japanese Television Shows | Autoethnography

Japanese TV shows are characteristically quirky, bright and out-of-the-box. To understand this genre of entertainment, we each sat down to watch three different TV shows: reality, variety and comedy. Drawing on Ellis et al, we noted the epiphanies we had whilst watching the TV shows and then looked deeper into the cultural practices behind them to understand the culture.
Without watching each other’s TV shows, we came together to present our cultural findings and realised the shows had more in common than we had previously thought.

Filipino Street Style: An analysis

Filipino fashion and style has always been something that interests me because it directly reflects on their rich history and culture development over time. In my auto-ethnographic account: Filippino Street Style and my first impressions, I encountered the Filipino fashion world two ways; first through the black market in Manila and then again online through fashion icons on Instagram.

Within my autoethnographical account, I followed Ellis et al’s methodology of showing “which is designed to bring readers into the scene—particularly into thoughts, emotions, and actions.” Whilst doing this, I came across different epiphanies that at the time I didn’t realise were major turning points until I explained them on my blog.

Filipino Street Style and my first impressions

Let’s rewind a bit…

Earlier this year, I travelled to the Philippines to visit my family. Before you ask, no, I’m not Filipino, but half of my family did move there from Australia 15 years ago.

One of the best things to do in Manilla is to shop, but I don’t shop at any Mall or SM Mall of Asia, I shop at the black market.

We drove 30 minutes out of the city in traffic like you’ve never seen before. Three lanes were magically turned into six lanes. Jeepneys pushed their way into the traffic with riders casually hanging off the back of the ‘bus’ with one hand. Motorbikes filled the microscopic spaces between the cars making it harder for anyone to move anywhere.