9月15日

Today was a short trip to city center with some Japanese and Mancunian.

We gathered at Student Union, which is located at the center of the university. All of them there seemed to be Japanese, but two of them are from UofM's Japanese study course, having their origin from China. Both of them spent one year in Japan as a exchange student, and they told their experiences in Todai and Kyodai in fluent Japanese, almost perfect.

Tanking a coach, we were heading for Piccadilly station, the most crowded area in Manchester.

Maybe some description on Japanese is also necessary. Out of 7 females and 2 males, 3 of them are from Ocha-dai, and others are from Todai, KO, Kyoto, Kwansai, Osaka and Doshi-sya for each. A man from KO law and a woman from Ocha are good in English, others are enough for simple conversation. It seems that some of them enjoy traveling, not used to life in Manchester. They may not go out and buy some foods or utensils alone. Is this distorted view on people rooted in my aging? Not sure, but anyway, I was feeling complexed towards their innocent behaivior.

First we went to a mobile-phone shop, only 3 of us bought it though. The KO boy studying international politics are not only speaking English well but very discreet. I could talk with him in my usual way.

After buying some commodities in Wilko (http://www.wilko.com), we had a lunch at food court of that building. A woman of Manchester recommended me to try "Jacket Potato" and I followed her. As a foregone conclusion, I determined in mind, NEVER TAKING THIS.

"I WON'T TRY AGAIN"

Interestingly, this food court is almost the same in that of Japan, it is in the shopping mall holding many young and parents with children, and fast food restaurants such as McDonald's or Kentucky compose it.

If shopping mall and food court have some attractiveness for everyone in the world, this will be a topic of sociology of culture and consumption.

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Yes, studying culture and consumption in sociological perspective is a one of the research initiatives in the department of sociology, university of Manchester. Scholars in class analysis and sociology of culture are publishing many articles on cultural consumption in Bourdieu's perspective.

Mike Savage, who is in LSE now, and Fiona Devine, who is director of this department had a focus of attention this year, when they released the result of British Class Survey. This is the first national social survey in U.K from Bourdieu's perspective. Also, Nick Crossley and Alan Warde are trying to combine social theory and class analysis in empirical studies.

Fiona Devine, Mike Savage, John Scott, Rosemary Crompton, 2005, Rethinking Class: Culture, Identities and Lifestyles: Cultures, Identities and Lifestyles, Palgrave Macmillan.

Bennett, T., Savage, M., Silva, E., Warde, A., Gayo-Cal, M. and Wright, D., 2009,  Culture, Class, Distinction. London: Routledge.