Chapter two.

The question at hand is this, where do trends come from?

I mean, there's a whole industry devoted to figuring out where trends come from and what's

cool.

So I can't answer the question generally, but I can speak specifically because sometimes

you really can trace a trend.

I have always been fascinated about getting as specific as possible for where does a trend

start and where does it come from and why does it spread.

What do you David Marx is the author of the book Status and Culture?

And I think often in the US it's just too hard to track it down.

America is just a big old country with a lot of influences swirling around.

But David Marx doesn't live in America.

I live in Tokyo, Japan.

I've lived here for the last 19 years.

And David Marx is also the author of the book Amatoria, How Japan Saved American Style.

And in Japan it is historically much easier to track how and why trends spread.

You know, I was able with this book to find the very, very specific people and the decisions

that they made to make things happen.

And this is because Japan, for over 200 years, was secluded from much of the Western world.

There were very few international influences coming in.

And so when any influence came in from the outside, it was really noticeable.

And so Japan becomes kind of a laboratory where you get to see the very specific cultural

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